Life on the Mississippi

Captain Marryat

Writer whose nickname for the Mississippi, “the Great Sewer,” is cited.

De Soto

First white man said to have seen the Mississippi; he died after glimpsing it, and his priests and soldiers buried him in the river.

Francis I.

French king mentioned in a historical comparison.

Raphael

Artist whose death is mentioned in a historical comparison.

Bayard

Also known as Sans Peur Et Sans Reproche

Historical figure whose death is mentioned in a historical comparison.

Ignatius Loyola

Figure who later founded the Jesuit order.

Michael Angelo

Artist whose Sistine Chapel painting is mentioned.

Mary Queen of Scots

Not yet born when De Soto saw the Mississippi.

Catherine de Medici

A child when De Soto saw the Mississippi.

Elizabeth of England

Not yet in her teens when De Soto saw the Mississippi.

Calvin

Prominent religious figure in De Soto’s time.

Benvenuto Cellini

Prominent figure in De Soto’s time.

Emperor Charles V.

Ruler in De Soto’s time.

Margaret of Navarre

Writer of the Heptameron and religious books.

Henry VIII.

English king who suppressed monasteries and pursued his reformation.

Fisher

Bishop executed by Henry VIII.

Luther

His death was two years in the future when De Soto saw the Mississippi.

Servetus

His execution is dated eleven years after De Soto saw the Mississippi.

Rabelais

His work had not yet been published when De Soto saw the Mississippi.

Don Quixote

Title character of a book not yet written when De Soto saw the Mississippi.

Shakespeare

Not yet born when De Soto saw the Mississippi.

Oliver Cromwell

His name would not be heard by Englishmen for another century after De Soto saw the Mississippi.

La Salle

French explorer who explored the Mississippi and claimed the surrounding country for France.

Louis XIV

Also known as Louis the Putrid · the Sultan of Versailles

French king who granted La Salle exploration privileges and whose claim to the Mississippi basin was made in La Salle’s name.

Joliet

Merchant who reached the Mississippi with Marquette in 1673.

Marquette

Priest and explorer who traveled down the Mississippi with Joliet and named it Conception.

the Virgin

Also known as the Virgin Mary

Religious figure invoked by Marquette; the text says she helped avert a fight with a tribe near the Arkansas.

Mr. Parkman

Also known as Parkman

Historian whose account of the explorers is quoted.

Indian chief

Unnamed chief who received Joliet and Marquette and later escorted them back to the river with six hundred tribesmen.

Henri de Tonty

Also known as Tonty

La Salle’s lieutenant on the expedition down the Mississippi.

Lorenzo Tonty

Henri de Tonty’s father, credited with inventing the tontine.

Indian monarch

Unnamed ruler in the Teche country who received Tonty in state.

Huck Finn

Also known as Huck

Village boy and son of the town drunkard who escapes with Jim and narrates their raft adventure.

Jim

Enslaved man who escapes with Huck Finn.

Big Bob

Also known as Bob

Large, boastful raft hand who trades threats with the Child of Calamity and helps question Huck.

Child of Calamity

Boastful raft hand who joins Bob in a mock quarrel and helps discover Huck hiding aboard.

Little Davy

Also known as Davy

Small, tough raft hand who beats Bob and the Child of Calamity, then protects Huck.

Ed

Also known as Edward · Edmund · Edwin · Eddy

Raft hand who tells a ghost story about Dick Allbright and a haunted barrel.

Dick Allbright

Former raft hand in Ed’s story who killed his infant son, hid the body in a barrel, and disappeared with it.

Charles William Allbright

Dick Allbright’s dead infant son, whose body was hidden in a barrel.

Bill

Raft hand who joins in mocking Ed’s story.

Jimmy

Also known as Jim

Raft hand who mocks Ed’s story and is sent to fetch paint for Huck.

Captain of the watch

Unnamed raft watch leader in Ed’s story who dismisses the haunted-barrel tale as superstition.

Aleck Hopkins

Also known as Aleck James Hopkins

False name Huck gives the raft hands when they find him hiding aboard.

Pap

Huck’s father, a trader on a scow in Huck’s improvised account.

Mr. Jonas Turner

Man in Cairo whom Huck claims his father wants the raft hands to contact.

Cabin-boy

Unnamed steamboat worker the young narrator once imagined becoming.

Deckhand

Unnamed steamboat worker admired by the young narrator for standing on the stage-plank with a rope.

Town drunkard

Unnamed man asleep by the village wharf; Huck Finn’s father in the embedded story.

Negro drayman

Unnamed village worker famous for spotting approaching steamboats and announcing them.

Justice of the peace

The young narrator’s unnamed father, whose authority the narrator imagines includes power over life and death.

Cub-engineer

Unnamed village boy who becomes an apprentice engineer on a steamboat.

Minister’s son

Unnamed young man from the village who becomes a steamboat engineer.

Doctor’s son

Unnamed young man from the village who becomes a mud clerk on a steamboat.

Post-master’s son

Unnamed young man from the village who becomes a mud clerk on a steamboat.

Wholesale liquor dealer’s son

Unnamed young man from the village who becomes a barkeeper on a steamboat.

Sons of the chief merchant

Four unnamed young men from the village who become steamboat pilots.

Sons of the county judge

Two unnamed young men from the village who become steamboat pilots.

Amazon expedition

Unnamed government expedition whose incomplete exploration of the Amazon inspires the narrator’s travel plan.

Young narrator

Also known as narrator · Mark Twain

First-person narrator who recounts his steamboat travels and Mississippi piloting, then returns to the river after years away. He adopts Captain Isaiah Sellers’s discarded pen name, “Mark Twain.”

Captain

Unnamed captain of the Paul Jones and later steamboat; he commands while Mr. Bixby pilots.

Big stormy mate

Also known as mate

Large, profane steamboat officer whom the young narrator admires; later at the wheel during a night watch.

