Our ancestor's connections to Mark Twain!

Well, it's quite loose, but interesting nevertheless. John T. Lewis became a very good friend of Samuel L Clemens (Mark Twain), after saving the life of Clemens' wife-to-be, Olivia L. Landon. Lewis was "...the very person whom Clemens had used to create the personality of Jim, the run-away slave in his novel Huckleberry Finn."

So just how is John T. Lewis possibly connected to our family? John T. Lewis was the man who returned the famous "Pulpit Bible" to the Dunker church 41 years after it disappeared following the Civil War battle. It was the Bible that sat in the church unharmed while the church was being shelled during the battle. Prior to the battle the Bible was often used by Elder David Long, who married our ancestors Elias Frinifrock and Sarah Wolf in 1850. Perhaps it was the very same bible Elder Long read out of when he married Elias and Sarah!

Remember, I told you it was a loose connection! ;) We know that the Dunker church, where the Bible was situated was built in 1852 as a daughter congregation from the Manor Congregation, which is where we presume Elder Long married Elias and Sarah. Did they obtain a new Bible for the Dunker church? Or did they take the one from the Manor Church? We don't know, though my presumption is that it's a different Bible. But we can be certain, at a minimum, that the Bible returned to the Dunker Church by John T. Lewis was, without a doubt, used often by Elder Long, the pastor who married Elias and Sarah.

Here's a link to an article that tells the story. If you're in a hurry, move down to the section entitle, "The Pulpit Bible," about 3/4 of the way down the page.

http://www.cob-net.org/antietam/dunkers.htm

Interestingly enough, I was just at the Antietam Battlefield Museum a few months ago and walked right past this very Bible, not having a clue of the connection it may have had to our ancestors!