"Mark Twain"

By John T. Marck

Samuel’s Family and Home Life

At the time of his birth, his family lived in a rented house on South Mill Street, and his father operated a store in partnership with John Adams Quarles, the husband of his mother’s sister, Martha Ann "Patsy" Quarles. Twain’s grandparents, Samuel and Pamelia Clemens were slave-holding farmers in Campbell County, Virginia, before moving to the southern bank of the Ohio River in Mason County, Virginia, now a part of West Virginia, about 1803.

Upon his grandfather’s death in 1805, his grandmother, Pamelia, moved the family to Adair County, Kentucky where they lived with her brother, and in 1809, Pamelia married Simon Hancock. In 1812, Mark Twain’s father John was working in a Lynchburg ironworks factory, and did well for himself. When his father’s estate was finally settled in 1821, and after paying back borrowed money to their stepfather (Hancock), John Clemens’ share included three slaves. Interested in the study of law, John worked with Cyrus Walker in Columbia, Kentucky and received his license to practice in 1822. One year later in 1823, John married Jane Lampton, who was born in Columbia and was a descendant of early English and Irish settlers in Kentucky, and the daughter of Benjamin and Margaret Casey Lampton, and a cousin of Walker’s wife.

Upon their marriage, Twain’s parents moved to Gainesboro, then Jamestown, Tennessee, where they built a large house, and where John continued to practice law. His parents also operated a store, and purchased 75,000 acres of uncleared land before moving to Three Forks of Wolf River where they bought 200 acres of farmland and built a log cabin. By June 1835, the Clemens’ family, along with their one remaining slave named Jenny, to Florida, Missouri on the Salt River. It would be here that John acquired 120 aces of government land and built a home for three-hundred dollars, where their son, Samuel (Mark Twain) would be born.

At the age of one year, Samuel was oftentimes sick, to the extent that his mother was constantly worried that he may not live. This same year, 1836, his father John bought a house in town that was owned by Jane’s grandfather. That next year, her grandfather died, and John dissolved his partnership with Quarles and started his own store. In 1838, Samuel and his family move into a new house.

In 1839, Samuel is plagued by frequently walking in his sleep, which continued for several years. On August 17, this same year, Samuel’s sister Margaret died of "bilious fever." Following her death, John earned $5000 from a land sale and used this money to purchase $7000 worth of property in Hannibal, Missouri. At this time Hannibal was a quickly growing port town with about one thousand residents on the Mississippi River. Hannibal is located about thirty miles from Florida (Mo.), and about one hundred-thirty miles from St. Louis by water. That November, John moved his family here, and it would be along the Mississippi River that Samuel experienced his carefree boyhood adventures that would later be the basis for his classic writings and fictional character’s Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.

In 1840, Samuel entered school and was taught by Elizabeth Horr and Mary Ann Newcomb. As he progressed, Samuel attended three other schools in Hannibal. On May 12, 1842, Samuel’s brother Benjamin died following just a few days illness, and his brother Orion moved to St. Louis to work as a printer. Samuel’s propensity to be sickly continued, and this time his doctor treated him with castor oil, calomel, rhubarb, jalap, and poultices, which were socks full of hot ashes, as well as various other water treatments. He continues to have recurring nightmares (no wonder) and still walks in his sleep. Also this same year, John sold Jenny to another owner. In 1844, during a spring epidemic, one of Samuel’s closest friends, Will Bowen contracted the measles, and Samuel deliberately caught it from him, and nearly died.

While walking along the streets of Hannibal one day in 1845, Samuel watched in horror as a man dies after being shot by a Hannibal merchant named William Owsley, who was arrested and later acquitted of all charges. Having financial problems, the Clemens family takes in paying guests for meals, then is forced to sell off their furniture to pay their bills, and finally moves in with a pharmacist named Orville Grant who exchanges meals for rent. On March 24, 1847, Samuel’s father John died of pneumonia and by sneaking around, Samuel watched through a keyhole as Dr. Meredith performed a postmortem examination.

Samuel’s First Journalism Experience and First Writings

That next year at the age of fifteen, Samuel began working at the Missouri Courier as what was described as a chore boy and printer’s devil. One day after work Samuel and a friend named Tom Nash went ice skating, and the ice broke, and Samuel barely made it to shore safely, but Tom fell through, but was able to get back to shore, but as a result suffered an illness that eventually caused him to go deaf.