Night watchman

Also known as watchman

Unnamed steamboat watchman who befriends the young narrator, tells him a fabricated life story, and calls him out for piloting watches.

Youth who borrowed six dollars

Unnamed deck passenger who borrowed six dollars from the narrator and never repaid it.

Mr. Bixby

The narrator’s chief pilot and teacher, who trains him to read the Mississippi and navigate dangerous crossings.

Mr. W——

Unnamed pilot who partners with Mr. Bixby and takes the watch from him.

Jones

Also known as Mr. Jones

Plantation owner whose landing the steamboat finds at night under Mr. Bixby’s direction.

Leadsmen

Unnamed steamboat crewmen who call out water depths to guide the pilots.

Engineer

Unnamed steamboat engineer who responds to Mr. Bixby’s orders during the Hat Island crossing.

Flatboatman

Unnamed trader who curses the steamboat crew after a near collision and later sues the boat.

Posey County family

Unnamed family aboard a flatboat in an island chute; the steamboat narrowly avoids striking them.

Mr. X.

Also known as X.

Excellent river pilot and somnambulist who expertly steers a steamboat through the Helena crossing while asleep.

George Ealer

Also known as Ealer

Pilot who shares a trip with Mr. X.; kind to the narrator, he plays flute and chess and survives the Pennsylvania explosion.

Night watchman on Ealer’s boat

Unnamed watchman who finds Mr. X. sleepwalking, puts him to bed, and warns Ealer that the wheel is unattended.

Mr. Brown

Also known as Brown

Pennsylvania pilot with an exceptional memory and a malicious, fault-finding manner. He bullies the narrator and fights him after he defends Henry; Brown disappears in the explosion.

Asa Hardy

Also known as Captain Hardy

Captain of the Sunflower; Mr. Brown recounts details of his life and death despite never having met him.

John Hardy

Asa Hardy’s brother and first clerk on the Sunflower; Mr. Brown says he died two years after Asa.

Tom Jones

Former first mate of the Sunflower who told Mr. Brown about the Hardy brothers.

Jane Shook

Asa Hardy’s first wife, said by Mr. Brown to have been from New England.

Horton

Maiden name of Asa Hardy’s second wife, whom Mr. Brown says died in a lunatic asylum.

Ben

Unnamed engineer whom the narrator calls through the speaking-tube to reverse the steamboat during Mr. Bixby’s test.

Mr. Thornburg

Pilot and the narrator’s chief on the trip when the crew goes sounding near 21.

Tom G——

Also known as Tom

Mr. Thornburg’s cub and the narrator’s friend and rival for a passenger girl’s attention; he survives the sounding-boat collision.

Girl of sixteen

Also known as pretty girl

Passenger traveling with her uncle and aunt; the narrator and Tom G—— fall in love with her, and she favors Tom after his rescue.

Girl’s uncle

Also known as uncle

Unnamed passenger traveling with his sixteen-year-old niece and her aunt.

Girl’s aunt

Also known as aunt

Unnamed passenger traveling with her sixteen-year-old niece and the girl’s uncle.

Third mate

Unnamed officer in the sounding-boat who survives its collision with the steamer.

Missing sounding-boat crewmen

Two unnamed men from the sounding-boat who disappear after the collision and are presumed killed by the paddle-wheel.

Chief mate

Unnamed officer who waits with a rope and helps haul Tom aboard after the sounding-boat collision.

Mr. Brown’s dog-story owner

Unnamed man whose dog Mr. Brown intends to discuss before getting distracted by family history.

Mary Ann

Young woman whom an unnamed middle-aged woman calls indoors after seeing her flirt with the Grand Turk’s barber.

Middle-aged negro woman

Unnamed woman who calls Mary Ann inside and announces that the Grand Turk’s barber wants to speak with her.

Barber of the Grand Turk

Spruce young Black barber aboard the Grand Turk, highly regarded in his social circle.

Aleck Scott middle-door fireman

Unnamed fireman whose job tending the Aleck Scott’s middle door makes him boast of his status at a New Orleans ball.

Ball manager

Unnamed manager at a New Orleans ball who challenges the Aleck Scott fireman’s airs.

Stephen W——

Gifted, humorous, irreverently independent pilot known for borrowing freely and for reckless but skillful piloting.

Captain Y——

Unnamed elderly captain who dismisses Stephen W—— and recounts his noisy, reckless behavior aboard the boat.

Stephen’s cat

Also known as cat

Stephen W——’s cat, whose howling in response to his poor fiddle playing keeps people awake.

Captain who hired Stephen

Unnamed captain who hires Stephen W—— at half wages and later tries to hurry the boat.

Two Missouri River pilots

Two unnamed pilots who quote eighteen hundred dollars apiece for a month’s work.

Illinois River captain

Unnamed captain of a small stern-wheel boat who asks the Missouri River pilots their rate.

Captain at Cat Island

Unnamed nervous captain who urges Mr. Bixby to give the steamboat more steam while crossing a close place.

Captain ——

Unnamed captain who hires a Pilots’ Benevolent Association pilot after the association gains leverage.

I. S——

Unnamed experienced pilot whom Captain —— hires for the season; an association pilot refuses to work alongside him.

Association secretary

Unnamed secretary who explains the association’s rules to Captain —— and arranges a member pilot.

Pilot association treasurer

Unnamed treasurer of the St. Louis pilots’ association who steals its funds.

Pilot association president

Unnamed president who assigns apprentices to boats under the association’s control.

Captain and owners’ association leader

The passage describes captains and owners organizing collectively to impose rules on pilot employment; no individual leader is identified.

Yates

Also known as young Yates

Good-hearted young pilot who lends Stephen W—— $250 and repeatedly fails to collect it.

Jim Wilson

Person Stephen claims to have paid $250 on account; no further information is given.

