George Griffin (butler)

Last updated

George H. Griffin was an African-American born into slavery in Baltimore, Maryland in 1849. [1] In 1874, as a free man, Griffin came to work for Samuel L. Clemens (a.k.a. Mark Twain). Details of Griffin's early life remain largely unknown. But there is much information about Griffin's later life, primarily from Clemens's letters and unpublished memoirs. For example, according to Clemens' unpublished manuscript A Family Sketch, Griffin "was a Maryland slave by birth; the Proclamation set him free, & as a young fellow he saw his fair share of the Civil War as body servant to General Devens".

Griffin was a Deacon in the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church, active political leader, and family man. [2] He married servant Rhoda Marrian Hayes about 1871, Hartford, Connecticut. He was remembered as having a knack for making money and lending funds back to the African American community. [3] Clemens describes him as:

...handsome, well built, shrewd, wise, polite, always good-natured, cheerful to gaiety, honest, religious, a cautious truth-speaker, devoted friend to the family, champion of its interests.... He was the peace-maker in the kitchen—in fact the peace-keeper, for by his good sense & right spirit & mollifying tongue he adjusted disputes in that quarter before they reached the quarrel-point.

Griffin worked as the Clemens' family butler for 17 years and appears to have been very close to the family (even after Griffin purchased a house in the city, he maintained a room at Clemens's home in Hartford). This was the period in which Clemens wrote Adventures of Huckleberry Finn , and Griffin may have been an inspiration for the character Jim, one of two major characters in the novel. He died in 1897. [4]

Related Research Articles

<i>Adventures of Huckleberry Finn</i> 1885 novel by Mark Twain

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a novel by American author Mark Twain, which was first published in the United Kingdom in December 1884 and in the United States in February 1885.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Twain</span> American author and humorist (1835–1910)

Samuel Langhorne Clemens, known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, essayist, entrepreneur, publisher and lecturer. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has produced," with William Faulkner calling him "the father of American literature." His novels include The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and its sequel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), with the latter often called the "Great American Novel." Twain also wrote A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889) and Pudd'nhead Wilson (1894), and co-wrote The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today (1873) with Charles Dudley Warner.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Ethan Porter</span> American artist

Charles Ethan Porter was an American painter who specialized in still life painting. A student at the National Academy of Design in New York City, he was one of the first African Americans to exhibit there. He was the only African-American artist at the turn of that century who painted in still life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jean Clemens</span> Youngest daughter of Mark Twain

Jane Lampton "Jean" Clemens was the daughter of Samuel Langhorne Clemens and Olivia Langdon Clemens. She founded or worked with a number of societies for the protection of animals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum</span> Historic house in Missouri, United States

The Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum is located on 206-208 Hill Street, Hannibal, Missouri, on the west bank of the Mississippi River in the United States. It was the home of Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known as author Mark Twain, from 1844 to 1853. Clemens found the inspiration for many of his stories, including the white picket fence, while living here. It has been open to the public as a museum since 1912, and was designated a National Historic Landmark on December 29, 1962. It is located in the Mark Twain Historic District.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Olivia Langdon Clemens</span> Wife of Mark Twain

Olivia Langdon Clemens was the wife of the American author Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known under his pen name Mark Twain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Twain in popular culture</span>

Mark Twain's legacy includes awards, events, a variety of memorials and namesakes, and numerous works of art, entertainment, and media.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph Twichell</span>

Reverend Joseph Hopkins Twichell was a writer and Congregational minister from Hartford, Connecticut. He was a close friend of writer Mark Twain for over forty years and is believed to be the model for the character "Harris" in A Tramp Abroad.

Mark Twain: The Musical is a stage musical biography of Mark Twain that had a ten-year summertime run in Elmira, NY and Hartford, CT (1987–1995) and was telecast on a number of public television stations. An original cast CD was released by Premier Recordings in 1988, and LML Music in 2009 issued a newly mastered and complete version of the score. Video and DVD versions of the show are currently in release.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Susy Clemens</span> Eldest daughter of Samuel Clemens

Olivia Susan Clemens was the second child and eldest daughter of Samuel Clemens, who wrote under the pen name Mark Twain, and his wife Olivia Langdon Clemens. She inspired some of her father's works, at 13 wrote her own biography of him, which he later published in his autobiography, and acted as a literary critic. Her father was heartbroken when she died of spinal meningitis at age 24.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clara Clemens</span> American; daughter of Mark Twain; opera singer

Clara Langhorne Clemens Samossoud, was an American concert singer, and the daughter of Samuel Clemens, who wrote as Mark Twain. She managed his estate and guarded his legacy after his death as his only surviving child. She was married first to Ossip Gabrilowitsch, then to Jacques Samossoud after Gabrilowitsch's death. She wrote biographies of Gabrilowitsch and of her father. In her later life, she became a Christian Scientist.

