Orion Clemens

Orion Clemens (July 17, 1825 – December 11, 1897) was the first and only Secretary of the Nevada Territory. His younger brother Samuel Langhorne Clemens became a famous author under the pen name Mark Twain.

Early life

Born in Tennessee, Orion Clemens was the oldest of seven children. Four of his six siblings died before reaching the age of twenty, leaving only sister Pamela (1827–1904) and his brother Samuel (1835–1910). In 1839, the Clemens family moved to Hannibal, Missouri, a port town on the Mississippi River which was to eventually inspire some of his brother Sam's stories.

As a young man, Clemens worked in his father's general store, and later as an apprentice at a local newspaper, before moving to St. Louis, Missouri. In St. Louis, Clemens began studying law under attorney Edward Bates, who later served as Attorney General for President Abraham Lincoln. After his father's death in 1847, Clemens returned to Hannibal and purchased the local newspaper, then became the owner of The Hannibal Journal where Samuel worked for him. Unable to make a successful living as a journalist there, Clemens relocated to Muscatine, Iowa, in 1853 to run the Muscatine Journal. Just a year later he was in Keokuk, Iowa, with new wife Mary Eleanor "Mollie" Stotts, running the "Ben Franklin Book and job printing office". In 1855, he hired his brother Sam at $5 a week to join him there. Sam stayed for a year and a half before growing restless and moving on.