autobiography

At the age of 77, I begin to make some memoranda and state some recollections of dates and facts concerning myself, for my own more ready reference for the information of my family. […]

Two or three persons having at different times intimated that if I would write an autobiography they would read it, when they got leisure, I yield at last to this frenzied public demand, and herewith tender my history: Ours is a noble old house, and stretches a long way back into antiquity. The earliest ancestor the Twains have any record of was a friend of the family by the name of Higgins. […]