George Ritchie

George Ealer’s cub, who imitates Mr. Brown to tease the narrator and later helps Horace Bixby chart river crossings.

Henry

The young narrator’s younger brother and Pennsylvania clerk; he returns to help the wounded after the explosion but dies from his injuries.

Captain Klinefelter

Captain of the Pennsylvania, who survives its boiler explosion, protects the narrator after his fight with Brown, and leads rescue efforts.

George Black

The Pennsylvania’s chief clerk, who disappears in the explosion.

Mr. Wood

Clerk aboard the Pennsylvania who is thrown into the river by the explosion and swims toward shore.

Second engineer

Unnamed Pennsylvania officer on watch in the engine room when its boilers explode.

Striker

Unnamed engine-room worker trapped beneath wreckage who begs to be shot rather than die in the fire.

Carpenter

Unnamed Pennsylvania crewman thrown into the river by the explosion while still on his mattress.

Head engineer

Unnamed chief engineer of the Pennsylvania, asleep when its boilers explode.

Second mate

Unnamed Pennsylvania officer who has the deck watch when the boilers explode.

French naval cadet

Fifteen-year-old son of a French admiral, badly scalded in the Pennsylvania explosion but brave in his injuries.

French admiral

Unnamed father of the French naval cadet injured in the Pennsylvania explosion.

Priest injured in the explosion

Also known as priest

Unnamed priest struck through the body by an iron crowbar in the Pennsylvania explosion.

Dr. Peyton

Principal Memphis physician who treats Henry after the Pennsylvania explosion but cannot save him.

Poet

Unnamed poet who accompanies the narrator on his return west.

Stenographer

Unnamed stenographer who accompanies the narrator and is hired to record the poet.

Hotel clerk

Unnamed clerk at the St. Louis hotel who recognizes the narrator despite his attempted disguise.

Rogers

Also known as Jones · Brown · Dexter · Ferguson · Bascom · Thompson

Fellow traveler encountered by the narrator at a St. Louis hotel; these are his interchangeable assumed names.

Hon. Charles Augustus Murray

Also known as Mr. Murray

Scottish writer who described St. Louis decades earlier and predicted its future importance.

Bishop of the diocese

Unnamed bishop from whom the narrator says he learned a fact about muddy Missouri River water.

Colored boy on the Grand Tower packet

Unnamed boy keeping watch aboard the packet who tells the narrator it will leave when it has obtained its trip.

Irish literature vender

Unnamed elderly Irishman selling cheap books aboard the Gold Dust; he entertains the narrator with a practiced lecture.

Lady put ashore at St. Genevieve

Unnamed, well-dressed passenger who disembarks with a gentleman and two young girls near St. Genevieve.

Gentleman put ashore at St. Genevieve

Unnamed, well-dressed passenger who disembarks with a lady and two young girls near St. Genevieve.

Young girls put ashore at St. Genevieve

Two unnamed, well-dressed passengers who disembark with a lady and gentleman near St. Genevieve.

Robert Styles

Also known as Rob Styles

Pilot whom the narrator recognizes after hearing him tell elaborate fabricated stories about the river and alligators.

Ben Thornburg

Pilot whom Robert Styles names as one of the old pilots supposedly skilled at reading alligator-infested water.

Beck Jolly

Pilot whom Robert Styles names as one of the old pilots supposedly skilled at reading alligator-infested water.

Squire Bell

Pilot whom Robert Styles names as one of the old pilots supposedly skilled at reading alligator-infested water.

Major Downing

Pilot whom Robert Styles names as one of the old pilots supposedly skilled at reading alligator-infested water.

John Stevenson

Pilot whom Robert Styles names as one of the old pilots supposedly skilled at reading alligator-infested water.

Billy Gordon

Pilot whom Robert Styles names as one of the old pilots supposedly skilled at reading alligator-infested water.

Jim Brady

Pilot whom Robert Styles names as one of the old pilots supposedly skilled at reading alligator-infested water.

Billy Youngblood

Pilot whom Robert Styles names as one of the old pilots supposedly skilled at reading alligator-infested water.

Tom Ballou

Also known as Capt. Tom

Captain of the Cyclone, whom the narrator’s fellow pilot calls an exceptionally persistent liar; the Cyclone later sank.

Uncle Mumford

Gold Dust’s second officer and longtime river mate who tells river stories and argues engineers cannot tame the Mississippi.

General Cheatham

Confederate general who led troops into the Battle of Belmont.

General Pillow

Also known as Old General Pillow

Confederate general at Belmont, described by the pilot as leading troops on a white horse.

Pilot’s partner at Belmont

Also known as partner

Unnamed pilot who leaves his partner in the pilot-house to watch the Belmont fight and hides below during the battle.

Captain of the R. H. W. Hill

Also known as captain

Unnamed captain aboard the R. H. W. Hill during the Battle of Belmont.

Red-headed major from Memphis

Also known as major

Unnamed major from Memphis who is with the captain on the roof during the Belmont fight.

General Polk

Confederate general who praises the pilot’s courage after the Battle of Belmont.

Country gentleman near Island No. 10

Also known as country gentleman

Unnamed, college-educated passenger who tells the narrator about regional family feuds and their violence.

Darnell youth killed at nineteen

Unnamed young man from one of the feud families, killed while trying to escape his attackers by swimming downriver.

Windy Marshall

Steamboat captain who witnessed the killing of a young man from one of the local feud families.

Old Darnell

Unnamed older Darnell who tried to leave the region with his two sons; after they were killed, he was shot by the ferry-man’s friends.

Two young Darnell sons

Unnamed sons of Old Darnell, killed by the Watsons while trying to board a steamboat with their wives.

Wives of the young Darnell sons

Two unnamed women accompanying their husbands when the Watsons killed the young Darnell men.

