Mark Twain, A Biography - Volume I, Part 1: 1835-1866 | Page 6

as the next one selected, which was Jamestown,
Fentress County, still farther toward the Eastward Mountains. Yet
Jamestown had the advantage of being brand new, and in the eye of his
fancy John Clemens doubtless saw it the future metropolis of east
Tennessee, with himself its foremost jurist and citizen. He took an
immediate and active interest in the development of the place,
established the county-seat there, built the first Court House, and was
promptly elected as circuit clerk of the court.
It was then that he decided to lay the foundation of a fortune for
himself and his children by acquiring Fentress County land. Grants
could be obtained in those days at the expense of less than a cent an
acre, and John Clemens believed that the years lay not far distant when
the land would increase in value ten thousand, twenty, perhaps even a
hundred thousandfold. There was no wrong estimate in that. Land
covered with the finest primeval timber, and filled with precious
minerals, could hardly fail to become worth millions, even though his
entire purchase of 75,000 acres probably did not cost him more than
$500. The great tract lay about twenty nines to the southward of
Jamestown. Standing in the door of the Court House he had built,
looking out over the "Knob" of the Cumberland Mountains toward his
vast possessions, he said:
"Whatever befalls me now, my heirs are secure. I may not live to see
these acres turn into silver and gold, but my children will."

Such was the creation of that mirage of wealth, the "Tennessee land,"
which all his days and for long afterward would lie just ahead--a golden
vision, its name the single watchword of the family fortunes--the dream
fading with years, only materializing at last as a theme in a story of
phantom riches, The Gilded Age.
Yet for once John Clemens saw clearly, and if his dream did not come
true he was in no wise to blame. The land is priceless now, and a
corporation of the Clemens heirs is to-day contesting the title of a thin
fragment of it--about one thousand acres--overlooked in some survey.
Believing the future provided for, Clemens turned his attention to
present needs. He built himself a house, unusual in its style and
elegance. It had two windows in each room, and its walls were covered
with plastering, something which no one in Jamestown had ever seen
before. He was regarded as an aristocrat. He wore a swallow-tail coat
of fine blue jeans, instead of the coarse brown native-made cloth. The
blue-jeans coat was ornamented with brass buttons and cost one dollar
and twenty-five cents a yard, a high price for that locality and time. His
wife wore a calico dress for company, while the neighbor wives wore
homespun linsey-woolsey. The new house was referred to as the
Crystal Palace. When John and Jane Clemens attended balls--there
were continuous balls during the holidays--they were considered the
most graceful dancers.
Jamestown did not become the metropolis he had dreamed. It attained
almost immediately to a growth of twenty-five houses--mainly log
houses-- and stopped there. The country, too, was sparsely settled; law
practice was slender and unprofitable, the circuit-riding from court to
court was very bad for one of his physique. John Clemens saw his
reserve of health and funds dwindling, and decided to embark in
merchandise. He built himself a store and put in a small country stock
of goods. These he exchanged for ginseng, chestnuts, lampblack,
turpentine, rosin, and other produce of the country, which he took to
Louisville every spring and fall in six-horse wagons. In the mean time
he would seem to have sold one or more of his slaves, doubtless to
provide capital. There was a second baby now--a little girl,

Pamela,--born in September, 1827. Three years later, May 1830,
another little girl, Margaret, came. By this time the store and home
were in one building, the store occupying one room, the household
requiring two--clearly the family fortunes were declining.
About a year after little Margaret was born, John Clemens gave up
Jamestown and moved his family and stock of goods to a point nine
miles distant, known as the Three Forks of Wolf. The Tennessee land
was safe, of course, and would be worth millions some day, but in the
mean time the struggle for daily substance was becoming hard.
He could not have remained at the Three Forks long, for in 1832 we
find him at still another place, on the right bank of Wolf River, where a
post-office called Pall Mall was established, with John Clemens as
postmaster, usually addressed as "Squire" or "Judge." A store was run
in connection with the postoffice. At Pall Mall, in June, 1832, another
boy, Benjamin, was born.
The family at this