Tom Blankenship, I believe, is generally regarded as Clemens' model for
Huck.

----------
> From: Ron Roizen <[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Klapproth and title correction (fwd)
> Date: Monday, October 11, 1999 10:05 AM
>
> Speaking of Twain.  Some of you will know that I now live in the small
> mining town of Wallace in north Idaho.  It's a place with lots of history
> (see, for a sampling thereof, http://www.roizen.com/ron/Big-Trouble.htm
).
>
>
> I've been reading May Arkwright Hutton's book, which is a contemporary
and
> vigorously anti-mine-owners account of the labor troubles that emerged in
> this area around the turn of the 20th century (M.A.H., _The Coeur
d'Alenes
> Or A Tale of the Modern Inquisition in Idaho_, which was originally
> published in 1900 and is now available in its entirety as an included
> reprint in James W. Montgomery, _Liberated Woman : a life of May
Arkwright
> Hutton_, Farfield, Washington: Ye Galleon Press, 1985 [originally, 1974].
>
> No (to my knowledge, at least) Twain never visited Wallace.  Hutton's
book
> offers a cameo of a feller known around here as "Uncle Tonk" however --
> real name, Addison Orvando Toncray.  Tonk, according to Hutton, lived in
> Murray, a once thriving mining community not too far from Wallace that is
> now but a mere shadow of its former self.  Hutton says Tonk went to
school
> with Clemens and later became the model for Huck Finn.
>
> Hutton tells that Tonk became a besotted alcoholic.  "He was once a
bright
> man, with a fair educatipon, but drink and other vices had shattered his
> intellect so that now he does not keep to a subject two minutes at a
time.
> In fact, he's a walking temperance lecturer, but he informed Jock that he
> had not taken a drink for four months, and said he never would again" (p.
> 190).  According to this brief picture, Tonk managed to "eke out an
> existence doing chores, taking care of gentlemen's offices and running
> erands" (p. 190).
>
> Ron
>
>
> ----------
> > From: Jon Stephen Miller <[log in to unmask]>
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> > Subject: Re: Klapproth and title correction (fwd)
> > Date: Monday, October 11, 1999 9:12 AM
> >
> > Someone might be interested in this.
> >
> > ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> > Date: Fri, 8 Oct 1999 14:58:32 -0500
> > From: Barbara Schmidt <[log in to unmask]>
> > Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> > Subject: Re: Klapproth and title correction
> >
> > A title correction on the Kelsey citation -- It should be _Drinking
with
> > Twain_.  Unpaginated; privately published with the author's name as
> Laurel
> > O'Connor which I believe is a pseudonym for Laurabell Reed Connor.
> > Copyrighted by Frank Edward Kelsey in 1936.  The booklet appears to be
> > memoirs of Frank Kelsey who signs the booklet at the end.
> >
> > The book has numerous factual errors (I think!) including giving Twain
a
> > "half-brother" named H. L. Clemens who lived in Louisville, KY at
Center
> > and Walnut Street.  "Klaproth" and Twain supposedly visited H. L.
Clemens
> > and song composer William Shakspeare Hayes during the trip to Kentucky.
> >
> > Kelsey's background is yet unclear, but I gather that in his later life
> he
> > might have worked as a company representative for OLD CROW. Is this
> memoir
> > the only documented basis for the OLD CROW ads as well as the source of
> the
> > misspelling in the ads??
> >
> > Unfortunately, there is no mention of Twain's favorite scotch.
> >
> > As to the SLC to Fuller correspondence on whiskey "mills":
> >
> > One letter is online at:
> >
> > http://www.tarleton.edu/~schmidt/19230709.html
> >
> > The above letter is believed to have been misdated in the news release
> and
> > probably falls into the category with the following correspondence:
> >
> > Fuller to SLC, 23 Feb 1880;
> > SLC to Fuller, 24 Feb 1880;
> > Clinton Furbish to Fuller, 21 Apr 1880;
> > SLC to Fuller, 22 Apr 1880
> >
> > Barb