Admin

The U.S.S. Hannibal was named in honor of the great military leader of Carthage who defeated the Romans during the Second Punic War.

More Info

Learn more about the Carthaginian general Hannibal

Dedicated on Veteran's Day in 2021, this monument was the result of planning and fundraising efforts that started in 2018. The monument features the bell from the U.S.S. Hannibal, which served the Navy from its completion in 1898 through both World Wars. The Navy agreed to send the bell to this Missouri city in the late 1940s, and it was located in Kiwanis Park prior to the creation of this monument. The path to the memorial includes nearly four hundred bricks that bear the names of local service members. A nearby Hannibal monument that was dedicated in 1962, known as the Marion County Veterans Memorial, bears the names of all the local soldiers who died in World War I and World War II.

Veterans Memorial, Hannibal Missouri 

This walking tour begins at a pair of sites related to Mark Twain along the banks of the Mississippi River and concludes with a museum dedicated to the Unsinkable Molly Brown. The tour includes several museums and landmarks related to Hannibal and its most famous resident along with historic downtown buildings and other landmarks. Highlights of the tour include the Hannibal History Museum, a statue of Congressman William Hatch, Rockcliffe Mansion, and the birthplace of Unsinkable Molly Brown who survived the Titanic and used her celebrity status to support social issues including women's suffrage. 

The Mark Twain Memorial Lighthouse honors the life and legacy of American writer, Mark Twain, who grew up here in Hannibal. The lighthouse, which is merely ornamental and not a navigational aid, is located on Cardiff Hill, which is where two of Twain's more popular fictional characters—Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn—played with their friends. The current structure is not the original one, which was first erected in 1935 to commemorate Twain's 100th birthday. A second lighthouse was built in 1960 after the first was blown over by a windstorm. This one was torn down and replaced by the current structure in 2019. Visitors reach the lighthouse via a staircase that leads up from Rock Street (it also appears that one can reach it from the Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn statue on North Street). The site also includes an interpretive sign describing the history of the lighthouse. It is not clear whether visitors can climb inside it.

Mark Twain Memorial Lighthouse

Mark Twain, one of America's most notable writers and humorists, published the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in 1844. This novel depicts the life of a young man named Huck Finn who searches for adventure and meaning while also escaping an abusive father. In 1876, Twain followed up his previous novel with a sequel titled The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. These two young men have very different lives, but they form a bond of friendship and mutual support. Tom and Huck are stereotypical boys of the period who partake in mischievous events as they navigate their way through the world. Their mischievous adventures led them to be one of the most famous duos in American literature. The fictional town in which Tom Sawyer grows up is based in Hannibal, a river city where Mark Twain spent his childhood.This statue was created as a gift to the city in 1926 by George Mahan, the man most responsible for the lasting connection between Samuel Clemens and Hannibal through his acts of historic preservation and boosterism. Mahan purchased the boyhood home of Samuel Clemens when it was a rental property scheduled for demolition and effort to preserve the home had stalled. Mahan also covered the cost of restoration and supported efforts to create a small tourism industry around the legend of Mark Twain in the early 20th century. This statue is one of the earliest monuments depicting characters from a work of fiction, and remains a popular place for visitors to take photographs while imagining themselves having misadventures along the Mississippi River in the 19th century. Visitors to the statue can also visit the nearby museum to Mark Twain's life and several other related landmarks.

Since 1926, this space at the foot of Cardiff Hill has been home to this statue which depicts two of Mark Twain's most famous characters, Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. The duo looks over Main Street and remains a popular photo opportunity for tourists. The statue was created by artist Frederick Hibbard and funded by local resident George Mahan to celebrate Hannibal's connection to Samuel Clemens (better known by his author pseudonym Mark Twain). Mahan also purchased the boyhood home of Samuel Clemens and gifted it to the city, in addition to helping fund Hannibal's Mark Twain Hotel. The statue is only blocks away from the Mississippi River, a central location in Twain's stories that involve these two characters.

