Olivia Lewis Langdon, Olivia Clemens’s mother, was “a Victorian of the pleasantest type,” according to her granddaughter Ida Langdon – “she was intellectual and she was practical, she was socially inclined and socially gifted.” Like her husband Jervis, she was deeply committed to the abolitionist cause before the Civil War.

She was a yearly visitor to the Hartford house, a room on the second floor being reserved for her (and for Samuel Clemens’s mother, Jane Lampton Clemens, a less frequent visitor). Anticipating a visit in 1886, Samuel wrote: “Now, mother dear, we shall be ready for you any day after this week, & the sooner the satisfactorier. Livy has got a new boiler in, & it’s a great geyser-of-Yellowstone for liberality in the way of hot water. You can have hot water always, now, & all you want.”

She presided over an elegant mansard-roofed home in Elmira, New York, with grounds planted with native and exotic trees. Two greenhouses on the property – one for flowers, one for grape vines – included a massive night-blooming cereus, which produced its showy blooms in mid-summer twilight. “Hammocks and bird-cages, their occupants only mildly disturbed by an occasional passing horse-car, hung on the front porch,” Ida Langdon reports.

“My grandmother Langdon was a strong and lovable personality,” Clara Clemens wrote. “She ruled in the house, but she carried a scepter of love, which drew willing obedience from everyone.” Her birthday parties were memorable to young Clara: “All the guests were presented with more gifts apiece than the birthday child received from all the others combined… We felt almost as if we had cheated someone, and that added to our pleasure.”

Olivia Sr.’s generosity also helped sustain the Clemens household, as shown in the 16-month trip Samuel and Olivia took to Europe in 1878-79, when Olivia purchased nearly $5,000 worth of household furnishings – think $100,000 in today’s money – largely subsidized by her mother.