Clemens wrote this manuscript, now in the Mark Twain Papers, sometime in 1870, leaving it incomplete and without a title (but with space for one on the first page). It is the earliest extant manuscript that might fairly be called a draft chapter for his autobiography, although he did not explicitly identify it as such. He evidently planned to publish it in some way, for he changed the reference to his father’s nemesis from “Ira Stout” to “Ira ––––.”
The text has never been accurately published before. Albert Bigelow Paine did include it in Mark Twain’s Autobiography under the title he gave it, “The Tennessee Land,” but he silently omitted the anecdote at the end of the third paragraph (beginning with “A venerable lady . . .”) and changed Clemens’s description of his father as a “candidate for county judge, with a certainty of election” to say instead that he “had been elected to the clerkship of the Surrogate Court” ( MTA, 1:3–6; neither description is accurate: see the Appendix “Family Biographies,” p. 654). Charles Neider reprinted the text from the manuscript, restoring the anecdote omitted by Paine but adopting Paine’s changed description of John Marshall Clemens; he also made dozens of his own omissions and changes, and he appended two paragraphs from “My Autobiography [Random Extracts from It],” written in Vienna in 1897–98 ( AMT, 22–24). Clemens returned to the subject of the Tennessee land in that manuscript and in the Autobiographical Dictation of 5 April 1906.
John Marshall Clemens’s land purchases and the family’s subsequent sales of the land have been only partly documented from independent sources. The extant grants, deeds, and bills of sale are incomplete, but it was also the case that contradictory or inaccurate deeds often led to disputed claims. Orion Clemens referred to one cause of such conflict in a letter to his brother on 7 July 1869, alleging that “Tennessee grants the same land over and over again to different parties” (OC to SLC, 7 July 1869, CU-MARK, quoted in 3? July 1869 to OC, L3 , 279 n. 1 [bottom]; for family correspondence on the subject from 1853 to 1870, see L1 , L2 , L3 , and L4 ).
The monsterⒶapparatus note tract of land which our family own in Tennessee, was purchased by my fatherⒺexplanatory note a little over forty years ago. He bought the enormous area of seventy-five thousandⒶapparatus note acres at one purchaseⒺexplanatory note. The entire lot must have cost him somewhere in the neighborhood of fourⒶapparatus note hundred dollars. That was a good deal of money to pass over at one payment in those days—at least it was so consideredⒶapparatus note away upⒶapparatus note thereⒶapparatus note in the pineries and the “Knobs” of the Cumberland Mountains ofⒶapparatus note Fentress county, East Tennessee. When my father paid down that great sum, and turned and stood in the courthouseⒶapparatus note door of Jamestown, and looked abroad over his vast possessions, he said: “Whatever befalls me, my heirsⒶapparatus note are secure; I shall not live to see these acres turn to silver and gold, but my children will.” Thus, with the very kindest intentions in the world toward us, he laid the heavy curse of prospective wealth upon our shoulders. HeⒶapparatus note went to his grave in the full belief that he had done us a kindness. It was a woful mistake, but fortunately he never knew it.
HeⒶapparatus note further said: “Iron ore is abundant in this tract, and there are other minerals; there are thousands of acres of the finest yellow pine timber in America, and it can be rafted down Obeds river to the CumberlandⒶapparatus note, down the Cumberland to the Ohio, down the Ohio to the MississippiⒶapparatus note, and down the Mississippi to any community that wants it. There is no end to the tar, [begin page 62] pitch and turpentine which these vast pineries will yield. This is a natural wine district, too; there are no vines elsewhere in America, cultivatedⒶapparatus note or otherwise, that yield such grapes as grow wild here. There are grazing lands, corn lands, wheat lands, potato lands, there are all species of timber—there is everything in and on this great tract of land that can make land valuable. The United States contain fourteen millions of inhabitants; the population has increased eleven millions in forty years, and will henceforth increase faster than ever; myⒶapparatus note children will see the day that immigration will push its way to Fentress county, Tennessee, and then, with seventy-five thousandⒶapparatus note acres of excellent land in their hands, they will become fabulously wealthy.”