Tom & Huck Statue

Mark Twain, whose real name was Samuel Langhorne Clemens (he used a number of other pen names including Sieur Louis de Conte and Thomas Jefferson Snodgrass),&nbsp;was one of America's greatest writers. He was born on November 30, 1835 in Florida, Missouri to a large family; he was the sixth of seven children (he and three siblings would survive into adulthood). The Clemens moved to Hannibal when Twain was four. This move would be consequential for his development as a writer because many of his stories, most notably the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and the Adventures of Tom Sawyer,&nbsp;were based on his experiences living here.&nbsp; Twain's literary career began when he became a printer's&nbsp;apprentice at the&nbsp;local Missouri Courier&nbsp;newspaper after completing fifth grade. He was tasked with placing the type for newspaper's stories, which gave him the opportunity to read them. In 1851, he started working for his brother, Orion, who had&nbsp;owned a publication called the Hannibal Journal. Twain worked as a typesetter and published articles. He also became the editor when Orion was away.&nbsp;&nbsp; For the next few years, after&nbsp;he turned 18, Twain&nbsp;headed to St. Louis, Philadelphia, New York City, and then Cincinnati where he found employment at other newspapers. He returned to Missouri in 1857 to become an apprentice "cub" river pilot under Captain Horace Bixby, who was a well-known steamboat pilot at the time. Twain received his pilot's license two years later. It was during this time that he adopted his pen name; "mark twain" is a term to describe twelve feet deep of water.&nbsp; At the outbreak of the Civil War, traffic on the Mississippi River was halted. Twain then&nbsp;joined a local Confederate militia but quit after just two weeks. He then moved to Nevada to work for his brother Orion who had been recently appointed Secretary of Nevada; Twain became Orion's secretary. However, he caught mining fever and hoped to become rich.&nbsp;His life as a miner did not pan out despite traveling around the territory. But he did write humorous pieces and articles&nbsp;for the Virginia Territorial Enterprise. In 1863, he began using the pseudonym, Mark Twain.&nbsp; In the coming years, Twain moved to San Francisco and spent a few months as a correspondent in Hawaii. He got a big break in 1865 when he wrote a story called&nbsp;"The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County." It became an immediate hit around the country. The next year, Twain went on a lecture tour around the country. His life became even better in 1870 when he married his wife, Livy. They moved to Hartford, Connecticut and built a large home (also a Clio entry) in 1874. During the next couple of decades, Twain would write his most famous works including The&nbsp;Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and&nbsp;A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. Unfortunately, while Twain earned a lot of money for his work and lectures, he got into serious financial trouble after making a series of bad investments. He and his family were forced to sell the house and moved to Europe in 1891. However, he was able to gradually pay back his debts by writing and giving lectures, and he also got financial help from friends.&nbsp; Twain suffered a number of personal losses in his later years. In 1896, his daughter Suzy died of meningitis. His wife Olivia passed away in 1904, and another daughter, Jean, died in 1909. Twain himself passed away on April 21, 1910 in Redding, Connecticut and was buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in Woodlawn, New York. He was 74.

The Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum is dedicated to promoting the legacy of writer Mark Twain (1835-1910) and preserving the historic properties associated with him here in Hannibal, most notably the house in which lived in between c.1843-1853. The museum complex consists of eight buildings, a garden, and a statue depicting two of Twain's famous characters, Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. The historic structures are: the Boyhood Home, the WPA Stone Building (located next to the home), the John M. Clemens Justice of the Peace Office, Grant's Drug Store, the Becky Thatcher House, the Interpretive Center, the Huckleberry Finn House, and the Museum Gallery building. The Interpretive Center is the starting point for museum visitors, and the Museum Gallery building features exhibits displaying Twain books and items belonging to him, as well as 15 original Norman Rockwell paintings depicting Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. The Boyhood Home is a National Historic Landmark and a contributing property of the Mark Twain Historic District (some of the buildings of the museum complex are contributing properties to the district as well). The museum opened in 1912 when the Boyhood Home was donated to the city.

Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum

Established in 2011, the Hannibal History Museum tells the story of the city's rich history. Exhibits trace this history beginning with the Native Americans who lived in the area and the city's founding. Other exhibits explore the antebellum and Civil War periods, the lumber industry, the city's economic growth of the 20th century, art and architecture, and notable figures from Hannibal including "the unsinkable" Molly Brown, who survived the sinking of the Titanic cruise ship and became a leading activist and social reformer of the period. In addition, the museum also offers guided historic Hannibal tours and haunted ghost tours. 