Ferry-man

Unnamed man who ran a ferry, fell into conflict with Old Darnell, and died; his friends later killed Darnell.

Mrs. Trollope

Also known as Mrs Trollope

English tourist and writer whose descriptions of the Mississippi and early Memphis are quoted.

Captain Basil Hall

Also known as Basil Hall

British naval officer and travel writer whose reflections on the Mississippi are quoted.

Alexander Mackay

Middle Temple barrister and travel writer whose account of seeing the Mississippi is quoted.

D'Autray

Associate of La Salle who took the eastern channel at the Mississippi’s mouth.

Ernst von Hesse-Wartegg

German tourist whose book describes Memphis during a yellow-fever epidemic.

Captain Eads

Engineer credited with building jetties at the Mississippi’s mouth.

Colonel Grant

Also known as General Grant

The narrator recalls Grant drilling his first command at Cairo; he was Colonel then and General later.

Murel

Also known as Murel’s Gang leader

Notorious criminal described as leader of a gang involved in robbery, theft, murder, and plans for insurrection; convicted and sentenced to fourteen years.

Jesse James

Notorious outlaw recently assassinated at the time of the narrator’s journey; compared with Murel.

Stewart

Young man who infiltrated Murel’s gang while searching for two abducted enslaved people, then exposed it and helped secure Murel’s conviction.

Crenshaw

Member of Murel’s gang who participates in robberies and murders described in Murel’s confession.

South Carolinian traveler

Unnamed traveler robbed and killed by Murel and Crenshaw on Cumberland Mountain.

Man robbed and killed by Murel

Unnamed traveler whom Murel robbed and murdered while recounting his crimes to Stewart.

Enslaved man sold by Murel’s gang

Unnamed enslaved man repeatedly sold under false promises of freedom, then murdered to conceal the gang’s crimes.

Edward Atkinson

Also known as Mr. Edward Atkinson

National commercial authority whose opinion on Mississippi River improvement is referenced.

Montgomery

Also known as Captain Montgomery

Confederate fleet commodore at the Civil War battle at Memphis; formerly a pilot for whom the narrator steered.

Jesse Jamieson

Pilot said to have left an elderly visiting pilot at the wheel near Island No. 63.

Visiting pilot at Island No. 63

Also known as ancient mariner

Unnamed elderly pilot who repeatedly steers the Skylark through a chute and back to the same place during his watch.

Old man who tells the Eclipse story

Also known as old darkey

Unnamed man on shore who changes his account of a passing boat after learning it was the famous Eclipse.

Gray mare

Also known as mare

Horse associated in Uncle Mumford’s stories with steamboat disasters when traveling with a preacher.

Steamboat preacher

Also known as preacher

Unnamed preacher who travels with a gray mare and is thrown overboard during Uncle Mumford’s story.

Captain Poe

Also known as Poe

Captain who lived aboard a small stern-wheel boat with his wife; it struck a snag in Kentucky Bend and sank.

Captain Poe’s wife

Also known as wife

Unnamed wife of Captain Poe, asleep in the boat’s upper berth when it sank.

Stranger from Wisconsin

Also known as young fellow

Unnamed young man from inland Wisconsin who plays an elaborate practical joke by giving the narrator false names and uses for boat parts.

Passenger from Arkansas City

Also known as Mr. H.

Austere steamboat mate traveling to Vicksburg to join his Sunflower packet; he punctures a friend’s exaggerated mosquito stories.

Friend of Mr. H.

Unnamed passenger and friend of Mr. H. who tells sensational mosquito stories.

Barkeeper

Unnamed barkeeper aboard the boat who comments on local produce, drink preferences, and steamboat bar economics.

Colonel Calhoun

Grandson of the statesman who organized the Calhoun Land Company to develop cotton land in Arkansas.

Man without a country

Unnamed sole owner of Island 74, which after the river changed course belongs to neither Arkansas nor Mississippi.

Passenger and wife from Vicksburg

Unnamed man and his wife who survived the Vicksburg siege in caves; he recounts their experiences.

Maria

Wife of the unnamed Vicksburg siege survivor; she carried their children to a cave during bombardments.

Vicksburg siege survivor’s children

Two unnamed children who lived through the Vicksburg bombardment and sheltered with their parents.

Friend whose arm was severed

Unnamed friend of the Vicksburg survivor whose arm was cut off by a shell fragment after church.

Aged colored man at Vicksburg

Unnamed elderly man who shows visitors an unexploded bombshell that fell in his yard during the siege.

Dog at Vicksburg

Also known as dog

The aged man’s dog, which approached the unexploded shell during the Vicksburg siege.

General Pemberton

Confederate general who surrendered Vicksburg to General Grant.

College professor

Also known as passenger

Unnamed passenger who tells the story of his earlier voyage to California as a young land surveyor.

Professor as young land-surveyor

Also known as Triangle

The college professor’s younger self, a land surveyor nicknamed “Triangle” by John Backus.

Mr. John Backus

Also known as John Backus

Ohio cattle-raiser traveling to California who befriends the young surveyor and reveals that his cattle expertise was a pretence; he is a professional gambler.

Three professional gamblers

Three unnamed gamblers aboard the California-bound ship who target Backus in a card game; one is his accomplice.

Hank Wiley

Also known as Wiley

One of three gamblers aboard the California-bound ship; he deals cards and bets against Backus, who exposes the scheme.

Mr. Dickens

Also known as Dickens

Writer whose judgment that Mississippi steamboats were not magnificent is contrasted with Valley residents’ admiration.

Sir Walter Scott

Writer whose medieval romances are blamed for inspiring Baton Rouge’s imitation castle and sustaining romantic chivalry.

Dr. F. Julius Le Moyne

Physician quoted on disease risks associated with burying bodies.

Dr. E. H. Barton

Physician who reported high mortality in a New Orleans district containing several cemeteries during the 1853 epidemic.

