| Feb 28 | Attends the World Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition in New Orleans. |
| Mar | Vacations in Florida with Ezra T. Gilliland and purchases land in Fort Myers. |
| Winter-Spring | Executes seventeen patent applications covering telegraph and telephone inventions. |
| June-July | Spends several weeks at Woodside, Gilliland's beach house near Boston, where he keeps a personal diary and becomes enamoured with Mina Miller, whom he first met at Gilliland's home in Boston earlier in the year. |
| Aug 11-18 | Attends the Chautauqua Institution, co-founded by Lewis Miller. |
| ca. Aug 23-31 | Travels through the White Mountains of New Hampshire with Mina Miller and a group of friends. While at the Maplewood Hotel in Bethlehem, N.H., proposes marriage in Morse code. Mina accepts by tapping out "yes." |
| Sep 30 | After a week-long visit with the Gillilands in Boston, where he again sees Mina Miller, writes to Lewis Miller formally requesting his daughter's hand in marriage. |
| Oct-Nov | Executes five patent applications covering telegraph inventions. |
| mid-Dec | Visits the Miller family in Akron, Ohio. |