Hannibal History Museum

During the 1850s, the Benjamin Horr House served as a school operated by Elizabeth Horr, who had been a teacher to one of Hannibal's most famous residents: Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain). Indeed, anyone who has read Tom Sawyer or Huckleberry Finn has been given insight into Hannibal's influence on Twain; he lived in the Mississippi River town from 1839 - 1853. Twain attended a private school in a small log house operated by Elizabeth Horr. A middle-aged woman from New England, she charged families twenty-five cents a week per child. Her daughter, Elizabeth N. Horr (Lizzie), helped in teaching the upper grades. Twain recalled in his diary: "There were no public schools in Hannibal in those early years, but there were two private schools in Hannibal—terms twenty-five cents per week per pupil, and collect it if you can. Mrs. Horr taught the children, in a small log house…; Mr. Sam Cross taught the young people of larger growth in a frame schoolhouse on the hill."Although Missouri initially provided funding for one school per township during the 1840s, many towns never established or built schools. In fact, the school Twain attended speaks to the stereotypical schooling of Missouri and many states throughout the American South where there existed little in the way of public education. Instead, most of the time, only those who could pay to go to private schools received a school-based education. Benjamin Horr, the town cooper, purchased the lot where the historic home lay in 1845. The house arose around ten years later, likely after Twain left town. (They probably built the home around 1854 or 1855, but the exact date is unknown.) Although the Horr family built the house as their residence, Elizabeth and Lizzie continued to teach children in the home; hence, it dually acted as a home and a school. By 1859, Lizzie operated the "Ladies Select Academy" in the house. After the Civil War, the city organized a public school, and Lizzie married and moved away. Legislation in 1865 and 1874, a period when the state experienced a population boom, allowed it to drastically improve its public education system. The number of public schools in the state climbed from 48,000 in 1867 to 75,000 in 1870; enrollment grew from 169,000 to 280,000. By 1900, Missouri supported more than ten thousand rural, mainly one-room schools. Because most of the early schools are gone, the survival of the Horr House allows onlookers to see how a "school" looked in Hannibal during the mid-nineteenth century. And, as a bonus, it provides another link to Mark Twain.

Built around 1855 by the town cooper, Benjamin Horr, the a two-story, vernacular Greek Revival style Benjamin Horr House is the earliest surviving building in Hannibal used for education. The building survives as a reminder of an era before public education became a societal norm. Elizabeth Horr, who managed the school in the house, had previously taught Mark Twain (Samuel Clemons) in a log house in Hannibal, an experience for which Twain spoke fondly. During the late 1850s, the building served as the home to the Ladies Select Academy, run by Elizabeth Horr's daughter, "Lizzie."

Benjamin Horr House

Although Hannibal was founded about 1819, it did not see much growth, albeit conservative, until officials re-platted the city in 1836. Roughly thirty people called Hannibal home in 1836, but the population exceeded 450 by 1840. Initially, the city's business center existed in an area known today as what Mark Twain Historic District, named for the pen name of the famous author Sam Cleraens, who lived in the area. Because Hannibal is surrounded by hills, the city remained nearly isolated until modern road building allowed for better access into the town. In 1852, the Hannibal and New London Plank Road and Bridge Company organized; they constructed an access road that ostensibly opened Hannibal to outside locations by the 1860s. The new road also caused a shift in the business center which can be seen with the construction of this building and others.The construction of the Hannibal &amp; St. Joseph Railroad during the 1850s coincided with the town's economic transformation, transitioning from a city that exported agricultural commodities to one recognized as a lumber center. The expanding lumber industry led to financial growth for the small city, demonstrated by the increased number of banks in downtown Hannibal. Moreover, the economic expansion allowed the town to mature, as seen by the development of its utility companies and infrastructure, including the gas company Hack came to manage.The Hock Building survives as one of the few early commercial buildings in Hannibal for which the builder is known: J. M. Fatten (1837-1898). In addition to building the Hock Building, Fatten profited from the city's burgeoning lumber industry by operating a local planing mill. When the building opened, O'Hern and Hayward, Plumbers, Gas &amp; Steam Fitters occupied the first floor of the building; they primarily served gas customers. O'Hern, another Irish immigrant, married Hock's daughter, Mary. Meanwhile, the third floor functioned as a public meeting hall where a variety of organizations met, including the Negro Masonic Temple- a fraternal organization composed of many of the city's African American leaders.

