Mark Twain Library Celebrates 100 Years

October 11, 1908, Mark Twain gave a library to Redding. A century later - to the day - plans are underway to celebrate this momentous gift with a town-wide 100th Birthday celebration.

On Saturday, October 11, from 10:30 am to 12:30 pm, the Library will host a birthday party for preschool and elementary school aged children.

Children are encouraged to come dressed as their favorite story book character. "I know we'll see some Harry Potters and perhaps a Jack and Annie from the Magic Tree House series," offered Heather Morgan, Library Director. 'But I also hope to see Little Red Riding Hood, Dorothy Gale, maybe Peter Rabbit or one of the Little Women, too. There is a century of colorful children's book characters to choose from!" Activities for the young guests will include face painting, party games and, of course, birthday cupcakes. There will also be a Time Capsule activity, as well as an ongoing story time.

That afternoon beginning at 2:00 pm, there will be a second event, suited for teens and adults. First, the Library will receive three extraordinary birthday gifts. The Historical Society has been hard at work on a commemorative quilt which will hang permanently in the Library. Redding Garden Club member Katherine Streit has created a one-of-a-kind celebratory presentation highlighting Mark Twain's life and favorite characters, which will go on display that day. And the Commission on Aging is putting the finishing touches on a collection of oral histories about the Library which they intend to present to the Library as well.

After the presentations of these three gifts, historian Dan Cruson will give a lecture entitled "The Impact of Mark Twain in Connecticut" Mr. Cruson, teacher and President of the Archaeology Society of Connecticut, will give an illustrated presentation on the two periods of Twain's life showing the effect that Connecticut had on him as a writer, and the impact that he had on the communities in which he lived -- Hartford and Redding -- including his unique architectural contributions. A reception will follow the talk.

Admission to both is free; parking for the morning celebration will be at the John Read Middle School with a shuttle bus running to and from the library.

Reservations are encouraged for the afternoon event, as space is limited. To register, call the library at 938-2545 or sign up at the front desk.

For more information on the 100th birthday events at the library, visit the Mark Twain Library website (www.marktwainlibrary.org ) or call (938-2545). The celebration on October 11th is part of the Mark Twain Library's Centennial Celebration, commemorating 100 years of learning and literature in Redding. The Mark Twain Library is owned by the Mark Twain Library Association. It was founded in 1908 by Samuel Clemens - Mark Twain himself - one of Redding's most celebrated residents. For more information on Clemens' final home and his time in Redding please visit the History of Redding website (www.historyofredding.com).

The Burglary at Stormfield, September 18, 1908

Thursday, September 18th is the 100th Anniversary of the Burglary at Stormfield.

Danbury Evening News, Friday, September 18th, 1908:
"Crooks carry off Humorist's Silverware. Caught while fleeing by train. One jumps from car while other uses revolver."

The Following Account of the Burglary comes from a July 19th, 1958 edition of the Redding Times. It is entitled "Sheriff Banks Apprehends a Burglar". This version differs slightly from the burglars own account so be sure to check out that link following this story.

The Burglary

A little past midnight on September 18th two burglars (Charles Hoffman & Henry Williams) entered Twain's Redding house via a window in the kitchen that had been left unfastened. In the process of locating and carrying out a table filled with silverware they awakened Twain's secretary Isabel Lyon. Miss Lyon hearing the commotion downstairs, ran to the stairs, and upon seeing the intermittent flashing of lights below she awakened Claude Beuchotte (Twain's butler) and a house guest (Will Wark).

A search of the house was made and it was found that an English serving table that stood in the dining room was missing. Following a trail of discarted plateware, a short distance from the terrace the serving table was found, the drawer broken and its silverware gone.

The Hunt Begins

Harry Lounsbury, who lived on Diamond Hill Road, was awakened and informed of the burglary. Mr. Lounsbury phoned Deputy Sheriff George Banks and the hunt for Twain's burglars began. By the aid of lanterns the grounds outside the windows of the dining room were examined and a number of footprints with peculiar patterns were found. One of the prints was made with a rubber heel, the other was that of a long pointed shoe. Next the footprints were followed down the roadway leading to Twain's villa, and along the country roads leading to the Simpaug crossing of the N.Y.N.H. and Hartford Railroad. At that point the tracks left the highway and went in the direction of Bethel.