Professor Bianchi

Professor who demonstrated that excavations in old burial ground were followed by plague in Modena.

Mr. Cooper

Writer cited for noting that opening plague burial grounds at Eyam was followed by an outbreak.

Dr. Charles W. Purdy

Physician who advocated cremation and compared funeral costs with other national expenditures.

Colored acquaintance

Unnamed laborer supporting a wife and young children on low earnings; after his child dies, he struggles to afford a coffin.

Child of the colored acquaintance

Unnamed young child whose death leaves the family with the cost of a coffin.

Man encountered in the street

Unnamed man whom the narrator meets again after several years; he says he has become a prosperous undertaker.

J. B——

Also known as J. B——, Undertaker

Undertaker who boasts that funerals are reliably profitable and recounts selling costly coffins and embalming.

Mrs. O’Flaherty

Also known as Mrs. O'Flaherty

Fictional widow in J. B——’s sales story who insists her husband Pat be buried as a gentleman.

Pat

Mrs. O’Flaherty’s deceased husband, whose funeral is used as an example of selling a costly coffin.

Mrs. O’Shaughnessy

Also known as Mrs. O'Shaughnessy

Customer in the undertaker’s story who buys a more expensive coffin for her husband Dennis.

Dennis

Mrs. O’Shaughnessy’s deceased husband, whose funeral is described as ostentatious.

Pastor

The narrator’s unnamed pastor, who responds to his wish to be cremated with a remark about his chances.

South’s finest literary genius

Also known as Mr. Cable · Cable

Southern writer and author of The Grandissimes who guides the narrator’s party through old New Orleans and interprets its history and culture.

Early pirate turned alderman

Also known as pirate

Unnamed former pirate buried in an old New Orleans cemetery; he later became an alderman.

Sir Anne

A saint whose relics are said to heal the sick; the narrator argues that her burial had spread disease.

General Joseph A. Mabry

Also known as General Mabry

Tennessee general killed in a street gunfight with Major Thomas O’Connor, according to a reproduced news item.

Thomas O’Connor

Also known as Major O’Connor

Bank president who killed General Mabry in a street gunfight and was then killed by Mabry’s son.

Joseph A. Mabry, Jr.

Also known as Joe Mabry · young Mabry

Son of General Joseph A. Mabry; he shot Thomas O’Connor and died from O’Connor’s return fire.

Will Mabry

Member of the Mabry family said to have been killed by Don Lusby the previous Christmas.

Moses Lusby

Man whom General Joseph A. Mabry and his son had recently been acquitted of murdering.

Don Lusby

Moses Lusby’s son, also said to have been killed by the Mabrys.

Bystander wounded in Mabry-O’Connor shooting

Unnamed bystander wounded in the thigh during the street gunfight.

Professor Sharpe

Somerville Female College professor who shot and killed his brother-in-law, Captain Burton, after hearing of a threat against him.

Captain Burton

Professor Sharpe’s brother-in-law, who threatened to kill Sharpe and was shot by him in a saloon.

Two young men in North Carolina

Two unnamed men who fought over a girl; one killed the other with an ax.

Peter Dick

Charlottesville hardware-store clerk who blinded Charles Roads with pepper during a quarrel and later stabbed him.

Charles Roads

Charlottesville hardware-store clerk stabbed by Peter Dick after a dispute escalated into a proposed duel.

St. Anne

A saint whose relics are said to heal the sick; the narrator argues that her burial had spread disease.

Gentleman speaking about the war

Unnamed man who tells the narrator that conversation among veterans repeatedly returns to war memories.

Old negro woman

Unnamed woman in an anecdote who nostalgically claims the moon was better before the war.

Farragut

Commander who advanced upon Port Hudson on a dark night using white-painted ship decks for light.

Negro in the cockfight ring

Unnamed man who handles one of the fighting cocks with a white man.

White man in the cockfight ring

Unnamed man who handles one of the fighting cocks with a Black man.

Big black cock

Also known as black cock

Fighting cock in the New Orleans match; it dies in the ring while fighting.

Little gray cock

Also known as gray cock

Fighting cock in the New Orleans match, badly injured and exhausted during the fight.

Southern reporter

Unnamed reporter whose flowery writing about women and public events the narrator critiques.

Special correspondent of the Times-Democrat

Unnamed correspondent whose ornate reports describe a relief steamer’s trip and a New Orleans mule race.

Captain of the relief steamer

Also known as Captain

Unnamed captain who invites village women aboard his relief steamer for a short trip up a bayou.

Rex

Unidentified chief personage of the Mystic Crew of Comus at the New Orleans Mardi-Gras procession.

Mr. Joel Chandler Harris

Also known as Uncle Remus · Mr. Harris

Shy writer who arrives from Atlanta; the narrator praises his genius and mastery of Black dialect in the Uncle Remus stories.

Mr. Warner

Also known as Warner

Writer who collaborated with the narrator on The Gilded Age and proposed the name Eschol Sellers.

Eschol Sellers

Real man whose unusual name Mark Twain and Mr. Warner borrowed for a character in The Gilded Age; he objected and secured a name change.

Mulberry Sellers

Name adopted for the Sellers character in later editions of The Gilded Age.

Horace Bixby

Also known as Mr. Bixby · Captain Bixby

Former pilot and the narrator’s teacher, now captain of the City of Baton Rouge; he charts crossings with George Ritchie.

Major Wood

Host whose guests join the narrator and Bixby on a trip to Warmouth’s plantation.

Ex-Governor Warmouth

Also known as Warmouth

Owner of the sugar plantation visited by the narrator’s party.

General Lafayette

French general whose 1825 trip from New Orleans to St. Louis aboard the Natchez is recorded in Sellers’s diary.

