{{short description|American politician (1825–1897)}}{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2025}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Orion Clemens | image = Orion Clemens.jpg | party = [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] | office = Secretary of [[Nevada Territory]] | nominator = [[Abraham Lincoln]] | term_start = 1861 | term_end = 1864 | birth_date = {{birth date|1825|7|17}} | birth_place = [[Gainesboro, Tennessee]], United States | death_date = {{death date and age|1897|12|11|1825|7|17}} | death_place = [[Keokuk, Iowa]], United States | resting_place = Mount Olivet Cemetery [[Hannibal, Missouri]], United States | spouse = Mary Eleanor Stotts | children = 1 | profession = [[Journalist]] | parents = [[John Marshall Clemens]] (father)<br>[[Jane Lampton Clemens]] (mother) | relatives = [[Mark Twain]] (brother) | signature = Signature of Orion Clemens.png }} '''Orion Clemens''' (July 17, 1825 – December 11, 1897) was an American politician who was the first and only Secretary of the [[Nevada Territory]]. As a member of the [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican Party]], he supported [[Abraham Lincoln]], thinking [[Slavery in the United States|slavery]] was morally wrong. His younger brother Samuel Langhorne Clemens became an author under the [[pen name]] [[Mark Twain]].
Clemens was born in [[Gainesboro, Tennessee]], the eldest child of the family. He married Mary Stotts and had one child, Jennie. She died in 1864, negatively affecting Clemens and his political career. Soon after, he became a [[House of Assembly|state assemblyman]], though he had low pay, so he quit and left Nevada in 1866. Clemens died December 11, 1897 in [[Keokuk, Iowa]].
==Early life== Born in [[Gainesboro, Tennessee]], Orion Clemens was the eldest of seven children. Four of his six siblings died before reaching the age of twenty, leaving only sister Pamela (1827–1904) and his brother Samuel (1835–1910). In 1839, the Clemens family moved to [[Hannibal, Missouri]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.lucidcafe.com/library/95nov/twain.html |title=Mark Twain, American Author and Humorist |access-date=March 12, 2009}}</ref> a port town on the [[Mississippi River]] which was to eventually inspire some of his brother Sam's stories.
As a young man, Clemens worked in his father's general store, and later as an apprentice at a local newspaper, before moving to [[St. Louis, Missouri]]. In St. Louis, Clemens began studying law under attorney [[Edward Bates]], who later served as [[Attorney General of the United States|Attorney General]] for [[President of the United States|President]] [[Abraham Lincoln]]. After his father's death in 1847, Clemens returned to Hannibal and purchased the local newspaper, then became the owner of ''The Hannibal Journal'' where Samuel worked for him. Unable to make a successful living as a journalist there, Clemens relocated to [[Muscatine, Iowa]], in 1853 to run the ''[[Muscatine Journal]]''.
Just a year later he was in [[Keokuk, Iowa]],<ref>[http://www.twainquotes.com/oc.html twainquotes.com], ''The Lost Autobiography of Orion Clemens.''</ref> with new wife Mary Eleanor "Mollie" Stotts, running the "Ben Franklin Book and job printing office".<ref name=LeMaster/> In 1855, he hired his brother Sam at $5 a week to join him there. Sam stayed for a year and a half before growing restless and moving on.<ref name=LeMaster/>
==Political career== By at least 1860 Clemens had come to the conclusion that [[slavery]] was morally wrong, and had worked for the election of [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] [[Abraham Lincoln]].<ref name=Budd>{{cite book|title=Mark Twain: Social Philosopher (Mark Twain & His Circle Book 1)|author=Louis J. Budd|year=2001|publisher=University of Missouri}}</ref> Following Lincoln's election as president that year, Clemens was appointed Secretary to the new government of the [[Territory of Nevada]] at a salary of $1,800 a year. His younger brother Sam accompanied him to Nevada Territory in the summer of 1861. Sam would later write about this journey in his semi-autobiographical book, ''[[Roughing It]].''<ref>Twain, Mark, ''Roughing It,'' 1872. {{ISBN|0-7434-3650-4}}.</ref> Sam drifted into mining and newspaper work, while his brother served as Territorial Secretary and often as acting governor when [[James W. Nye]] was outside the territory. It was while acting as temporary governor that Orion gained political popularity by avoiding a "Sagebrush War" with California over disputed state boundary lines.<ref>Fanning, Philip Ashley, [http://www.twainweb.net/reviews/fanning.html ''Mark Twain and Orion Clemens: Brothers, Partners, Strangers.''] The University of Alabama Press, 2003. {{ISBN|0-8173-1310-9}}.</ref> He built a home in [[Carson City, Nevada|Carson City]] and brought his wife, Mollie, and young daughter, Jennie, to Nevada a year after his arrival. Jennie died there in February 1864. Clemens offered strong support of the newly formed government in Carson City, paying out of his own pocket for the printing of the House and Senate Journals and to furnish the two territorial legislative chambers.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20070704133157/http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/travel/nevada/ori.htm The National Park Service], ''Three Historic Nevada Cities.''</ref>
