Charles Jervis Langdon

Charles Langdon was born on 13 August 1849. He was Olivia Langdon's younger brother and Samuel Clemens' brother-in-law.

Samuel Clemens and Charles Langdon met during the Quaker City Excursion in 1867 when Langdon was eighteen years old and quickly came to admire Clemens (see Rasmussen et al. 2:759). This aquaintance eventually led to the first meeting between Clemens and Olivia Langdon in the same year and to their subsequent courtship and marriage.

Depiction of Charles J. Langdon (scan from The Boy's Life of Mark Twain). Source: The Boy's Life of Mark Twain, Paine, 1916 (facing page 164). Public domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Boys%27_Life_of_Mark_Twain_018.jpg, via Wikimedia Commons.

After the death of his father Jervis Langdon in 1870, Charles took over the family business in coal and lumber (see LeMaster and Wilson, MTE 440). He married Ida Clark and the couple had three children together: a son, Jervis, and two daughters, Julia and Ida (see LeMaster and Wilson, MTE 440). Although Samuel Clemens and Charles Langdon were not always the closest of friends, their family ties - and the Clemens family's frequent summer stays in Quarry Farm in Elmira - resulted in a cordial and mutually respectful relationship. Langdon was present at the death of Olivia Susan Clemens in 1896 and at Clemens' own death in 1910 (see Rasmussen et al. 2:759). Charles Langdon died on 19 November 1916 in Elmira, N.Y..

Article Pages

linked to Charles Jervis Langdon (4)

• IN-016 • [Funeral service for Olivia Clemens] • 15 Jul 1904
• MD-341 • Mark Twain’s Tod • 23 Apr 1910
• MD-347 • Mark Twain's Testament • 5 May 1910
• OH-048 • Mark Twain’s Leiche beigesetzt • 25 Apr 1910