Coontz, William Benton (Ben) (1838–92), was an occasional playmate of Clemens’s and a Cadet of Temperance. After graduating from Bacon College (Ohio) in 1856, he was a riverboat pilot, grocer, leather dealer, steamboat agent, and salesman. He was a member of the Hannibal city council from 1871 to 1874, and mayor in 1877. In “Villagers” (102) Clemens notes that Coontz’s son, Robert, attended West Point. In fact, Robert Coontz (1864–1935) graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1885 and became a high-ranking naval officer. When Clemens returned to Hannibal in 1890 for Jane Clemens’s funeral, William Coontz greeted him at the train station. Coontz perhaps was the model for Pete Kruger in “Tom Sawyer’s Conspiracy” (167), since early working notes for that story call the character Pete Koontz (HH&T, 383). In his notes for “Schoolhouse Hill” (MSM, 431), Mark Twain considered portraying Coontz as a “fool—½ idiot” named Flip Coonrod, but the character does not appear in the story (Holcombe, 918–19; Portrait, 506; Hagood and Hagood 1986, 252 n. 7; Cadets of Temperance 1850; “The Funeral of Mrs. Clemens,” unidentified Hannibal newspaper, 30 Oct 90, clipping in Scrapbook 20:126–27, CU-MARK).
