Mark Twain of Iowa 1835-1910

TWAIN, CLEMONS, LAMPTON

Posted By: Mary Lanigan (email)
Date: 9/8/2004 at 11:48:40

Mark Twain AKA: Samuel Longhorn Clemons was born November 30, 1835 at Florida, Missouri. His parents were John Marshall Clemons and Jane Lampton.

In 1839 the family moved to Hannibal, Missouri. This was the town that Clemons would spend his boyhood years. He dreamed of being a steamboat Captain. Clemons left Hannibal Missouri in 1853 and left for the midwest. One of the cities he lived at was "Keokuk Iowa", where he re united with his brother Orion to work at his brothers newspaper business which was "The Keokuk Journal". In 1857 when he was 21 years old, he spent 2 years as a cub pilot and received his pilot license in 1859.

In the year 1861, his brother Orin Clemons was appointed by "President Abraham Lincoln" as Secretary of Virginia. Orion appointed Samuel as his private Secretary.

To help support his income, Samuel contributed humerous letters to the "Virginia Territorial Enterprise". In 1863 he began signing his works with "Mark Twain" a Mississippi River phrase meaning "Two Fantoms Deep". Clemons and his new name would move to San Francisco. After ten years he met American Authors Artemus Ward and Bret Harte. The town of Twain Harte California was named after these writers. Mark Twain's first book was "The Innocents Alwood (1869). It was a great success. He wrote "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" (1876)in which he celebrated a boyhood in a small Mississippi River town. During the final days of his life he wrote several more books including "From My Biography" (1906/1907)

Mark Twain died April 21, 1910 and is buried with his wife and children at Woodlawn Cemetery in Elmira New York.

At the time of Mark Twain's death "Halleys Comet" appeared in the April Skys. The lst time this comet appeared was in November of 1835, the time of his birth. Twain often said that he would go out with the comet. Remarkably, his prediction came true.