With Halley’s Comet blazing in the night sky, Mark Twain, AKA Sam Clemens, was born in a two-room shack in Florida, Missouri in 1835. When someone sent him a photo of the home in the late 1800s to let him know the house still stood, he answered, “Recently someone in Missouri has sent me a picture of the house I was born in. Heretofore I have always stated that it was a palace, but I shall be more guarded now.” The home has indeed been saved, kept inside the museum at the Mark Twain State Park in Florida, Missouri. One of the reasons it is preserved as well as it is, is because the home was captured 100 years ago before it could deteriorate any further. The museum is small but really cool with some wonderful artifacts, including Twain’s original hand-written manuscript of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. “Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please.” Mark Twain
For more info on Mark Twain’s birthplace home, visit Mark Twain Birthplace State Historic Site