This historic Hannibal structure was completed in 1872 by Ireland native John Hock shortly before his passing. Hock came to Hannibal around 1860, a little more than forty years after the city's founding in 1819. Hock managed the Hannibal Gas Company, founded by a group of St. Louis businessmen in 1858. Mounting debt during the early years of the Civil War forced the group to sell the nascent business at auction. Hock purchased the company outright in 1864. and completed this building eight years later during a time when Hannibal began to experience robust commercial and financial expansion.

Hock Building

This monument is one of several in the city of Hannibal that is dedicated in honor of veterans. After a successful fundraising campaign, another veterans monument was dedicated during Veterans Day observations in 2021 at the Cardiff Hill overlook that incorporates the bell from the USS Hannibal. That vessel served in conflicts from the Samish-American War in 1898 to World War I and World War II. The ship was decommissioned in 1944, and its bell was on display at Kiwanis Park until the creation of the new monument at Cardiff Hill overlook.

Dedicated in 1962, this monument includes the names of all of the men from Hannibal, Missouri, who died in service to their country during World War I and World War II. The monument was created with the help of the city and state government along with numerous local organizations, including both the VFW and American Legion posts, along with the Service Mothers of World War II. In recent years, the public library has worked to provide genealogical information about many of the veterans whose names appear on the plaques that adorn each side of the monument. In front of the monument is a stone with a plaque placed in honor of men who died in World War I that was dedicated in 1922 by the Woman's Auxiliary American Legion.

Marion County Veterans Memorial

William Henry Hatch was born in Kentucky in 1833. After studying law in Lexington, he passed the bar exam in 1854 and opened up a practice soon after. He became a circuit attorney in 1858 and remained as such until 1860. He joined the Confederate Army during the Civil War and in 1862 was appointed captain and assistant adjutant general. The next year he became assistant commissioner of exchange of prisoners under the cartel.&nbsp; After spending several years of practicing law in Hannibal,&nbsp;Hatch ran for Congress as a Democrat in 1878 and won the first of eight successive terms. During this time he served as&nbsp;chairman of the Committee on Agriculture. In addition to the Hatch Act, he implemented reforms in federally mandated&nbsp;food inspections, and established national standards in animal hygiene control.&nbsp;He tried and failed to become Speaker of the House in 1892 as well as Secretary of Agriculture. Hatch returned to Hannibal in 1895 after his term ended. He ran his farm there until he passed away on December 23, 1896.

Located in Central Park, this statue honors notable Hannibal resident William Henry Hatch (1833-1896), who served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1873 to 1895. He is best known for his work to pass the Hatch Act of 1887, which granted federal funds to land-grant colleges to create agricultural experiment stations. As a result, American agricultural output improved significantly. Next to the statue is a historical marker providing a brief description of Hatch's life. 