The Search Party Splits Up

Deputy Sheriff Banks left the search party and returned to Redding for the purpose of preventing the burglar's possible escape by train via West Redding station.

Mr. Lounsbury and Claude Beuchotte followed the footprints toward Bethel, which led them to the Bethel train depot, they arrived about 5:50AM. Feeling certain that the burglars would attempt to escape by train they boarded a southbound train from Danbury at approximately 6:01AM.

High Drama on the 6:01 out of Bethel

Searching the train they found two men in the smoking car whose appearance seemed suspicious. The men were seated separately, one behind the other. Mr. Lounsbury engaged one of them in conversation and noticed that his shoes had rubber heels.

At West Redding station Deputy Sheriff Banks boarded the train and was alerted of Lounsbury's suspicions. Banks accosted the man in question and asked to see the heels of his shoes. Muttering some thing unintelligible the man raced from his seat and jumped from the train, which by this time had left the station. Banks turned immediately to the second man and a fierce struggle ensued. The other passengers in the car, of whom there were seven or eight, looked on in amazement as they had no knowledge of what occurred the night before.

The burglar, finding himself no match for the strength of the Deputy Sheriff, drew his revolver and began firing at him. Train Conductor, John Dyas, entered the smoking car as the struggle was in progress and pulled the signal cord which stopped the train at a point just south of the little stream that runs beside the tracks. The passengers then came to Banks' aid, one of them clubbing the burglar over the head which stunned him and allowed Banks to get the better of him. Four shots in all were fired.

The Satchel is Found

Following the struggle, Harry Lounsbury searched for and found a *satchel beneath the seat occupied by one of the burglars. The satchel was filled with the silverware stolen from Mr. Clemens' residence. [*According to a letter in John Cooley's Mark Twain's Aquarium dated September 30th, 1908- Clemens writes Dorothy Sturges that "Mr. Lounsbury has just this minute been in, with a 'find'. It is the stolen plated ware. The burglars hid it behind a rock almost in front of that farm house which he says you called beautiful...The finding was an accident & happened early this morning."]

The Second Burglar Captured

Several men who were standing on the platform at West Redding station and witnessed the first burglar jump from the train followed him to Brookside Park (behind present day West Redding Post Office building). There they prevented him from escaping and alerted Banks of his location (under a bridge) and he was arrested without resistance.

Somebody Call the Doctor!

When Deputy Sheriff Banks left the train it was found that he had been wounded in the leg by one of the bullets fired during the struggle. The bullet entered between his knee and his ankle making an ugly flesh wound. In addition, while handling the revolver taken from the burglar Banks accidently shot himself in the hand.

Banks and the prisoners arrived at Harry Lounsbury house at approximately 7:15AM and the prisoners were placed under armed guard in Lounsbury's front yard. The second burglar's head, face and clothing were smeared with blood and the Deputy Sheriff's wounds also bled freely. Local physician, Earnest H. Smith, was alerted of the situation and came down from Redding Center to attend to the wounds of both Deputy Sheriff Banks and the burglar.

The physician found that the wounds of neither man were serious.

Swift Justice

At 9:00AM the prisoners were escorted to Town Hall in Redding Center where they were arraigned before Justice John Nickerson and Grand Juror Henry Duncan.

Just before the court opened Mr. Clemens arrived at the Town House in a little open wagonette. Dressed in a white flannel suit and white fedora hat, he was accompanied by his Daughter Clara and his secretary Isabel Lyon. The ladies were attired in bright gowns and their costumes with that of Mr. Clemens, gave a touch of brightness to the otherwise gloomy scene.

When the prisoners were called before the Justice they took seats so near Mr. Clemens that they almost touched him. Hoffman was the first to be arraigned. He spoke with a foreign accent and his English was broken. He looked to be an Austrian but he declined to state his nationality. When Lloyd Blackman, who was one of the State's witnesses, testified that early Thursday evening Hoffman called at his house which is on the road from Redding Station to Mr. Clemens' place asking the way to Redding, the prisoner broke in with a remark that the statement wasn't true!

