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The John Marshall Clemens law ledger that was given to the Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum in 2006 is a valuable historical book, because it contains detailed records of how a justice of the peace worked in the 1840s, according to Tim Jon Semmerling, Ph.D., author of an article about the ledger.
At that time a justice of the peace was not required to keep permanent records of slavery cases, which makes the Clemens book even more valuable as history of that era, Semmerling said.
The ledger was donated to the local museum after it was found by Frank and Donna Salter in some boxes of books bought at a city auction 12 years earlier.
J.M. Clemens, the father of Samuel Clemens, served as Hannibal’s justice of the peace for several years, and the ledger covers his work from 1844 to 1846. The ledger shows how law developed in the frontier, Semmerling said, “and what makes it exciting is it is Mark Twain’s father.”
The Mark Twain Museum has five copies of the article written by Semmerling, and the public may read it there, Semmerling said. The article is published in booklet form and titled “Western Legal History,” Volume 21, Number 1, Winter/Spring 2008.
Reporting one of his goals is to find new ways to expand historical knowledge, Semmerling explained that “one of the interesting things that came out of the article is that lawyers, when they came out west, didn’t have law to practice. They had to enter into enterprises they didn’t know about. Clemens had to open a store, which he was not good at.” People “tried to speculate in land and open stores, so it was not unusual for him to go broke.”
Clemens was an example of a “booster” Semmerling said, and one purpose of the article was to “expand the idea of boosterism. It was an idea brought up by historian Daniel Boorstin. He was a big historian of western expansion. His idea was people would go out to the west and build towns and get people from the east coast to bring money and build the next London.
“This ledger is showing there were a lot of people who tried to do the very same thing, like John Marshall Clemens, trying to get Hannibal to become the next metropolis. He followed the trek of jurists from the east to the frontier. ... Clemens did not fail, but he just was not able to become famous like others. We cannot take him out of boosterism because he was unsuccessful.”
The ledger and article together serve several purposes, Semmerling said. The first is expanding the definition of “boosterism” to include people such as Clemens.
Another purpose is to illustrate the types of cases that were heard by the justice of the peace. Many involved contracts, Semmerling said, because the frontier “was built with reckless abandon of people borrowing from each other. They would borrow goods and go in debt. Sometimes the town did not boom, and people had to go to Clemens’ court and sue for these notes.”
In one case, Semmerling said, “the St. Louis Republican reported that Clemens quelled a disturbance in the courtroom. Someone shot a gun. Clemens grabbed his mallet and hit him over the head.”
Clemens also heard slavery cases. Since the justice of peace heard these cases but was not required to keep permanent records of them, “there are no good records,” Semmerling said. “But Clemens did keep good records. Historically this ledger is very important. It talks about how he decided to deal with certain slavery issues, for example, a slave being held for insolence.”
“He (Clemens) was an extremely meticulous record keeper,” Semmerling said. The ledger provides a record of what was important to the common people in the frontier town of Hannibal. “What seems to be minor squabbles over small amounts of $3 or $7 was probably momentous in these people’s lives” because in the 1840s $7 “is equivalent to the amount of work and time for an unskilled laborer to make $1,400 in 2005. ... For some in the frontier, where money was scarce, having to pay this out or losing this to bad credit could be debilitating.” In one case a man could not afford the fine and had to give up his freedom instead.
Semmerling wrote the article to “avoid surrendering the John Marshall Clemens law ledger fully to Twainiana, but rather share it with legal history and studies” and also to “celebrate the ledger as an artifact of American legal history.”
The John Marshall Clemens law ledger that was given to the Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum in 2006 is a valuable historical book, because it contains detailed records of how a justice of the peace worked in the 1840s, according to Tim Jon Semmerling, Ph.D., author of an article about the ledger.
At that time a justice of the peace was not required to keep permanent records of slavery cases, which makes the Clemens book even more valuable as history of that era, Semmerling said.
The ledger was donated to the local museum after it was found by Frank and Donna Salter in some boxes of books bought at a city auction 12 years earlier.
J.M. Clemens, the father of Samuel Clemens, served as Hannibal’s justice of the peace for several years, and the ledger covers his work from 1844 to 1846. The ledger shows how law developed in the frontier, Semmerling said, “and what makes it exciting is it is Mark Twain’s father.”
The Mark Twain Museum has five copies of the article written by Semmerling, and the public may read it there, Semmerling said. The article is published in booklet form and titled “Western Legal History,” Volume 21, Number 1, Winter/Spring 2008.
Reporting one of his goals is to find new ways to expand historical knowledge, Semmerling explained that “one of the interesting things that came out of the article is that lawyers, when they came out west, didn’t have law to practice. They had to enter into enterprises they didn’t know about. Clemens had to open a store, which he was not good at.” People “tried to speculate in land and open stores, so it was not unusual for him to go broke.”
Clemens was an example of a “booster” Semmerling said, and one purpose of the article was to “expand the idea of boosterism. It was an idea brought up by historian Daniel Boorstin. He was a big historian of western expansion. His idea was people would go out to the west and build towns and get people from the east coast to bring money and build the next London.
“This ledger is showing there were a lot of people who tried to do the very same thing, like John Marshall Clemens, trying to get Hannibal to become the next metropolis. He followed the trek of jurists from the east to the frontier. ... Clemens did not fail, but he just was not able to become famous like others. We cannot take him out of boosterism because he was unsuccessful.”
The ledger and article together serve several purposes, Semmerling said. The first is expanding the definition of “boosterism” to include people such as Clemens.
Another purpose is to illustrate the types of cases that were heard by the justice of the peace. Many involved contracts, Semmerling said, because the frontier “was built with reckless abandon of people borrowing from each other. They would borrow goods and go in debt. Sometimes the town did not boom, and people had to go to Clemens’ court and sue for these notes.”
In one case, Semmerling said, “the St. Louis Republican reported that Clemens quelled a disturbance in the courtroom. Someone shot a gun. Clemens grabbed his mallet and hit him over the head.”
Clemens also heard slavery cases. Since the justice of peace heard these cases but was not required to keep permanent records of them, “there are no good records,” Semmerling said. “But Clemens did keep good records. Historically this ledger is very important. It talks about how he decided to deal with certain slavery issues, for example, a slave being held for insolence.”
“He (Clemens) was an extremely meticulous record keeper,” Semmerling said. The ledger provides a record of what was important to the common people in the frontier town of Hannibal. “What seems to be minor squabbles over small amounts of $3 or $7 was probably momentous in these people’s lives” because in the 1840s $7 “is equivalent to the amount of work and time for an unskilled laborer to make $1,400 in 2005. ... For some in the frontier, where money was scarce, having to pay this out or losing this to bad credit could be debilitating.” In one case a man could not afford the fine and had to give up his freedom instead.
Semmerling wrote the article to “avoid surrendering the John Marshall Clemens law ledger fully to Twainiana, but rather share it with legal history and studies” and also to “celebrate the ledger as an artifact of American legal history.”
