{{short description|American lawyer (1798–1847)}}{{Infobox person | name = John Marshall Clemens | birth_date = {{birth date|1798|8|11}} | birth_place = [[Campbell County, Virginia|Campbell]], [[Virginia]] | death_date = {{death date and age|1847|3|24|1798|8|11}} | death_place = [[Marion, Missouri|Marion]], [[Missouri]] | known_for = being the father of [[Mark Twain]] and [[Orion Clemens]] | spouse = [[Jane Lampton Clemens]] }}
'''John Marshall Clemens''' (August 11, 1798 – March 24, 1847) was the father of author [[Mark Twain]] and of journalist and politician [[Orion Clemens]], who was the first and only Secretary of the [[Nevada Territory]].
==Biography== Clemens was the scion of a [[Virginia]] family that owned both land and [[slavery in the United States|slaves]] in that state. The Clemens were said to be a [[Cornish American]] family originally from [[Looe]] in [[Cornwall]], England.<ref>Payton, Philip. The Cornish Overseas, 2005</ref> However, the Looe museum provides evidence showing that they instead emigrated from [[Corby]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Was Mark Twain Cornish?|url=http://www.looemuseum.co.uk/1/post/2021/02/was-mark-twain-cornish.html|access-date=2021-07-01|website=Looe Old Guildhall Museum and Gaol|language=en}}</ref> He was born in [[Campbell County, Virginia]], the eldest of five children, to Samuel B. and Pamela Goggin Clemens.<ref name="TwainEnc">{{citation |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zW1k-XS6XLEC&pg=PA153 |pages=153–4 |title=The Mark Twain encyclopedia |author=Oliver and Goldena Howard |year=1993|isbn=9780824072124 }}</ref> He was named after U.S. Chief Justice [[John Marshall]].
His father died in 1805, whereupon the family moved to [[Kentucky]]. Pamela Clemens remarried in 1809, and John Clemens started working at age 11, as a clerk at an [[iron mine]].<ref name=TwainEnc/> He undertook the study of law in a local law office and became a licensed lawyer at the age of 21.<ref name=TwainEnc/> At that same age, he became legally responsible for financial obligations deemed to be owed to his Kentucky stepfather for the costs of supporting the Clemens children and keeping family slaves. The burden of this debt left him without financial resources.<ref name=TwainEnc/>
He married [[Jane Lampton Clemens|Jane Lampton]] on May 6, 1823, in [[Columbia, Kentucky|Columbia]], [[Adair County, Kentucky]].<ref>"Kentucky, County Marriages, 1797-1954," database with images, FamilySearch.org</ref> She was a religiously conservative Presbyterian, while he was an agnostic freethinker who admired [[Thomas Paine]]. They moved to [[Fentress County, Tennessee]], where he practiced law, operated a general store, and served as a [[county commissioner]], [[county clerk]], and acting [[attorney general]] as a [[Whig Party (United States)|conservative Whig]]. From 1832 to 1835 he was postmaster in [[Pall Mall, Tennessee|Pall Mall]].<ref name=TwainEnc/> He speculated unsuccessfully in land and opened four stores which were unsuccessful.<ref name=Bush>Harold K. Bush, ''Mark Twain and the Spiritual Crisis of His Age'' (2007) pp. 30–36.</ref>
In 1835 the Clemens family, which by then included five children, moved to [[Missouri]], initially to the town of [[Florida, Missouri|Florida]], where his son [[Mark Twain|Samuel]],<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/first/h/hoffman-twain.html |title=Inventing Mark Twain |date=April 27, 1997 |author=Andrew Hoffmann |newspaper=New York Times }}
</ref> who was to become famous as the author Mark Twain, was born on November 30, 1835. John Clemens practiced law and operated a general store in Florida for several years before moving to [[Hannibal, Missouri|Hannibal]] in 1839. His retail business ventures were not successful, but he was active in civic affairs.<ref name=TwainEnc/> He served as a steamboat and railroad commissioner and became a [[county judge]]. He served in the Missouri militia but did not serve in the debacle of the [[Honey War]].
John Clemens was the father of five sons (including [[Orion Clemens|Orion]]) and two daughters. He died in March 1847 from [[pleurisy]] and [[pneumonia]]. His widow suspected syphilis was involved and ordered an autopsy which the young Samuel Clemens may have witnessed.<ref name=TwainEnc/><ref name=Bush/>
==Cabin== The cabin in which the Clemens family is believed to have lived in Fentress County, Tennessee, is displayed as part of the collection of the [[Museum of Appalachia]] in Norris, Tennessee.<ref>Information obtained from museum interpretive sign inside the cabin, 1 May 2009.</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
{{Mark Twain|state=collapsed}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Clemens, John Marshall}} [[Category:1798 births]] [[Category:1847 deaths]] [[Category:County commissioners in Tennessee]] [[Category:Missouri lawyers]] [[Category:American people of Cornish descent]] [[Category:Clemens family|John Marshall]] [[Category:People from Campbell County, Virginia]] [[Category:County officials in Missouri]] [[Category:Tennessee lawyers]] [[Category:19th-century American politicians]] [[Category:People from Columbia, Kentucky]] [[Category:People from Pall Mall, Tennessee]] [[Category:19th-century American lawyers]] [[Category:Deaths from pleurisy]] [[Category:Deaths from pneumonia in Missouri]] [[Category:Merchants from Tennessee]] [[Category:Land speculators]] [[Category:Merchants from Missouri]]