General Jackson

Also known as Jackson

General whose victory at New Orleans in 1815 is commemorated by a monument; he later became president.

Steersman on the steam-plow

Unnamed Black worker who steers the large plow on Warmouth’s plantation.

Tug’s pet parrot

Also known as parrot

Tug-boat parrot whose profane comments and harsh laughter disrupt the narrator’s sentimental river trip.

Manchester

Also known as Mr. Manchester

New York spiritualist medium who claims to relay letters from the dead and writes supposed answers from spirits.

Pilot spiritualist

Unnamed former river pilot who has received weekly letters from a deceased relative through Manchester for more than fifteen years.

Friend who consults Manchester

Unnamed friend of the narrator who questions Manchester about a deceased uncle during a séance.

Friend’s deceased uncle

Also known as late uncle

Unnamed man killed when a cyclone carried him and a large tree several miles; Manchester purportedly communicates with him.

Client learning to design a railway car-wheel

Unnamed client whom Manchester says spirits are teaching to invent an improved railway car-wheel.

Pilot-farmer

Unnamed former pilot who farms unsuccessfully during the warm months and returns to river work in winter.

Pilot who hires an agricultural expert

Unnamed pilot who puts his farm in an expert’s hands on shares but receives no corn after the poor harvest.

Agricultural expert

Unnamed farm manager who explains that the farm produced only two loads of corn, leaving none for the pilot’s share.

Captain Montgomery

Also known as Montgomery

Pilot turned Confederate fleet commander at the Battle of Memphis; he survives the sinking of his vessel and is notably calm.

Pilot killed after steering burning boat to land

Unnamed pilot who stays at the wheel until he brings a burning boat safely to shore, then dies from his injuries.

Young pilot killed on White River

Unnamed pilot buried in a Memphis graveyard who burns fatally while grounding a burning boat on a sandbar, saving all 200 aboard.

Dick Kennet

Former river pilot killed when a boat blew up near Memphis.

Wild cub of Ben Thornburgh

Also known as Ben Thornburgh’s cub

Unnamed reckless pilot apprentice who quarrels with the narrator and once unchains a bear aboard a steamboat.

Bear brought aboard by an Arkansas passenger

Also known as bear

Bear chained to a lifeboat aboard a steamboat; after being released, it chases the cub and roams the vessel.

Arkansas passenger

Unnamed passenger who brings a bear aboard and chains it to a lifeboat.

Pilot who fell dead at the wheel

Unnamed pilot who died of heart disease at the wheel in 1869.

Other pilot lost in Madrid Bend explosion

Unnamed pilot lost when Mr. Bixby’s boat exploded in Madrid Bend.

Clerk called George Johnson

Also known as George Johnson

Deceased steamboat clerk, described under an assumed name, who secretly fathered a child with a young woman and married her after a will left her a fortune.

Young woman in the George Johnson story

Comely young woman who was part friend and part servant in a wealthy childless foreigner’s household; she became the clerk’s partner and wife.

Rich old foreigner

Childless wealthy man who forgave the young clerk and woman after they falsely claimed to be married, then left his fortune to the nonexistent Mrs. George Johnson.

Wife of the rich old foreigner

Unnamed wife of the wealthy foreigner; she dies before her husband.

Justice of the Peace in the George Johnson story

Unnamed justice who performs and backdates the clerk and young woman’s marriage.

Captain Isaiah Sellers

Also known as I. Sellers · Mark Twain · Captain Sellers

Respected, pioneering Mississippi pilot whose river notes appeared under the name “Mark Twain.” The narrator borrowed that discarded pen name after Sellers died.

Correspondent of the St. Louis Republican

Unnamed newspaper correspondent who culled material from Captain Sellers’s diary after his death.

Mrs. Turner

Owner of a plantation at the head of Big Black Island, mentioned in Captain Sellers’s river note.

Cub aboard the City of Baton Rouge

Unnamed apprentice pilot who lets too much water show between the boat and nearby ships until Captain Bixby takes the wheel.

Pilot killed by fire before the narrator’s return

Unnamed former pilot whose boat caught fire; he remained at the wheel until it reached shore and later died from his injuries.

Apprentice-blacksmith turned actor

Unnamed former village blacksmith’s apprentice who became stage-struck after seeing two Englishmen perform a swordfight; he spent decades as a Roman soldier and hoped to play Hamlet.

Two young Englishmen

Unnamed visitors to the narrator’s village who staged a Richard III swordfight, inspiring a local blacksmith’s apprentice to become an actor.

Grizzled man from the St. Louis riots

Unnamed former neighbor whom the narrator abandoned during a march against rioters to go home for a drink; years later he confronts the narrator jokingly.

Military man commanding the anti-riot group

Unnamed officer who commands two hundred young men assembled to confront the St. Louis rioters.

Clergyman who reads Jack Hunt’s letter

Unnamed friend of the narrator who brings him a letter from an ex-thief and is moved by its contents.

Jack Hunt

Imaginary reformed thief whose supposed letter was actually written by Williams to himself as part of a fraud. The narrator’s friend reads it to church audiences, believing it genuine.

Williams

Also known as Charlie · Mr. W——

Harvard-educated burglar serving a nine-year prison term who becomes a Christian and encourages Jack Hunt to reform.

Ladies who visit Williams

Unnamed women who encourage Williams during his imprisonment and later receive a copy of Jack Hunt’s letter.

Owner of the house robbed by Williams

Unnamed man forced at gunpoint to hand over $8,000 in government bonds; his home burglary leads to Williams’s arrest.

Old woman robbed on the train

Unnamed woman whose pocketbook Jack Hunt steals, then returns after reconsidering his intention to reform.

Man with the runaway carriage

Also known as gentleman who owned the horse

Unnamed owner of a runaway horse and carriage carrying two children; he rewards Jack Hunt for stopping it.

