Once finding one of his jacks eating his growing corn,
he put his dog upon him. The jack was old and small and shaggy. He
turned upon the dog sent after him and seizing the aggressor by the hair
at his back lifted him from the ground and maintaining his dignity
trotted out of the corn-field carrying the squirming dog. That jack was
pensioned. He was given his full supply of corn in winter and granted
the freedom of the meadows and the mountainsides in summer. Old Coonrod
would never sell him.
John M. Clemens, Mark Twain's father, lived in Jamestown when his
"dwelling constituted one-fifteenth of Obedstown." He and Coonrod Pile
were close friends, Pile helping elect Clemens to be the first Circuit
Court Clerk of Fentress county. Both were firm believers in the future
value of the timber, coal, iron and copper to be found in the mountains.
In the 30's both acquired all the acreage their resources would permit.
Mark Twain makes "Squire Si Hawkins" of "The Gilded Age,"
[Footnote: Copyright by Clara Gahrilowitsch and Susan Lee Warner.
Harper & Bros., Publishers, N. Y. Permission is also granted by the
Estate of Samuel L. Clemens and the Mark Twain Co.]
conceded to be drawn from the life of his father, struggle to keep the
value or the land unknown to the "natives." Squire Hawkins confides to
his wife that the "black stuff that crops out on the bank of the branch"
was coal, and tells of his effort to keep a neighbor from building a
chimney out of it.
Pages:
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61