His Writings Continues, and His Steamboat Pilot Life

Samuel continues his writings, and in 1856, moves to Cincinnati where he worked as a typesetter, while continuing his writings, "Thomas Jefferson Snodgrass," that were published in the Cincinnati Post. The next year Clemens left Cincinnati in April by steamboat bound for New Orleans, whereby he had intended to continue to travel to South American where he believed he could find fame and fortune. Instead, he became a riverboat pilot, working under Horace Bixby for an apprentice fee of $300. Clemens worked on several boats and learned the Mississippi River quite well between New Orleans and St. Louis. While still working as an apprentice "cub" pilot, Clemens served on the riverboat Pennsylvania under the pilot William Brown, whom Clemens believed to be a despot, and whom he hated. Samuel then arranged for a job for his brother Henry on the riverboat as a purser’s assistant or "mud clerk." It would be here that Samuel met and fell in love with Laura M. Wright, who was the fourteen-year-old daughter of a Missouri judge. However, her family does not approve of the relationship, and intercepts the many letters Samuel wrote to her. After the pilot, Brown, struck Henry one day, Samuel hit him in defense of Henry, resulting in Brown leaving temporarily. This caused Samuel to leave the Pennsylvania, because no replacement pilot was found for Brown, and Samuel as an apprentice need to work under a licensed pilot. Some time passed and Brown returned to the riverboat, while Henry remained with the crew. On June 13, while below Memphis on the Mississippi, a boiler exploded, badly injuring Henry and killing Brown. On June 15, Samuel arrived in Memphis and was with his brother when he died on June 21. Samuel, blaming himself for not being with Henry on board the Pennsylvania is grazed with grief and guilt. Samuel buried Henry in Hannibal on June 25, then he returned to resume his apprenticeship steering for two of his friends, Bart and Sam Bowen from Hannibal.

Samuel and the Civil War - Less Than Heroic

In 1861, with the outbreak of the Civil War, the river traffic was greatly disrupted. Clemens, not wanting to be mistaken by the Union as a gunboat, returned to Hannibal and helped form the Marion Rangers, which was a group of Confederate volunteers comprised of many of his old Hannibal schoolmates.

The Marion Rangers we not exactly heroes by and stretch. Whenever a rumor surfaced that mentioned the Union troops may be coming, they assumed a retreating posture. Clemens later wrote that the rangers were "were hopeless material for war." He was pleased and surprised though how helpful and friendly the local farmers were to them. Clemens said of this that the farmers "were as hospitably kind and courteous to us as if we had deserved it."

In less than one month after the rangers were formed, Clemens and his men learned that a Union regiment was moving their way. Clemens said, "Our boys went apart and consulted, then we went back and told the other companies present that the war was a disappointment to us, and we were going to disband."

While The War Raged

With the Civil War continuing in earnest, Clemens traveled to Carson City in January 1962, then to Aurora that April. In Nevada he dabbled in mining all the while continuing his writings.

After the Civil War - His Writings Continue

Meanwhile, between 1878 and 1880, Twain began working on "The Prince and the Pauper," while putting "Huckleberry Finn," to the side, while also starting another book, A Tramp Abroad.

Over the next few years, The Prince and the Pauper is published in December 1881; he began writing "Life on the Mississippi," in 1882, which was published in May 1883; and "Huckleberry Finn," is first published in three parts in 1885 by Century Magazine, then is published in complete book form in the United States on February16, 1885 by Webster & Co. By March 14, slightly more than one month later, it sold 39,000 copies.

The Last Years of His Life

Having traveled to Bermuda numerous times, he returned there in 1908 where he met and became friends with several schoolgirls, who were the daughters of friends. He called them his "angelfish," and thought of the idea of forming a club called the "Aquarium."

On April 21, 1910 at 6:30 p.m., Samuel Clemens, the beloved Mark Twain, died at Stormfield. His funeral was held at the Brick Presbyterian Church, New York, and Henry Van Dyke gave a short sermon. Mark Twain was buried in Elmira, New York on April 24, in a family plot.

The genius of his wit entertained the world not only through his literature, but through his very popular lecture series. He would always appear elegantly clad in his trademark white suit that complemented his white mustache and distinctive hair, along with his cigar.