JOHN KLINEFELTER
1810-1885
Steamboat captain who survived the explosion of the PENNSYLVANIA on June 13, 1858. Sam Clemens' younger brother Henry later died of injuries in that explosion.
Clemens' comments regarding the explosion of the PENNSYLVANIA:
Many people were flung to considerable distances and fell in the river;
among these were Mr. Wood and my brother and the carpenter. The carpenter
was still stretched upon his mattress when he struck the water seventy-five
feet from the boat. Brown, the pilot, and George Black, chief clerk, were
never seen or heard of after the explosion. The barber's chair, with Captain
Klinefelter in it and unhurt, was left with its back overhanging vacancy -
everything forward of it, floor and all, had disappeared; and the stupefied
barber, who was also unhurt, stood with one toe projecting over space, still
stirring his lather unconsciously saying not a word.
- Life on the Mississippi
