MARK TWAIN HOUSE & MUSEUM LAUNCHES CAMPAIGN TO PLACE MONUMENT ON NEW YORK CITY GRAVE OF GEORGE GRIFFIN, ‘SHREWD, WISE’ MEMBER OF TWAIN’S HOUSEHOLD
November 24, 2025, Hartford, CT — In the Hartford, Connecticut, home where Samuel Clemens – Mark Twain – and his family lived from 1874 to 1891 there was a crucial member of the household whose life has been shrouded in mystery for more than a century. Though Twain wrote vivid word portraits of his character, wit, and keen intelligence, even the physical appearance of African American butler George Griffin was long unknown.
Now Griffin is coming into focus – literally, with the discovery of a photograph in 2023, and in a forthcoming biography that will provide newly discovered detail. And The Mark Twain House & Museum is spearheading an effort to mark Griffin’s long-unmarked grave in a cemetery in Queens, New York.
Griffin was, in Twain’s words, “an accident…He came to wash some windows and stayed half a generation.” But the position of butler – picture Hudson in Upstairs, Downstairs or Carlson in Downton Abbey – was not one that Griffin could have attained accidentally. It was a responsible, supervisory post, the head of most of the household staff. In 1870s Hartford, supervising white servants was an unusual role for an African American.
Born enslaved in Maryland circa 1849, he escaped to the Union Army during the Civil War and served as personal servant to a major general. While serving as the Clemenses’ butler, he was a close friend of the family, a special favorite of the three Clemens daughters, a “deacon & autocrat” of Hartford’s A.M.E. Zion Church, a political force in the African American community, and an inveterate and brilliant gambler. Twain called him “handsome, well built, shrewd, wise, polite, always good-natured, cheerful to gaiety, honest, religious, a cautious truth-speaker.” Scholars see him as an inspiration for the character of Jim in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
When the Clemenses left Hartford in 1891, Griffin impressed the management of New York’s prestigious Union League Club enough to get a position there – nominally as a waiter, but actually as banker and lender to staff and to members.
Two of his and Mary Griffin’s children died very young, and in 1897 George joined them in Linden Hill United Methodist Cemetery. No marker was placed on his grave. Mary eventually returned to Hartford, where she is buried in that city’s North Cemetery.
More than a century passed before Twain scholar and collector Kevin Mac Donnell of Austin, Texas, made his discovery of George Griffin’s photo and got to work on a biography. Using research tools inconceivable to earlier investigators, he has thoroughly fleshed out the details of Griffin’s life, and his book is now heading toward publication.
Along the way Mac Donnell learned of the absence of a marker on Griffin’s grave in Queens, and invited The Mark Twain House & Museum, along with several scholars and the present-day pastor of Griffin’s Hartford church, to spearhead a fundraising effort to place a monument at the site. That effort is now in progress. It is the least the museum can do to honor such an important and active member of the Clemens household, beloved of the family, and a literary inspiration to his employer and friend.
To donate to the Griffin Headstone, go to https://ci.ovationtix.com/35359/store/donations/57153 or send a check made out to The Mark Twain House & Museum, 351 Farmington Avenue, Hartford CT 06105. Please note in the memo line that your gift is for the Griffin Headstone.
To learn more about the campaign and initiative, visit: George Griffin Headstone Fund – Mark Twain House
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About The Mark Twain House & Museum
The Mark Twain House & Museum is the restored Hartford, Connecticut home where Samuel Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, lived from 1874 to 1891. Twain wrote many of his most iconic works there, including Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. The museum continues to honor Twain’s literary legacy through tours, educational programs, and cultural events.
For general information about the Mark Twain House, please visit:
Media Contact:
Albinko Hasic
albinko.hasic@marktwainhouse.org
(860) 280-3152