William Henry Hatch Statue

Robert Elliott was born in England in 1846 and came with his family to the United States in 1855, settling in Massachusetts. Elliot's brother, Sgt. Joseph Elliott died in service during the Civil War at the age of 26. In 1869, Elliott, at the age of 24, married Alice Maria Reed in Taunton, MA; they had three daughters. Robert Elliott moved his young family to Hannibal, Missouri, during the early part of the 1870s. By 1881, he partnered with Frank W. Wyman to operate a wholesale grocery warehouse. Hannibal's early economy was based on river trade; flour, pork, and other local products were shipped out, while virtually everything else was imported, much of it to be sent on to points farther inland. Improved roads and railroads reduced the need for this service, but it survived in part as the wholesale grocery business, including Robert Elliott's Wholesale Grocery business.During 1890, a new grocery warehouse, operated by Dulany and Robert Elliott, was completed and was in operation, built of concrete and steel with a brick exterior. Elliott's wholesale grocery arose concurrently with Hannibal's commercial building boom. In addition to the grocery business, during the 1880s and 1890s, Elliot served as president of the Hannibal Board of Trade, president of the Merchants and Mechanics Loan and Building Association, president of Hannibal's board of education, president of the Hannibal Free Public Library, and the local Republican Party chapter attempted to nominate Elliot for governor. His wife, Alice, represented the Hannibal Women's Club at the first annual convention of the Missouri State Federation of Women's Clubs, held in Kansas City.Hannibal and his family lived as social elites within Hannibal, resided in a nice home, and were members of Hannibal's trendy Congregational Church. In 1897, Elliott's financial success came to an end and he and his family left Hannibal and returned to Massachusetts where he took a job as an insurance agent in Boston. The financial collapse apparently took a significant toll on Elliot as he later traveled to Chicago to undergo treatment at a sanatorium. Meanwhile, William J. Roth took over the historic building and grocery business in 1901. He restored the success of the wholesale grocery business Elliot helped build, and it once again became one of the most extensive wholesale grocery establishments in central Missouri. Roth enjoyed his own brand of success, operating several companies and gaining wealth in the process. In 1904, Roth established the Hannibal Trust Company serving as its president. The company operated as a bank, loan center, insurance company, and more, becoming a significant aspect of Hannibal's commercial activities. In 1905, Hannibal's Business Men's Association, a promoter of the city's commercial interests, reorganized as the Retail Merchants' Association. The new group created a factory committee to look after factories and other enterprises desiring to locate in the city; W. J. Roth served on that committee.Elliott returned to Massachusetts after his treatment in Chicago, but he died shortly thereafter, in the summer of 1908, at 62 years old, but his daughters continued to prosper. Elliott's youngest daughter, Ruth, graduated college and went on to teach high school in New Jersey until the Great Depression. During the 1930 and 1940s, she served as an executive secretary for a religious organization in Manhattan, N.Y, living at the Madison Square Hotel on Madison Avenue. Meanwhile, Elliott's oldest daughter, Katherine Reed Elliott, a graduate of Wellesley College in Alberta and Oxford University, was featured in the 1914 edition of Woman's Who's Who of America. Alice Elliot married Thomas Brown, whose family operated a successful jewelry business (Brown Bros' Jewelers). In 1905, Thomas and Alice Brown moved to Quincy, IL, where he opened a jewelry store. By the 1920s, the couple moved to Chicago, where Brown took a job with the Marshal Field Department Store. Alice's mom and Robert Elliot's widow, Alice, lived with the couple in Chicago.

Constructed in 1890 by Robert Elliott to support his distribution network that supplied area grocery stores, this historic structure serves as a reminder of a period of rapid growth in Hannibal. Elliott moved with his wife to Hannibal during the 1870s and became one of the most prosperous merchants in the area. He was also a champion of free public libraries and president of several business organizations. The grocery business benefited and supported the town's prolific river trade industry. However, Elliot's immense success proved short-lived and he went bankrupt in 1897. William J. Roth, who already had a retail grocery in the west end of town, took over the building at that time.