After the Territory became the thirty-sixth state of the US on October 31, 1864, Clemens tried to secure the nomination for Nevada [[Secretary of State of Nevada|Secretary of State]]. Clemens, "a confirmed teetotaler since his days as a printer's apprentice in St. Louis", took a strong position against the availability of whiskey, which lost him much support.<ref name=Loving/> The death of his only child also permanently dampened the spirits of the often moody Orion, making effective campaigning difficult.<ref name=Loving/>
The following year, he served a brief time as an elected [[House of Assembly|state assemblyman]]. However, the meager salary of a legislator and his inability to develop a successful law practice led him to leave Nevada in August 1866, forced to sell their home for a financial loss.<ref name=Loving/><ref name=Jones/>
==Later life== [[File:Residence of Orion Clemens, Keokuk, Iowa.png|thumb|left|Clemens' residence in Keokuk, Iowa]] After leaving Nevada, Clemens and Mollie tried unsuccessfully to start a new life in [[Meadow Lake, Nevada County, California|Meadow Lake]], California.<ref name=Moreno>{{cite book|title=A Short History of Carson City|author=Richard Moreno|publisher=University of Nevada Press|date=2011}}</ref> They then lived for some time in the eastern United States, where Clemens again attempted to pursue a career in journalism, before finally relocating once again to [[Keokuk, Iowa]], in the mid-1870s, where he lived for the remainder of his life. There he at times practiced law, raised chickens, and worked at inventing various gadgets. Unfortunately, his endeavors were largely unsuccessful, and his main source of income was his brother Sam, who visited often after their mother moved to join Clemens and Mollie.<ref name=LeMaster/><ref name=Jones/>
Orion spent much of his time in Keokuk working on his autobiography, which Sam encouraged him to write as an example of the failure of the American dream.<ref name=LeMaster/><ref name=Jones/> Orion Clemens died December 11, 1897. There are reports that Sam burned portions of his brother's manuscript that he found unsuitable. The work is lost and has never been published.<ref name=Jones/>
==Personal life== Clemens wed Mary Eleanor "Mollie" Stotts in 1854.<ref>{{cite book|title=Images of America Potsdam|editor=Potsdam Public Museum|location=Potsdam, N.Y.|year=2004|publisher=Arcadia Publishing}}</ref> Their only child, a daughter, Jennie, was born in 1855. She was beloved by her uncle Samuel. When the family moved to Nevada, Jennie attended Sierra Seminary in [[Carson City]] about which Sam wrote a piece after visiting her there.<ref name=Jones>{{cite book|title=Haunted Carson City|author=Janet Jones|publisher=The History Press|year=2012}}</ref> Jennie fell ill to [[spotted fever]] on January 29, 1864, and died of [[meningitis]], a complication of the illness, on February 1, 1864.<ref name=Loving>{{cite book|title=Mark Twain:The Adventures of Samuel L. Clemens|author=Jerome Loving|publisher=University of California Press|location=Los Angeles, CA|year=2010}}</ref><ref name=Jones/> Her parents and uncle had stood vigil around her bedside until she died.<ref name=LeMaster>{{cite book|title=The Mark Twain Encyclopedia|url=https://archive.org/details/marktwainencyclo00pedi|url-access=registration|editor1=J. R. LeMaster |editor2=James Darrell Wilson |editor3=Christie Graves Hamric|year=1993|publisher=Garland Publishing, Inc.|location=New York, Ny}}</ref><ref name=Jones/>
==Legacy== The [[Orion Clemens House]], in Carson City, is listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]].
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{s-start}} {{s-off}} {{succession box | title=[[Secretary of State of Nevada|Secretary]] of [[Nevada Territory]] | before=Position created | after=Chauncey N. Noteware<br>{{small|(as Secretary of State)}} | years=1861–1864 }} {{s-end}} {{Nevada Secretary of State}} {{Mark Twain|state=collapsed}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Clemens, Orion}} [[Category:1825 births]] [[Category:1897 deaths]] [[Category:19th-century American newspaper publishers (people)]] [[Category:Clemens family|Orion]] [[Category:Governors of Nevada Territory]] [[Category:Members of the Nevada Assembly]] [[Category:People from Hannibal, Missouri]] [[Category:People from Keokuk, Iowa]] [[Category:People from Tennessee]] [[Category:19th-century American journalists]] [[Category:Tennessee Republicans]] [[Category:Neurological disease deaths in Iowa]] [[Category:Infectious disease deaths in Iowa]] [[Category:Deaths from meningitis in the United States]] [[Category:19th-century American lawyers]] [[Category:19th-century members of the Nevada Legislature]] [[Category:19th-century American male journalists]]