Vol 3 Section 1093
Dear Sue, I thank you for arranging for the flowers for me, it is good & kind of you.
And I thank you for Livy’s letter—October 13, just when she was entering with fear & trembling upon the heavy labor of that large house, a labor which was to have consequences. She was already feeling “old & out of repair,” like the house—how the words reproach me! Sue, she should never have returned to America— she would have lived 15 years longer. But—she is better off as it is. Death is always better fortune than life
[MTP]. Note: Sam put a PS at the top that Jean was walking without crutches.
August 23 Tuesday
August 24 Wednesday
August 25 Thursday – Ralph W. Ashcroft wrote on Plasmon Co. letterhead to Sam, now in Great Neck, Long Island at the home of Urban H. Broughton.
I find I was mistaken. The letter Wheeler received at the Waldorf from Bergheim’s secretary simply acknowledged receipt of [Harold] Wheeler’s letter of August 5th. The London people, however, wrote the Plasmon co. a letter (which I received to-day, and suppressed as Attorney-in-fact of International Plasmon) confirming Campbell’s removal and telling them they had appointed you. This was written August 16th, long after we had kicked at their cabling to Campbell [MTP].
August 26 Friday
August 27 Saturday
August 28 Sunday
August 29 Monday
August 30 Tuesday – Barlow Brothers, book binders in Grand Rapids, Mich., wrote asking where they might find a book of his with the story of limburger cheese on a railroad car [MTP]. Note: Lyon wrote on the back of the letter “Mr. Clemens knows the sketch, but doesn’t know the book its in—Harpers publish all & doubtless they can tell.”
August 31 Wednesday – Sam’s sister, Pamela Ann Moffett, died in Greenwich, Conn., age 76.
September – Sometime during the month, Clara Clemens checked herself into a sanatorium in Norfolk, Conn. Note: Clara returned at the end of the month to Dr. Parry to “continue her recuperation” [MTOW 44].
September 1 Thursday – John Hays Hammond’s handling of the Plasmon Co. of America’s near-insolvency created a dispute (see Aug. entry). A stockholders’ meeting was held on Sept. 1, and a new board of directors elected. Ralph W. Ashcroft was immediately elected general manager of the company by the new board. [Report of Cases Vol. 187 (1910): Ashcroft v. Hammond 491]. Sam may have attended, or may have given Ashcroft his proxy .
The vice-president of the company under the old board of directors Harold Wheeler represented Hammond’s interests and refused to recognize the election of this new board as legal, arguing a majority of the stock had not voted. He refused to leave the offices, and blocked access to the bank account, and hired security guards to hold his ground. “Litigation followed both in the state and federal courts, where the validity of the election was upheld” [Ibid.]. See Sept. 15 entry for action and telegram by Sam to Hammond. See also previous entries for Plasmon Co. events: Dec. 1901, Mar. 17, 1902, May 1903, Aug. 1904.
Ashcroft sent two telegrams to Hammond, now in Gloucester, Mass, in care of the Eastern Yacht Club Station, Bar Harbor, Maine, advising him of the newly elected board, that Wheeler had been put out of office, and that they wanted to repay the loan to Hammond (in Aug. he’d taken out a mortgage on the
SLC used mourning border for most letters from Susy’s death on, then from Livy’s death on.