 Robert Elliott's Wholesale Grocery Building

Hannibal's post-Native-American history begins in 1918 when Abraham Bird obtained the land as compensation for the losses he suffered during the 1911 earthquake in his hometown of New Madrid. One year later, the town of was platted and called Hannibal. Only a few families resided in the new town throughout the 1820s and the incorporation of Hannibal did not transpire until 1838, when a newly formed Hannibal Company sold land at low prices to settlers.Like numerous other Mississippi River towns, Hannibal owed its initial growth to river trade. Steamboats docked along the Hannibal waterfront with shipments of grain, hemp, hogs, and especially lumber, which grew to be the city's largest and most valuable resource through the nineteenth century. Hannibal's early industries included a pork-packing plant, tobacco factories, flour mills, and sawmills.The greatest boost to the town's development came in 1859 with the completion of the Hannibal and St. Joseph railroad. Despite the Civil War, Hannibal experienced robust population growth and economic expansion during the 1860s. Hannibal's population reached 10,125 in 1870, which climbed to around 15,000 by 1878 (around the time construction of the now-historic Police Station and Jail commenced). The town enjoyed a reputation for its frugalness for much of its early history, which included a tradition of constructing buildings that supported several municipal agencies. Hannibal's first police station and court shared a building with the fire department and city-government offices. Hannibal's first jail (a calaboose) opened in 1841. After suffering damanage during a fire in 1853, the city repaired the calaboose, which allowed it to serve the city until 1879 when the now-historic Police Station and Jail opened; the city demolished the original structure in 1922.The new jail arose as a result of Hannibal's aforementioned growth, which included more prisoners. City officials began debating a new plan in 1878, with some budget-minded city councilmen proposing the city convert the lower story of the fire station into the new jail, thus combining jail, police, and other city offices more conveniently. However, the plan proved highly impracticable. Thus, the Hannibal city council authorized a new jail building if the cost could be held under $1,000, an unrealistically low figure even in during the 1870s. Finally, after nearly a year of debate, the council handed the matter over to Hannibal's mayor, J.F.K. Hayward. He had long believed the best plan involved building next door to the fire station at 4th and Church; the city council approved of his idea on July 28, 1879. Keeping with the city's tendency to construct multi-purpose public buildings, the cell block and police department, comprised of a police chief and six officers, occupied the first block while the second floor served as the home to a courtroom and city offices, ostensibly operating as City Hall. A church also used the upper floor for many years. But, in 1914, the city built a new building to house its offices, and the historic building largely served only the police and its jail. In 1976, the city completed a new, modern 25,000-square-foot police station, which left the fate of the 1879 structure in doubt. City officials hoped to demolish it, but public outcry prevented that plan from coming to fruition. Instead, the building ended up in the hands of the Hannibal Fine Arts Museum, whose staff and volunteers restored it to use as a museum and community center. Currently, as of 2022, the building is home to the Old Jail Museum &amp; Gift Shop.

The Hannibal Police Station and Jail opened in 1879 during a time of growth and expansion for the city. The population boom included an increase in prisoners, pushing the city to build a new jail. Although the building's Victorian architecture seems extravagant, city officials at the time routinely limited costs by constructing public buildings that served many purposes or agencies. The Police Station and Jail also served as home to city offices (City Hall), a courtroom, and a church.

Hannibal Old Police Station and Jail

First erected in 1924, the original Clemens Field had the distinction of hosting a night baseball game between Hannibal's team and the acclaimed Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro League on August 15, 1930. (The Monarchs drubbed the Hannibal team 16 - 1 in that game.) The night game occurred five years before Major League Baseball played its first night game. The Monarchs carried their own lighting system from town to town, which helped them play more games and, in turn, earn a living in the process. A fire destroyed the original Clemens Field facility during the Great Depression on August 14, 1936. As part of a Works Project Administration project, workers built the current Clemens Field from 1936 to 1938, which included constructing a grandstand behind home plate and a limestone wall around the perimeter; workers quarried the local limestone and used it for the wall.In the fall of 1944, the wall proved extra valuable when the stadium acted as a German prisoner-of-war camp, housing nearly 200 Prisoners of War (POWs), who lived in tents surrounded by barbed wire. The POWs sorted military shoes collected by the army in Europe and sent them to Hannibal, where prisoners repaired the shoes and returned them to Europe; the soldiers distributed them to refugees. However, the field's primary function for most of its existence involved hosting professional (minor league) baseball teams, which include:<ul><li>Hannibal Pilots (1947–48)</li><li>Hannibal Stags (1952)</li><li>Hannibal Cardinals (1953–1954)</li><li>Hannibal Citizens (1955)</li></ul>Hannibal teams briefly served as an MLB affiliate, first as a "farm team" for the St. Louis Browns (1947) and then the St. Louis Cardinals (1953–1954). Minor League baseball left Hannibal in 1955, leaving Clemens Field to be used for various baseball and community functions. In 2008, Clemens Field received a $3.3 million renovation that preserved the original grandstand and brick wall perimeter, adding 2,500 seats and modern amenities. The collegiate league team Hannibal Cavemen played at the stadium from 2008 to 2016.Also, in 2016, the town added a new gate to the ballpark entrance called the Jake Beckley .308 Gate. The gate pays homage to the Hall of Fame baseball player from Hannibal (born 1867), who played in the MLB from 1888 to 1907, hitting .308 for his career after collecting 2,934 hits, 1,578 RBIs, and 1,602 runs scored.The Hannibal Hoots played at Clemens Stadium in 2018 but flooding the next year damaged the field, forcing the Hoots to relocate to Quincy, Illinois. Since then, the stadium has primarily hosted amateur baseball organizations.