Two children in the runaway carriage

Unnamed children riding in a runaway carriage whom Jack Hunt rescues.

Mr. Brown of St. Louis

Also known as Mr. Brown

Fictitious benevolent employer in Williams’s forged letter, in which he supposedly gives Jack Hunt work, shelter, and instruction.

Charles Dudley Warner

Writer who suspects the supposed convict’s letter is too polished to have been written by an uneducated person.

Dr. J. G. Holland

Writer and preacher who weeps while hearing the forged letter read in a church.

Mr. Seymour of the New York Times

Also known as Mr. Seymour

Newspaper figure present when the forged letter is read during a church service.

Mr. Page

Also known as Brother Page

Philanthropist and temperance advocate moved by the forged letter; he sends a copy to the prison chaplain to verify it.

Senator Frye

Maine senator whom the narrator thinks may have attended the sermon featuring the forged letter.

Brother minister

Unnamed minister who borrows the forged letter and uses it in a sermon.

Minister in the town where Williams was jailed

Unnamed minister who assures the narrator’s friend that the letter is genuine, relying on false information.

Rev. —— ——

Also known as minister who replies to the clergyman

Unnamed minister who writes that he believes the forged letter genuine and suggests conditions for publishing it.

Prison chaplain

Also known as chaplain of the State’s prison

Unnamed chaplain who tells Page that no such letter reached a prisoner and that Williams is not a Christian convert.

Lady who receives Williams’s letter

Also known as Sunday-school teacher

Unnamed woman who receives the forged letter and corresponds with Williams in the account relayed by a minister.

Young narrator’s old Sunday-school mate

Also known as bald-summited superintendent

Unnamed former schoolmate who recognizes the narrator and supervises one of the town’s Sunday-schools.

Mate of the narrator in Sunday school

Unnamed former Hannibal schoolmate who graduated from an Eastern college, failed in life, and was believed to have gone to the dogs.

Brightest boy in the village school

Unnamed boy who graduated with honors from an Eastern college but died defeated in a western territory.

Successful bright boy

Unnamed bright schoolboy whom the narrator’s informant says became a lasting success.

Young fellow who studied for a profession

Unnamed former Hannibal resident who changed professions, drank and gambled, abandoned his family, and died in Mexico in poverty.

Early sweetheart

Unnamed woman the narrator loved as a boy; she married three times and has children scattered in different places.

Lawyer from Hannibal

Also known as stupid boy

Unnamed former schoolboy regarded as a fool by the people of Hannibal who became a leading lawyer in Missouri.

Miss ——

Unnamed woman whom the narrator says was frightened by a prank as a girl, went mad, and spent the rest of her life in an asylum.

Giddy young ladies

Unnamed girls who frightened Miss —— with a shroud-and-mask prank when she was reading at night.

Lem Hackett

Fictitiously named boy who drowned on a Sunday while playing on a flatboat; the narrator recalls how his death and a storm frightened the village children.

Jim Smith

Boy whom the narrator mentions in a mock prayer as having broken a window and lied about it.

Tom Holmes

Boy whom the narrator says swore more than anyone else in the village.

John Jones

Boy whom the narrator accuses of fishing on Sunday and lying about throwing back a mud-cat.

Dutchy

German Sunday-school boy with a remarkable memory who drowned after being teased by other boys during a diving game.

Model Boy

Unnamed boy remembered from the narrator’s childhood as perfect in manners and outward piety but a prig; he later succeeded in life.

John Stavely

Also known as Stavely

Hannibal saddler who pretended to hurry to the river for imaginary steamboat business and became one of the narrator’s early admirations.

Carpenter who claimed to be the Mysterious Avenger

Also known as Mysterious Avenger

Unnamed Hannibal carpenter who fabricated melodramatic stories about murdering men named Lynch and convinced the boy narrator he was a fearsome avenger.

Archibald Lynch

The fictional carpenter’s supposed rival, who threatened his beloved and killed her at their wedding in the carpenter’s invented story.

Carpenter’s bride

Also known as golden-haired darling

Unnamed woman whom the carpenter claimed to love and who supposedly was killed by Archibald Lynch at their wedding.

Mr. Lynch

Hannibal resident whom the boy narrator warns about the carpenter’s supposed vendetta; he exposes the carpenter as a fraud.

Owner of the cave

Unnamed former cave owner who made a cave near Hannibal a mausoleum for his fourteen-year-old daughter.

Daughter of the cave owner

Also known as poor child

Unnamed fourteen-year-old girl whose body was placed in an alcohol-filled copper cylinder in her father’s cave mausoleum.

Jimmy Finn

Hannibal town drunkard who, according to the narrator, died naturally in a tan vat rather than in the calaboose.

Stranger who burned in the calaboose

Also known as tramp · wayfarer

Harmless, whiskey-sodden stranger who was arrested and died when his straw bed and the jail caught fire; the narrator had helped him get matches.

Marshal

Unnamed constable who arrested the tramp and held the only key to the calaboose during the fire.

Young narrator’s younger brother

Also known as bed-mate

Unnamed younger brother who shares the narrator’s bed and unknowingly helps him believe that Ben Coontz was responsible for the calaboose fire.

Ben Coontz

Boy whom the narrator’s younger brother mistakenly identifies as the boy who gave the tramp matches; the narrator lets the misunderstanding stand.

Colored coachman

Unnamed coachman who explains to the narrator that country time runs about an hour and a half behind town time.

Henry Clay Dean

Also known as Dean

Self-educated political orator who studied on Keokuk’s curbstones and delivered a celebrated speech after being hurried onto a stage.

Mr. Claggett

Also known as Claggett

Keokuk citizen whose son recounted an incident about Henry Clay Dean’s impromptu speech.

Son of Mr. Claggett

Also known as Claggett’s son

Unnamed son of Keokuk citizen Mr. Claggett who told the narrator the story of Dean’s speech.