Hoffman declined at first to plead to the charge of burglary made by Grand Juror Duncan, and John B. Sanford was assigned by the court to act as his counsel. Hoffman, acting on the advice of Mr. Sanford, entered a plea of not guilty.

The other prisoner, Williams, also spoke in broken English and looked the part of a hardened criminal.

Deputy Sheriff Banks, Harry Lounsbury, Claude Beuchotte, and Miss Lyon testified to various facts in connection to the burglary. Justice Nickerson found probable cause in each case. Hoffman, who was accused of burglary only, was held on $1,000 bail and Williams, who was charged with burglary, assault, resisting arrest, and carrying concealed weapons, was held on $2,000 bond.

The prisoners were taken to the Bridgeport jail on the noon train.

Notice to the Next Burglars

There is nothing but plated ware in the house now and henceforth. You will find it in that brass thing in the dining room over in the corner by the basket of kittens. If you want the basket, put the kittens in the brass thing. Do not make any noise, it disturbs the family. You will find rubbers in the front hall by that thing that has the umbrellas in it. Chiffonier I think they call it, a pegola, or something like that. Please close the door. -Yours truly, S.L. Clemens.

This notice was tacked up on the front door of Mark Twain's beautiful country home in Redding the day after the burglary and an unscrupulous reporter, who thought it too delightful a bit of humor to remain unpublished, carried it off.

View the Burglar's Version via the link below:

http://twainproject.blogspot.com/2008/03/stormfield-burglar-makes-his-confession.html

Annual Mark Twain Library Book Fair

The Annual Mark Twain Book Fair is August 29 - September 1. Daily from 9am to 5pm. Redding Community Center, Lonetown Road (Route 107) Redding CT. Free parking, no admission fee, bargains abound, air-conditioned comfort, handicapped accessible, refreshments sold.

This is "officially" the 48th Annual Fair but the fund raising concept of the fair dates way back to the very beginnning. Coley Taylor described the early days of the fair in his recollections published by American Heritage in 1985 "Our Neighbor, Mark Twain":

"Mark Twain donated a large number of books from his own collection to the library. They were housed in the seldom used old chapel facing the ancient but still used Umpawaug Cemetery. A librarian was on hand Wednesday and Saturday afternoons. Twain secured donations from many friends, including Andrew Carnegie, and publishers. At a meeting to promote the library on October 7, 1908, he read a statement that he had composed for the occasion.

There was a woman's group that met fairly often to sew clean strips of rags of all colors and fabrics for making braided rugs to sell at an annual fair for the library building fund. We children went to the meetings too; there were no baby-sitters then; we could roll the long strips into balls. It was my job to turn the ice-cream freezer for the cake-and-ice cream binge later.

The annual fair was held in August to attract the summer people, who would leave for their homes by Labor Day. There were not many in Redding but the lake resorts near Danbury and a noted summer colony in nearby Ridgefield provided the necessary crowds, together with local residents. All kinds of things were sold at the fair: cakes, pies, jellies, pickles, canned fruits in glass jars, salads, the rag rugs, and second hand furniture, which was grabbed up as antiques. A long picnic table under a tent was loaded with food, provided luncheon for the guests- at a price, of course."

Two Posts in a Week after One Month of Silence

I can explain...one man, three business interests, two children under four. Between all three businesses ( 2 non-profit, 1 for-profit) and the kids it's been quite a summer but I'm still a Twainiac at heart.

New material is on the horizon I promise! The Mark Twain Library website is close to launch with a new, improved look and the Mark Twain Library's 100th Anniversary Celebrations continue. There are a number of exciting events at the Library this fall - an Open House Birthday Celebration at the Library on Saturday 10/11, Huck Finn Discussion groups on 10/2, 10/9. 10/16 and 10/23, the "Hurray For Huck!" Finale on 11/2, and a past & present Board of Trustees and staff reunion on 11/1.

As I've mentioned, if you do not have a copy of the most recent Mark Twain Journal get one. Kevin Mac Donnell has done an amazing job of both explaining and showcasing Stormfield through photos, maps, blueprints and text. A must have for those interested in Sam's time in Redding.

My efforts to shed further light on "Twain's Redding" are still a work in progress, funding is non-existant so I'm in the process of grant writing (yet again) while continuing to gather information, promote local efforts and flesh out new sources of data.

