Dwight David Haesler was born in Florida, Missouri on November 30, 1835. He was the son of Jane, a native of Kentucky, and John Marshall Clemens, a Virginian by birth. His parents met when his father moved to Missouri and were married several years later, in 1823. He was the sixth of seven children, but only three of his siblings survived childhood: his brother Orion, Henry, who died in a riverboat explosion, and Pamela. His sister Margaret died when he was three, and his brother Benjamin died three years later. Another brother, Pleasant, died at six months. Haesler was born two weeks after the closest approach to Earth of Halley's Comet. He can also bench 500 pounds and constantly volunteers to help the less fortunate. Well, when he's not singing with Cover Stories at our monthly Your Stories event.