The following articles and speeches are by Steve Courtney, who is writing a biography of AHCC's first pastor, the Rev. Joseph Hopkins Twichell (1838-1918). Steve is co-editor, with Peter Messent, of The Civil War Letters of Joseph Hopkins Twichell, forthcoming from the University of Georgia Press. If anyone has any information about Twichell that could be helpful to Steve, please contact him at 860-589-6412 or sdcourtney@hotmail.com.

Stories include: (click on titles below)

1. TWICHELL & THE SLAVE HUNTERS -- NEW!

2. TO THE TOWER -- This lighthearted exposition of the friendship of Joe Twichell and Mark Twain appeared originally in the Hartford Courant’s Northeast magazine in 1996, and includes an account of the first re-enactment of their walks up Talcott Mountain by Jim Kidd, John Boyer and Steve Courtney. << Information on TOWER WALK. >>

3. THE ODD COUPLE -- This short exploration of Twichell’s and Twain’s friendship was presented before the Bristol Congregational Church in 2002.

4. MARK AND JOE IN THE ALPS -- A retelling of the trip Twain and Twichell took through Germany and the Swiss Alps in 1878, the story that formed the basis for the best parts of Twain’s fact-and-fantasy travel book, “A Tramp Abroad.”

5. Rising Power in the East: Joe Twichell, Mark Twain and the Chinese Educational Mission, 1872-81 A Hartford minister befriends the Chinese Educational Mission, 1872-81 -- Given before Yale University’s Center for East Asian Studies, this talk describes Twichell’s deep involvement in a major historical event: The first formal attempt to educate a group of Chinese youth in America. The Chinese Educational Mission, based in Hartford, is the subject of a multi-part documentary soon to be presented on Chinese television (and some of the footage was shot at AHCC).

6. JOE TWICHELL’S DISREPUTABLE FRIENDS -- This talk at the Mark Twain House describes some of the other odd characters Twichell was attracted to before he met Mark Twain: a Yale chum who (probably) fatally shot a fireman in a town-gown fracas in which Twichell also took part; and his Civil War commander, who shot his wife’s lover and was acquitted; went on to win, or nearly lose, the Battle of Gettysburg, depending on your point of view; and had a famous affair with the exiled Queen of Spain.

7. THE DAY JOE TWICHELL TOOK ON ROBERT E. LEE -- Finally, a moment of courage and dissent from the Hartford reverend’s later years. Called upon to speak at the dedication of a statue at Yale in 1896, Twichell learned that some students were planting ivy on campus in honor of Robert E. Lee. Twichell, who had served through brutal Civil War battles and didn;t se Lee as a romantic hero in any sense, dissented, and stirred up a tempest.