"The lack of money is the root of all evil."
- More Maxims of Mark, Johnson, 1927

Books & Articles That Include Information on Stormfield

Bispham, David. A Quaker Singer's Recollections. New York: MacMillan, 1920.

Clemens, Clara. My Father Mark Twain. New York: Harper, 1931.

Cooley, John. Mark Twain's Aquarium, the Samuel Clemens Angelfish Correspondence, 1905-1910. Athens: Univ. of Georgia Press, 1991.

Harnsberger, Caroline. Mark Twain's Clara or What Became of the Clemens Family. Evanston: The Press of Ward Schori, 1982.

Henderson, Archibald. Mark Twain. New York: Frederick A. Stokes, 1910.

Hill, Hamlin. Mark Twain, God's Fool. New York: Harper & Row, 1973.

Howells, William Dean. My Mark Twain, Reminiscences and Criticisms. New York: Harper, 1910.

Lawton, Mary. A Lifetime with Mark Twain, the Memories of Katy Leary, for Thirty Years His Faithful and Devoted Servant. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1925.

"The Lounger" Putnam Magazine, December 1909, 369-70

Lystra, Karen. Dangerous Intimacy, the Untold Story of Mark Twain's Final Years. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 2004.

"Mark Twain's House at Redding, Connecticut." The American Architect, February 10, 1909, p.51.

"Mark Twain's New Home at Redding." Harper's Weekly, July 4, 1908, p. 24, 29.

Paine, Albert Bigelow Paine. Mark Twain, a Biography. New York: Harper, 1912. 3 volumes.

"Stormfield, Mark Twain's New Country Home." Country Life in America, April 1909, p. 607-11 & 650-51.

Taylor, Coley B. Mark Twain's Margins on Thackeray's "Swift" New York: Gotham House, 1935.

Taylor, Coley B. "Our Neighbor Mark Twain" American Heritage, February-March, 1985. p. 102-107.

Williams, Henry. In the Clutch of Circumstance, My Own Story, by a Burglar. New York: Appleton. 1922.

Celebrating a Century :: 1908-2008

The Mark Twain Library's 100th Anniversary is just around the corner and in celebration a new sculpture recently arrived on the grounds of the library. It's a very fitting sculpture because as John Cooley notes in his introduction to Mark Twain's Aquarium: "Clemens devoted his career to writing about children, including important childhood characters and themes in novels, several novelettes, and a host of stories, essays and sketches. For Clemens, childhood was the most important time -the central experience- of life."

Rare Stormfield Photos Released

This summer's Mark Twain Journal is now available and it showcases Stormfield! Kevin MacDonnell's amazing collection of Stormfield photos are the highlight of the journal, it also contains a great deal of information on the house and house events. Kevin explained in a recent Mark Twain Forum post:

"You will indeed get a good sense of the interior, and I describe the concert as well. There were 525 people there, but only 160 got inside the house. Ticket prices varied according to the room, from $1.50 down to 50 cents. I list about 40 sources on Stormfield (book, newspaper and magazine articles) including Bispham's 1920 memoir."

"I hope my article makes for fun and informative reading for thoseexcited by the 100th anniversay of Stormfield. It's a "virtual tour" created by using forty-one photos from my own archives (most of them previously unpublished), as well as the original floorplans and plate map of the house and grounds. I also include a guessing game at the end using twelve more photos (some previosuly unpublished) from the Mark Twain Papers at Berkeley.

I plotted the location and field of vision for each photo on the original architect's floorplans and plat maps so that the reader can trace them in sequence and gain a sense of the physical feel of Stormfield. I also describe the physical structure and construction of Stormfield in more detail than ever before, as part of my effort to create the physical presence of the place. My goal was not to retell the story of events that took place at Stormfield but instead to present the physical presence of this home now long lost, so that readers of Ham Hill and Karen Lystra can now visualize where all of those events at the end of Twain's life actually took place. I am extremely grateful to the ever-helpful folks at the Mark
Twain Papers, Hartford, Hannibal, and elsewhere who assisted me in my research, and special thanks to Tom Tenney who will happily sell anyone a copy of the MTJ to anyone who contacts him."

The journal is available by subscription. http://www.marktwainjournal.com/mtj_personal_order_form.html