Mark Twain's Grave

Address:
1200 Walnut St, Woodlawn Cemetery, Elmira, NY 14905-1624

Mark Twain , real name Samuel Langhorne Clemens, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. Among his novels are The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and its sequel, the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn , the latter often called The Great American Novel. Twain was raised in Hannibal, Missouri, which later provided the setting for Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. He served an apprenticeship with a printer and then worked as a typesetter, contributing articles to the newspaper of his older brother Orion Clemens. He later became a riverboat pilot on the Mississippi River before heading west to join Orion in Nevada. He referred humorously to his lack of success at mining, turning to journalism for the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise. His humorous story, The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, was published in 1865, based on a story that he heard at Angels Hotel in Angels Camp, California, where he had spent some time as a miner. The short story brought international attention and was even translated into French. His wit and satire, in prose and in speech, earned praise from critics and peers, and he was a friend to presidents, artists, industrialists, and European royalty. Twain earned a great deal of money from his writings and lectures, but he invested in ventures that lost most of it—notably the Paige Compositor, a mechanical typesetter that failed because of its complexity and imprecision. He filed for bankruptcy in the wake of these financial setbacks, but he eventually overcame his financial troubles with the help of Henry Huttleston Rogers. He chose to pay all his pre-bankruptcy creditors in full, even after he had no legal responsibility to do so. Twain was born shortly after an appearance of Halley's Comet, and he predicted that he would go out with it as well; he died the day after the comet returned. He was lauded as the greatest humorist this country has produced, and William Faulkner called him the father of American literature.
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Mark Twain's Grave Videos

A Mark Twain Folktale at the Library of Congress

The Library of Congress celebrates Children’s Book Week with award-winning author, Philip Stead, as he shares his saga of completing a 138-year-old unpublished folktale by Mark Twain and turning it into a highly acclaimed children’s book, “The Purloining of Prince Oleomargarine.”

This is the ninth year of this annual children’s event, named in honor of the late son of Marcia and Barnet Eskin.

More information is available at

Ask the Mayor: Downtown Projects Starting to Take Shape, New Hockey Team Excitement

ELMIRA, N.Y. (18 NEWS) City of Elmira Mayor Dan Mandell joins us on 18 News at Noon to answer your questions LIVE on the air.

Auburn State Prison (Crime Documentary)

Auburn Correctional Facility is a state prison on State Street in Auburn, New York, United States. It was built on land that was once a Cayuga village. It is classified as a maximum security facility.

Constructed in 1817 as Auburn Prison, it was the second state prison in New York (after New York City's Newgate, 1797–1828), the site of the first execution by electric chair in 1890, and the namesake of the Auburn System, a correctional system in which prisoners were housed in solitary confinement in large rectangular buildings, and performed penal labor under silence that was enforced at all times. The prison was renamed the Auburn Correctional Facility in 1970. The prison is among the oldest functional prisons in the United States.

In its early years, the prison charged a fee to tourists in order to raise funds for the prison. Eventually, to discourage most visitors, the fee was increased.

In contrast with the purely reformatory type prison instituted in Pennsylvania, the Philadelphia System introduced by the Quakers, the Auburn System modified the schedule of prayer, contemplation, and humane conditions with hard labor.

Prisoners were compelled to work during the day, and the profit of their labor helped to support the prison. Prisoners were segregated by offense; additionally, they were issued clothing that identified their crime. The traditional American prison uniform, consisting of horizontal black and white stripes, originated at the Auburn prison. The prisoners had their heads closely cropped and walked in lockstep, keeping step with their heads bowed. Each prisoner placed a hand on the shoulder of the man in front of him to maintain a rigid separation.

There was a communal dining room so that the prisoners could gather together for meals, but a code of silence was enforced harshly at all times by the guards. Thus the inmates worked and ate together, but in complete silence. At night the prisoners were kept in individual cells (even though the original plan called for double cells).

For several decades, this system was adopted by other jurisdictions. This system was also called the Congregate System. The Sing Sing Correctional Facility, also in New York, was built using this system under the supervision of the former warden of the Auburn prison, Elam Lynds.

As of 2010, Auburn Correctional Facility is responsible for the manufacturing of New York State's license plates.

Notable inmates

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The execution of William Kemmler, August 6, 1890
Abraham Greenthal, notorious pickpocket; incarcerated 1877-1884, sentence commuted by Governor Grover Cleveland on Friday, May 16, 1884.
William Kemmler, first person executed in the electric chair.
Robert Chambers, the preppy murderer.
Leon Czolgosz, the assassin of President William McKinley, electrocuted in Auburn on October 29, 1901.
Lucchese crime family mob associate Jimmy Burke.
Colombo crime family caporegime Joe Gallo.
Pavle Stanimirovic YACS Crime Group high-ranking member was transferred here from Elmira CF SHU Box Solitare Confinement.
Contract killer Donald Frankos.
Chester Gillette, convicted for murder of Grace Brown, electrocuted in 1908.
Craig Godineaux, accomplice in the Wendy's Massacre
The Post Card Killer, J. Frank Hickey.
Robert F. Garrow: Serial rapist/murderer; transferred to Auburn twice from Clinton Correctional Facility: 1963 while serving for rape conviction, and 1977 while serving for second-degree murder (transferred to Fishkill Correctional Facility in 1978).
Austin Reed, the reputed author of the first prison memoir by an African-American.
Matias Reyes, serial rapist sentenced to life in prison.

University Scholar Series, Jennifer Rycenga, February 20, 2019

Professor Jennifer Rycenga, from the SJSU dept. of Humanities, speaks about America's first female academy for African-American women on February 20, 2019 at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library.