Samuel L Clemens, better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi River before the Civil War. For two years, Twain served as a cub pilot under Capt Horace E Bixby while he learned the 2,000 miles of the ever-changing Mississippi.
Twain’s connection to Georgetown, PA was Horace E Bixby. Bixby worked on the steamer Sallie as one of her pilots at least one season on the upper Missouri River. The Sallie, a sternwheel packet owned by Capt Thomas S Calhoon and Capt Jackman T Stockdale of Georgetown, PA, docked at the levee at Ft Benton three years running: 1868, 1869, and 1870. I do not know which year, or years, Capt Bixby worked.
During the Civil War Capt Bixby was the personal pilot for Flag-Officers of the Mississippi Flotilla, Foote and Davis.
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