Mark Twain

Mark Twain. . , From 1857 to 1861, Samuel Clemens - later to be better known as Mark Twain - navigated the Mississippi River, first as a cub pilot for steamboats, then as a pilot. Working on at least 15 different boats, Twain made 120 trips between New Orleans and St. Louis with New Madrid as a frequent stop to deliver goods to local merchant James Kenyon Robbins., The professional relationship soon became personal, as Twain befriended Robbins, and his family including wife, Susanna "Susan" Lazell Robbins, their son, James, (born 1846) and daughter, Meriam "Myra" Robbins (born 1848), who lived on a plantation near Point Pleasant, Missouri, just south of New Madrid, and near the Lazell family home., By her 12th birthday in 1860, Myra was already quite attractive. According to a family descendant, that is when Twain arranged for his boat's cook to bake Myra a birthday cake. Twain docked his steamboat at the plantation and the cook delivered the cake., The following spring, any further pleasantries between Clemens and the young Myra were interrupted by the Civil War. With the Mississippi River closed to navigation, Clemens went to Nevada to work for his brother, Orion. The following year Robbins moved his family to St. Louis where Myra grew into a beautiful young lady of society., Twain's interest in Myra did not fade with distance., He later approached Robbins about courting Myra. Robbins rebuffed the request telling Clemens, "he didn't think much of river men." That didn't stop Twain from thinking about Myra. As late as 1867, he refers to her and her mother in a letter posted from New York to Robbins' business partner, William Bowen, that he still dreamed of Myra., Bowen's daughter later recalled it was family knowledge "that Miriam (Myra), a daughter of Mrs. Robbins, was one of Clemens' sweethearts and something of a beauty.", Twain's closeness to the James K. Robbins family is reflected in his work. He named a character "Old Robbins" in his "Grandfather's Ram" story in Roughing It. A Twain scholar suggests Myra Robbins partly inspired the character Becky Thatcher in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer., Twain mentions stopping at New Madrid in 1882 in his book Life on the Mississippi. By then a married man, there is no mention of the Robbins family and the beautiful young Myra.