Beebe family.
William B. Beebe was a forwarding and commission agent who kept a store near the Hannibal steamboat landing. He is mentioned in “Jane Lampton Clemens” (89) and in “Villagers” (104) as the man who bought Jenny, the Clemens family’s slave. He appears as Bat Bradish, the slave trader, in “Tom Sawyer’s Conspiracy” (146–213 passim) and is alluded to as “the nigger-trader” in “Schoolhouse Hill” (215, 228). Between 1843 and 1847, John Marshall Clemens twice battled Beebe in court over financial disagreements (Henry Beebe to SLC, 14 Nov 1908, CU-MARK; Wecter 1952, 111–13).
Henry Beebe (b. 1836) was William’s son. In “Letter to William Bowen” (20, 21), Clemens recalled details about Henry that he later used in “Schoolhouse Hill,” where he portrayed him as the bully Henry Bascom (214–28 passim). A working note for that story refers to both father and son: “Henry Bascom (Beebe) the bully new rich man & slave trader” (MSM, 432). In 1908 Beebe asked Clemens whether he recalled him as a schoolmate “64 years ago,” adding “I have not visited Hannibal since 1852 and have lost track of all but you.” He said that he took “great pleasure” in reading Mark Twain’s books, “and oftimes thought I recognized the characters mentioned in them” (Beebe to SLC, 14 Nov 1908, CU-MARK).