Jim (<i>Huckleberry Finn</i>) Fictional character

James "Jim" is one of two major fictional characters in the classic 1884 novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. The book chronicles his and Huckleberry's raft journey down the Mississippi River in the antebellum Southern United States. Jim is a black man who is fleeing slavery; "Huck", a 13-year-old white boy, joins him in spite of his own conventional understanding and the law.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas K. Beecher</span> American minister and teacher (1824–1900)

Thomas Kinnicut Beecher was a Congregationalist preacher and the principal of several schools. Also a Congregational minister, his father moved the family from Beecher's birthplace of Litchfield, Connecticut, to Boston, Massachusetts, and Cincinnati, Ohio, by 1832.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Twain bibliography</span> About the works of Mark Twain

Samuel Langhorne Clemens ,⁣ well known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist. Twain is noted for his novels Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), which has been called the "Great American Novel," and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876). He also wrote poetry, short stories, essays, and non-fiction. His big break was "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" (1867).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Twain Cave</span>

Mark Twain Cave — originally McDowell's Cave — is a show cave located near Hannibal, Missouri. It was named for author Mark Twain whose real name was Samuel Langhorne Clemens. Clemens lived in Hannibal from 1839 to 1853, age 4 to 17. It is the oldest operating show cave in the state, giving tours continuously since 1886. Along with nearby Cameron Cave, it became a registered National Natural Landmark in 1972, with a citation reading "Exceptionally good examples of the maze type of cavern development." The cave — as "McDougal's Cave" — plays an important role in the novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) by Mark Twain and was renamed in honor of the author in 1880.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Karl Gerhardt</span> American sculptor

Karl Gerhardt (1853-1940) was an American sculptor, best known for his death mask of President Ulysses S. Grant and a portrait bust of Mark Twain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Twain House</span> Historic house in Connecticut, United States

The Mark Twain House and Museum in Hartford, Connecticut, was the home of Samuel Langhorne Clemens and his family from 1874 to 1891. It was designed by Edward Tuckerman Potter and built in the American High Gothic style. Clemens biographer Justin Kaplan has called it "part steamboat, part medieval fortress and part cuckoo clock."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stormfield</span> Final residence (1908–1910) of Mark Twain in Redding, Connecticut, US

Stormfield was the mansion built in Redding, Connecticut for author Samuel Clemens, best known as Mark Twain, who lived there from 1908 until his death in 1910. He derived the property's name from the short story "Extract from Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven". The building was destroyed in a 1923 fire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cindy Lovell</span> American educator and writer

Cindy Lovell is an American educator and writer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jane Lampton Clemens</span> Mother of author Mark Twain

Jane Lampton Clemens was the mother of author Mark Twain. She was the inspiration of the character "Aunt Polly" in Twain's 1876 novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. She was regarded as a "cheerful, affectionate, and strong woman" with a "gift for storytelling" and as the person from whom Mark Twain inherited his sense of humor.

References

  1. George, Griffin. George Griffin in household of Samuel Clemens, Hartford, Hartford, Connecticut. Hartford, Hartford, Connecticut: National Archives and Records Administration. Retrieved 19 February 2021.
  2. "After Long Absence, Twain's Butler Is to Return", New York Times (6/18/1994): 27.
  3. Curtis, Nancy (1996). "Black heritage sites: an African American odyssey and finder's guide", p.279
  4. Neyer, Constance. "The butler BEHIND Mark Twain: George Griffin was a part of Samuel Clemens' family and remains a key figure in Hartford's African-American heritage". No. 6 February 1994. Hartford Courant. ProQuest   2277077693 . Retrieved 28 September 2021.