Distinguished stranger

Unnamed scheduled speaker who failed to appear at a 1861 Keokuk meeting, prompting the manager to enlist Dean.

Meeting manager

Unnamed distressed organizer who found Dean studying on a curbstone and sent him to address a packed meeting.

Burdette

Writer associated with Burlington, which the narrator calls his home.

Lunatic in Muscatine

Unnamed man who threatened the narrator with a butcher-knife unless he admitted the man was the Devil’s only son.

Black Hawk

Native leader whose name was once powerful in the Upper Mississippi region; the narrator describes his Christian-style burial modified by Indian custom.

Keokuk

Native leader whose name was prominent in the Mississippi region below Dubuque.

Old gentleman from the north-west

Also known as lecturer · panorama traveler

Early settler familiar with the region who entertains passengers with florid scenery descriptions and Indian legends. He formerly traveled with a panorama and is preparing material for a tourist guide.

Winona

Also known as We-no-na

Maiden in the Maiden’s Rock legend, daughter of a chief’s family. She escapes an arranged marriage, survives a leap from the rock, and is said to marry the man she loves.

Winona’s lover

Also known as true love

Unnamed warrior whom Winona loves; according to the legend, he later marries her.

Winona’s parents

Unnamed parents who arrange Winona’s marriage to another warrior; in the lecturer’s version, they are dashed against the rocks when she jumps.

Peboan

Personification of Winter in the allegory of the seasons; an old man who melts away in the warmth of Seegwun.

Seegwun

Personification of Spring in the allegory of the seasons; a handsome young man whose warmth brings flowers, rain, and returning birds.

Iamo

Hunter who lives alone with his sister; after she breaks his instructions, he asks her to cut off his head, which remains alive and directs her.

Sister of Iamo

Also known as Iamo’s sister

Unnamed woman who lives with Iamo; she accidentally breaks his prohibition during her illness and later keeps his severed head in a sack.

Mudjikewis

Third brother from the eldest among ten brothers in “The Undying Head”; known for oddities and eagerness for a war excursion.

Youngest of the ten brothers

Unnamed young man who fasts, has propitious dreams, and summons his nine brothers to join a war excursion.

Nine brothers

Unnamed brothers who agree to join the youngest brother’s war excursion; Mudjikewis is among them.

C. P. Ferguson

Planter near Red River Landing whose plantation is flooded; he reports suffering in the area.

General York

Relief organizer on Black River during the 1882 flood; he directs boats and supplies to rescue people and livestock.

Widow Taylor

Also known as Mrs. Taylor

Unnamed woman sheltering with her son in a flooded house; she declines the offer to leave.

Widow Taylor’s son

Unnamed son sheltering with his mother on a raised scaffold in their flooded home.

Mr. Tom Ellis

Also known as Mr. Ellis

Planter whose flooded, failing house shelters his sick wife, seven children, and livestock; he initially refuses evacuation.

Mrs. Ellis

Feeble in health and trapped with her family in a flooded house; she appears at a partly submerged window.

Children of the Ellis family

Seven unnamed children trapped with their parents in the flooded Ellis home; the oldest is under fourteen.

Major Burke

Times-Democrat figure who sent the Susie to Black River to evacuate flood victims.

Old planter on Black River

Unnamed planter who had lived on the river since 1844 and says the flood was unprecedented.

Old man with cattle on Black River

Unnamed cattle owner who says willow leaves sustain his cattle but are hard on his hogs.

Youth paddling a pirogue

Unnamed youth who paddles a pirogue carrying a fifteen-year-old girl and asks the relief boat for a newspaper.

Girl of fifteen in the pirogue

Unnamed girl with black eyes and demure manners, riding in the bow of a pirogue during the flood.

Little girl paddling a canoe

Unnamed child, no more than twelve, who deftly paddles a tiny canoe and gathers willow leaves for livestock.

General Gilmore

United States Engineer named as a member of the Mississippi River Commission.

General Comstock

United States Engineer named as a member of the Mississippi River Commission.

General Suter

United States Engineer named as a member of the Mississippi River Commission.

Professor Henry Mitchell

United States Coast Survey hydrographer identified as an authority on hydrography and a member of the Mississippi River Commission.

B. B. Harrod

Louisiana State Engineer and member of the Mississippi River Commission.

Judge Taylor

Indiana judge named as a member of the Mississippi River Commission.

Wife of Mudjikewis

Unnamed wife of Mudjikewis, who questions why he needs his moccasins before the brothers’ war excursion.

First old manito

Also known as old man in the first lodge

Unnamed guardian spirit who shelters the war party, enlarges two small black dogs to fight the mammoth bear, and dies in the encounter.

First black dog

One of the two magical dogs enlarged by the first old manito to fight the mammoth bear; it dies in the combat.

Second black dog

One of the two magical dogs enlarged by the first old manito to fight the mammoth bear; it dies in the combat.

Second old manito

Also known as old man with the war-clubs

Unnamed guardian spirit who shelters the pursued brothers and fights the mammoth bear with magical black-stone clubs; he is killed.

Mammoth bear

Also known as mishemokwa · manito

Enormous supernatural bear pursued by the ten brothers after they take its wampum belt. When the brothers destroy it, small black bears spring from its remains.

Chief of the village

Unnamed chief whose warriors keep watch over Iamo’s severed head in the council-lodge.

Old man who helps Iamo’s sister

Unnamed villager who escorts Iamo’s sister to the council-lodge and helps her escape after she finds her brother’s head.

Boastful young warrior

Unnamed warrior in the council-lodge who falsely claims he often courts Iamo’s sister, inadvertently giving her a plausible reason to be there.

Youngest brother’s wife

Also known as female magician

Unnamed magician who marries the youngest of the ten brothers and eventually retrieves Iamo’s head, helping restore him to life.