March 11 Sunday – An article ran in the New York Times p.4 about Sam’s father.

JUDGE CLEMENS.

HOW MARK TWAIN’S FATHER COMMANDED SILENCE IN THE COURT-ROOM.

Communication to the St. Louis Republican.

In 1843 at Hannibal, Mo., John Marshal Clemens, the father of Samuel L. Clemens (Mark Twain,) filled the ancient and honorable office known as Justice of the Peace. He was a stern unbending man of splendid common-sense, and was, indeed, the autocrat of the little dingy room on Bird street, where he held his court, meted out justice and general satisfaction to litigants, commanded peace, and preserved order as best he could in the village. This room fairly indicated the rustic simplicity of the people and the frugal and careful manner in which Judge Clemens lived and transacted business. Its furniture consisted of a dry goods box, which served the double purpose of a desk for the Judge and table for the lawyers, three or four rude stools, and a puncheon bench for the jury. And here on court days, when the Judge climbed upon his three-legged stool, rapped on the box with his knuckles and demanded “Silence in the court,” it was fully expected that silence would reign supreme. As a general thing the “rough and ready” characters who had lounged in to see the “wheels of justice” move bowed submissively to the mandates of the Judge and observed the utmost respect for “his Honor.” Allen B. McDonald, an overbearing, turbulent, and quarrelsome man, was an exception, and many a time he had violated the rules and been rebuked by the court.