Everything my father said about the capabilities of the land was perfectly true—and he could have added with like truth, that there were inexhaustible mines of coal on the land, but the chances are that he knew very little about the article, for the innocent Tennesseeans were not accustomed to digging in the earth for their fuel. And my father might have added to the list of eligibilities, that the land was only a hundred miles from KnoxvilleⒶapparatus note, and right where some future line of railway leading south from Cincinnati could not help but pass through it. But he never had seen a railway, and it is barely possible thatⒶapparatus note he had not even heard of such a thing. Curious as it may seem, as late as eight years ago there were peopleⒶapparatus note living close to Jamestown who never had heard of a railroad and could not be broughtⒶapparatus note to believe in steamboats. They do not vote for Jackson in Fentress county, they vote for Washington. A venerable lady of that locality said of her son: “Jim’s come back from Kaintuck and fotch a stuck-up galⒶapparatus note with him from up thar; and bless you they’ve got more new-fangled notions, massy on us! Common log house ain’t good enough for them—no indeedy!—but they’ve tuck ’n’ gaumed the inside of theirn all over with some kind of nasty disgustin’ truck which they sayⒶapparatus note is all the go in KaintuckⒶapparatus note amongst the upper hunky,Ⓐapparatus note and which they calls it plarsterin’!”Ⓐapparatus note
MyⒶapparatus note eldest brother was four or five years old when the great purchase was made, and my eldest sister was an infant in arms. The rest of us—and we formed the great bulk of the family—cameⒶapparatus note afterwards, and were born along from time to time during the next tenⒶapparatus note years. Four years after the purchase came the great financial crash of ’34, and in that storm my father’s fortunesⒶapparatus note were wreckedⒺexplanatory note. From being honoredⒶapparatus note and envied as the most opulent citizen of Fentress county—for outside of his greatⒶapparatus note landed possessions he was considered to be worth not less than three thousand five hundred dollars—he suddenly woke up and found himself reduced to less than one-fourth of that amount. He was a proud man,Ⓐapparatus note a silent, austere man, and notⒶapparatus note a person likely toⒶapparatus note abide among the scenes of his vanished grandeur and be the targetⒶapparatus note for public commiseration. He gathered together his household and journeyed many tedious days through wilderness solitudes, toward what was then the “Far West,” and at last pitched his tent in the almost invisible little town of Florida, Monroe countyⒶapparatus note, Missouri. He “kept store” there several years, but had no luck, except that I was born to him. HeⒶapparatus note presently removed to Hannibal, and prospered somewhat, and rose to the dignity of justice of the peace, and was candidate for county judge, with a certainty of electionⒺexplanatory note, when the summons came which no man may disregard. He had been doing tolerably well, for that age of the world, during the first years of his residence in Hannibal, but ill fortune tripped him once more. He did the friendly office of “going security” for Ira ——, and Ira —— walkedⒶapparatus note off and deliberately took the benefit of the new bankrupt [begin page 63] lawⒺexplanatory note—Ⓐapparatus notea deed which enabled him to live easily and comfortably along till death called for him, but a deed which ruined my father, sent him poor to his grave, and condemned his heirs to a long and discouraging struggle with the world for a livelihood. But my father would brighten up and gather heart, even upon his death-bed, when he thought of the Tennessee land. He said that it would soon make us all rich and happy. And so believing, he died.
We straightway turned ourⒶapparatus note waiting eyes upon Tennessee. ThroughⒶapparatus note all our wanderings and all our ups and downs for thirty years they have still gazedⒶapparatus note thitherward, over intervening continents and seas, andⒶapparatus note at this very day theyⒶapparatus note are yet looking toward the same fixed point, with the hope of old habit and a faith that rises and falls, but never dies.
After my father’s death weⒶapparatus note reorganized the domestic establishment, but on a temporary basisⒺexplanatory note, intending to arrange it permanently after the land was sold. My brother borrowed five hundred dollars and bought a worthless weekly newspaperⒺexplanatory note, believing, as we all did, that it was not worth while to go at anything in serious earnest until the land was disposed of and we could embark intelligentlyⒶapparatus note in something.Ⓐapparatus note We rentedⒶapparatus note a large house to live in, at first, but we were disappointed in a sale we had expected to make (the man wanted only a part of the land andⒶapparatus note we talked it over and decided to sell all or noneⒺexplanatory note,) and we were obliged to move to a less expensive one.
monster tract of land . . . was purchased by my father . . . seventy-five thousand acres at one purchase] Although John Marshall Clemens may have acquired a tract as large as forty thousand acres in a single transaction, he also bought numerous smaller parcels, beginning as early as 1826 and continuing until at least 1841. In 1857, ten years after his death, the family had ownership records for twenty-four tracts of unknown acreage. After surveying the land in 1858, Orion concluded that he could establish title to some 30,000 acres, less than half of the 75,000 acres that Clemens estimates here.
my father] See the Appendix “Family Biographies” (pp. 654–57) for information about Clemens’s immediate family.
the great financial crash of ’34, and in that storm my father’s fortunes were wrecked] President Andrew Jackson’s attack on the second Bank of the United States precipitated a money crisis in 1834. Many state banks were unable to meet the demand for loans, which caused numerous businesses to fail. John Clemens, who belonged to the Whig party (formed in opposition to the Jacksonian Democrats), may well have felt the effects of this economic downturn (Wecter 1952, 36–37).
candidate for county judge, with a certainty of election] Shortly before his death Clemens did declare his candidacy for office, but it was for the position of clerk of the circuit court, not for “county judge” ( Inds, 309–11; see also AD, 28 Mar 1906, where Clemens mistakenly recalled that his father had “just been elected”).
