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But Caroline thought it imprudent to relocatebefore T.C. had earned his promised “fortune.”Otherwise, the process of starting over wouldstrap the family and prevent her from attendingconferences and visiting relatives and friends. “Ithink we might as well, or better go after we’vemade money and not to be obliged to stay awayfor years and to be able to come back if we liked,”she argued. “If we must go there & settle down,expecting to stay years before we could comeback, I fear we should be very homesick.” 45T.C. held firm, looking perhaps for a way tokeep his peripatetic wife more often at his side.Caroline had spent most of the winter of 1874 inWashington, D.C., and New York City, possiblyworking in support of the temperance crusadesthat led to the founding of the Women’s ChristianTemperance Union at year’s end. At theheight of his loneliness T.C. wrote to her almostevery day:February 14After these two or three hours waiting &reaching home in the expectation of a lettertonight, I came only to be disappointed, &therefore must content myself with no letter& by trying to heap coals of fire on your headby sending you one. Will that do?February 16I am to play flute at Chase’s this evening.. . . If you don’t come home soon I’ll beall engaged up for a long time ahead, & thenwhat’ll you say?February 16, in the eveningWhere are you now & when will you behome that’s the question?Finally receiving a letter from Caroline informinghim that she was in New York, he immediatelywrote back to propose that he join her there for abrief reunion. He would leave Saturday afternoonafter work and, taking advantage of the Washington’sBirthday holiday, stay over until Mondayevening, giving them two full days together andallowing him to “be here again for duty on Tuesdaymorning.” Caroline could hardly say no. Norcould she stop her husband, who would celebratehis sixtieth birthday a few weeks later, from seizingwhat he must have believed to be his lastchance at wealth. 46Reforming the Last FrontierBy T.C.’s sixty-first birthday, talk of relocating hadgelled into a firm plan. Late in the summer of1875, the Severances bade farewell to their daughter,Julia Severance Burrage, who was marriedand living in West Newton with her husband andchildren, and to their youngest son, Pierre, whohad decided to remain in Boston, and climbedaboard a train bound for Cleveland. After visitingLongwood, they headed for Omaha, wherethey would take the Union Pacific and CentralPacific to the West Coast. An uninterruptedrailroad journey across the continent took abouttwo weeks. The Severances left the train in SanFrancisco, already the country’s tenth largestcity with a population of 150,000, and boarded aship, perhaps a mail steamer, headed south. Aftera three-day sail on rough seas, the elderly couplefell gratefully into their sons’ arms at the SantaBarbara wharf. 47Seymour and Sibley had surprising news: Theyplanned to resettle in Los Angeles and wantedtheir parents to join them. Some months earlier,the brothers had picked their way on horsebackdown to the former pueblo, now a city of tenthousand, following trails that were sometimeslittle more than cow paths. With its unpavedstreets, frightful dust, mule-drawn streetcarline, minuscule business district, and two lonechurches (Catholic and Episcopal), Los Angeleslacked the charm of Santa Barbara, but Seymourand Sibley were convinced that it offered a morepromising business environment. They haddetected merit that would initially elude theirmother. 48