Boating could be a fun way of unwinding and as a recreational activity. In terms of boats, there were a lot of types and purposes as well. Well, Mark Twain’s Riverboats have an interesting background to say as well as how it became as a pen name of an American Writer. You … Read more
Birthplace of S.L.C., Florida, Missouri. Samuel Langhorne Clemens was born in this house on 30 November, 1835, in the frontier village of Florida, Marion County, Missouri. The 6th child of John Marshall Clemens and Jane (Jean) Lampton Clemens, he was born two months premature and sickly, into a family comprising: brother Orion … Read more
Sam’s First Speech, Keokuk ~ 1856 As a young printer, Sam Clemens gave his first public speech in Keokuk, Iowa, on 17 January, 1856, at a meeting of the Typothetae, an association of master printers who celebrated annually on the birthday of Benjamin Franklin, the patron of all printers. He was boarding … Read more
Printer Anecdotes ~ 1851-56 After the tragic death of his father in 1847, Sam Clemens, aged 12, began doing odds jobs to assist the family finances, and in 1848 he began working as a printer’s devil for the Hannibal Gazette, apprenticed to Joseph Ament. The job entailed “setting” type by hand using … Read more
In the early 1890s the financial situation was becoming serious. The Paige compositor, Webster & Company, and the cost of maintaining the Nook Farm lifestyle at the Hartford House, brought Sam to the brink of personal bankruptcy. To reduce their living costs, Sam closed down the Hartford House in June of 1891 and … Read more
Samuel Clemens, born on November 30, 1835, the sixth child of John and Jane Clemens, in a cabin in the small settlement of Florida, Missouri. The family moved to nearby Hannibal in 1839, where Sam spent his boyhood in the presence of the broad Mississippi, and the captivating steamboating times that would … Read more