Fall – The Clemens family received notice of the sale of part of their Tennessee Land, the asset that the late John Marshall Clemens had put so much faith in. The farmer who purchased the land then discovered it unfit to farm, so Orion went to Tennessee to resolve the issue. His trip took two months and was a total failure. Soon after his return the Journal office burned. Orion moved it to the Hill Street house where the family lived; they all got the paper back up and running [A. Hoffman 29].

Colonel Edward Zane Carroll Judson (1823-1886), who wrote under the pseudonym of Ned Buntline, came to Hannibal to lecture on “Cuba and Her Martyrs.” Judson was the author of The Black Avenger of the Spanish Main, to which Sam referred in his sketch “Jul’us Caesar” and also in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer [Wecter 195; Gribben 362]. Note: Fifteen year old Sam Clemens would undoubtedly have seen Judson speak, having read his “dime novel” works, which Sam later called “Wildcat Literature.” Judson’s arrival was heralded by Orion’s Hannibal Journal.