“going security” for Ira —— . . . took the benefit of the new bankrupt law] In his manuscript, Clemens first wrote Ira Stout’s full name, then—in the same ink—substituted dashes for his surname. John Marshall Clemens had dealings with Ira Stout, a land speculator, in late 1839. He purchased Hannibal property from Stout, at an inflated value, which he had to sell at a loss in 1843 to pay his creditors. The transaction by which John Clemens became responsible for Stout’s debts has not been identified. Clemens also mentioned Stout’s perfidy in 1897 in “Villagers of 1840–3,” and again in his Autobiographical Dictation of 28 March 1906 ( Inds, 104, 310, 349–50). The federal “bankrupt law” of 1841 enabled debtors, for the first time, to escape payment of their debts, while providing for little or no compensation of creditors. It was repealed two years later.
After my father’s death . . . on a temporary basis] When John Marshall Clemens died in March of 1847, the Clemenses were living with Dr. Orville Grant’s family in a house at Hill and Main. They remained there for several months before moving to the “temporary” quarters, which have not been identified. Eventually they returned to the house that their father had built in late 1843 or early 1844—the “Boyhood Home” that still stands at 206 Hill Street (Wecter 1952, 102, 113, 121; AD, 2 Dec 1906).
My brother . . . bought a worthless weekly newspaper] Orion began the weekly Hannibal Western Union in mid-1850, and within a year bought the Hannibal Journal, publishing the first issue of the Journal and Western Union in September 1851. He edited the combined paper, employing Clemens as his assistant for much of the time, until September 1853, when he sold it and moved to Muscatine, Iowa (link note preceding 24 Aug 1853 to JLC, L1, 1–2; Inds, 311).
but we were disappointed in a sale . . . decided to sell all or none] Nothing is known about this potential deal. In 1850 Arnold Buffum of the Tennessee Land Office, a land agency in New York, suggested the land be offered for ten cents an acre, but no sale took place (Buffum’s letter does not survive, but is described in MTBus, 17). Clemens claimed that on two later occasions he negotiated sales of the land which Orion rejected. In 1865 a buyer agreed to pay $200,000 for an unspecified number of acres, intending to settle European immigrants on it to grow grapes and produce wine; Orion’s “temperance virtue” quashed that deal (AD, 5 Apr 1906; 13 Dec 1865 to OC and MEC, L1, 326–27). Then in 1869, Jervis Langdon offered $30,000 in cash and stock, but Orion again demurred, citing his fear that Clemens would “unconsciously cheat” his future father-in-law (9 Nov 1869 to PAM, L3, 388–89 n. 2). Exasperated by Orion’s scruples, Clemens renounced his own share, and by 1870 wanted nothing more to do with “that hated property” (9 Sept 1870 to OC, L4, 193). Orion henceforth assumed all responsibility for it. Over many years, Orion disposed of the land, either through his own efforts or through hired agents, both in large parcels (ten thousand acres) and in small ones (fewer than three hundred acres). Some of it was sold for cash—of unknown amounts—and some was traded for other property. At least one unscrupulous buyer failed to pay at all. Ultimately, the proceeds may have barely covered the cost of the property taxes. Orion regretfully acknowledged his failure in an 1878 letter to his sister and mother: “I am so sorry to hear you are cramped for means,” he wrote, “it gave me another twinge of conscience that I fooled away the Tennessee land, and some of your money with it” (OC to PAM and JLC, 2 Nov 1878, CU-MARK; OC to SLC, 4 Nov 1880, CU-MARK; Wecter 1952, 31–32, 278 n. 9; also the following documents provided courtesy of Barbara Schmidt: Fentress County Deeds 1820–48, Vol. A:161, 236, 244, 288, 293, 335; Fentress County Land Grants, Book T:46; “Declaration” with “Exhibits 1–6,” filed 15 May 1907, U.S. National Archives and Records Administration 1907–9).
Source document.
MS Untitled manuscript of 13 leaves, written in 1870.Paine supplied the title adopted here when he published this manuscript in MTA . He noted on the first page of the MS, in both ink and pencil, that the piece was written in 1870. The MS was written in violet ink on torn half sheets of white laid paper, measuring 5 by 7¾ inches, embossed in the upper left corner with a woman’s head in profile. Paine’s date is confirmed by the evidence of the paper, which Clemens used for letters written between February and December 1870. The piece most likely dates from September (or later), when he renounced his interest in the land (9 Sept 70 to OC, L4, 193).