Buchanan family included the households of brothers Robert and Joseph Sylvester Buchanan.
Robert Buchanan (1802–75) came from St. Louis to Hannibal in 1832, acquired 300 acres of land, and established the first tannery in Marion County. Twice married, he had eight children, and Clemens was well acquainted with the three eldest: Henry Charles (b. 1830), a tinner and tinware manufacturer who became a wealthy real estate investor; Edwin or Edward (1834?–?80), an apprentice blacksmith whom Mark Twain called a “dull-witted lout” in chapter 51 of Life on the Mississippi; and Joseph Elija. In “Villagers” (96), Clemens calls Robert Buchanan the proprietor of the Hannibal Journal, although other sources say his brother Joseph was the owner. Both were involved in running the paper. Orion Clemens learned the trade of printing in the Journal office in the early 1840s. When the Buchanan brothers joined the California gold rush in 1850, Pamela Clemens wrote Orion that “Robt. Buchanan has taken the Journal Office and put it into the hands of young Bob and Sam Raymond,” meaning Buchanan’s nephew Robert Sylvester Buchanan and Samuel R. Raymond (29 Jan 50, NPV, in MTBus, 15). In an 1874 letter to Orion, Clemens recalled how “old Robert Buchanan . . . used to set up articles at the case without previously putting them in the form of manuscript. I was lost in admiration of such marvelous intellectual capacity” (9 Dec 74, NPV, in MTB, 1:facing 536). And in some autobiographical notes made about 1898, Clemens wrote: “The printing office—that was the darling place—Buchanan Journal (2 offices) then Courier” [begin page 309] (SLC 1898 [bib21479], 6). Mark Twain’s working notes for “Schoolhouse Hill” (MSM, 431) suggest that he planned to introduce Robert Buchanan as Big Bob Turner, but the story does not include him (Marion Census 1850, 319; Holcombe, 899, 911; Greene, 579; “Interesting Letter from California,” Hannibal Western Union, 9 Jan 51; “The equilibrium of California emigration . . . ,” Hannibal Missouri Courier, 29 Apr 52; Ellsberry 1965 [bib20416], 21–22; Kennedy 1859, 76; Marion Census 1860, 866; Hallock, 46).
Joseph Sylvester (Big Joe) Buchanan (b. 1806?), a native of Missouri, is mentioned in “Villagers” (96). He was a steamboat engineer before turning to journalism. He helped to found Hannibal’s first newspaper, the short-lived Commercial Advertiser, in 1837. In 1840, together with Matthew S. Fife, he began publishing a newspaper that went through several name changes before becoming the Hannibal Journal in March 1842. In January 1850 Big Joe turned the Journal over to his son, Robert Sylvester Buchanan, and joined the gold rush. His name appears in Clemens’s 1897 notebook amid plans for “Tom Sawyer’s Conspiracy,” but no character based on him figures in the story (Marion Census 1850, 325; Holcombe, 898, 899, 987; MTB, 1:27; MTBus, 15;“The ‘Journal’ . . ,” Hannibal Missouri Courier, 31 Jan 50; Wecter 1952, 223; NB 41, CU-MARK, TS p. 60).
Argyle (’Gyle) Buchanan (b. 1806?), mentioned in “Villagers” (96), was a farmer near Hannibal. His exact relation to Robert and Joseph Sylvester Buchanan is not known (Marion Census 1850, 305).
Robert Sylvester (Young Bob) Buchanan (b. 1829), mentioned in “Villagers” (96), was the son of Joseph Sylvester Buchanan. He became a printer and, in 1850, co-proprietor of the Hannibal Journal with Samuel R. Raymond. They dissolved their partnership in 1851 and sold the newspaper office to Orion Clemens. Young Bob and Urban E. Hicks, a Journal printer, were expelled from the Methodist church for “going to see Dan. Rice’s Circus” (Hicks to SLC, 30 Mar 86, CU-MARK). Working notes for “Schoolhouse Hill” (MSM, 431) suggest that Mark Twain planned to portray him as Little Bob Turner, but the character does not appear in the story (Marion Census 1850, 318; Marion Census 1860, 208; “Dissolution,” Hannibal Missouri Courier, 6 Mar 51; Wecter 1952, 239).
Joseph Elija (Little Joe) Buchanan (b. 1830), mentioned in “Villagers” (96), was the son of Robert Buchanan. He worked as a printer’s devil on the Hannibal Journal in 1850 and later became a steamboat engineer. In 1897 Mark Twain included Buchanan’s name in a notebook list of Hannibal people and incidents he planned to use in writing “Tom Sawyer’s Conspiracy.” He did not use Buchanan in the story, however (Greene, 579; Ellsberry 1965 [bib20416], 21–22; Wecter 1952, 223; Honeyman, 6; Stone, Davidson, and McIntosh, 62; NB 41, CU-MARK, TS p. 60).