Hannibal's Clemens Field has been home to numerous minor-league baseball teams and was constructed during the 1930s as part of a New Deal program managed by the Works Progress Administration. The Clemens Field name is a reference to Hannibal's most famous resident: Samuel Clemons (Mark Twain). Demonstrating change over time, the ballpark later served as a German prisoner-of-war camp and then returned to hosting baseball teams after World War II. The park replaced the original structure which was built during the 1920s but destroyed in a fire. That original stadium hosted a night game five years before Major League Baseball played a game under the lights when the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro League beat the Hannibal team 16 - 1 in 1930 under the innovative traveling light system they brought on trucks. The Monarchs players were far better than those of the local nine, but these professionally usually kept games close when playing on the road as these road games were essential to their financial viability and the players earned extra money while barnstorming. As a result, this box score might provide an indication that the players did not desire to return to Hanibal owing to some aspect of their welcome.

Clemens Field

The historic building's Second Empire style derives inspiration from sixteenth and seventeenth-century French designs. Alfred B. Hullett adapted the French techniques to U.S. government building designs when he served as Supervising Architect of the U.S. Treasury from 1865 to 1874. The size and elaborate design speak to the importance of the building, both because it's a federal building and to demonstrate the significance of Hannibal as the building's home. U.S. Representative for Hannibal, William Henry Hatch, famous for authoring the Hatch Act of 1887 (dealing with agricultural research; see links below for more info), sponsored the creation and construction of the Hannibal federal building. Moreover, when funds ran low during construction, Hatch shepherded four additional appropriations through Congress to ensure its completion as initially designed. The Post Office occupied the first floor and basement while the Internal Revenue Service, U.S. Weather Bureau (1892 - 1933), Pension Bureau (1895 - 1899), Army &amp; Navy recruiters (1930 - 1960), and the Prohibition enforcement officer (roughly 1920 - 1933) occupied various spaces within the building. And despite Congress waiting until 1887 to authorize the U.S. Court for the Eastern District of Missouri and their infrequent usage of the building (they only met in Hannibal twice a year, for less than two weeks at a time), the court occupied most of the second and third floors. The U.S. Circuit Court for the district met in the building until its abolishment in 1912.Increased postal volume led to calls for the expansion of the building starting in 1922, but it took until 1932 for funding to materialize and another two years for the wing to open in 1934. The government erected a new federal building in 1960 across the street, allowing the former (now-historic) structure to serve as the Naval Reserve Building, which remained its function until 1979.The city received the Old Federal Building from the federal government in 1982, and they leased it to Franklin Winters shortly thereafter. Winters leased the Old Federal Building at 600 Broadway until 2003. He operated restaurants and bars in the building, but city officials discovered bird droppings and dead birds on the building's upper floors; the building sat in a severe state of disrepair. Since then, the building has been repaired, and a bar occupies its lowest floor, but questions remain regarding its long-term purpose.

The United States Congress authorized the establishment of the Court House and Post Office in Hannibal, Missouri, on May 25, 1882. Imposing federal buildings often symbolized their importance and served as symbols of a town's significance. Public officials acquired the property on July 31, 1883; construction on the historic federal building finished in the summer of 1884 (in 1934, a one-story addition was added.) The building stands as the second oldest U.S. civil structure in Missouri. Its most notable feature involves the Second Empire architectural style, named for the French architectural designs routinely employed during the rule of Napoleon III (the "second empire).

Former Post Office, Court House and Federal Building in Hannibal

The Eighth
and Center Streets Baptist Church was originally organized in the 1830s. At the time,&nbsp;Missouri law prohibited Blacks from gathering
in large groups for any purpose, including gathering for worship, unless the group was supervised by a person of white color. Fortunately in
Hannibal, Blacks managed to found churches and define freedom for
themselves. &nbsp;

The original church structure
was a multi-denominational facility with a multi-racial congregation. The divisions that prevailed throughout the
country during the Civil War also impacted the congregation, causing the original
church to split into a Black and a white church. The land for the present church which was
home to the African American group was purchased by church elders in 1853 for
$37.50. &nbsp;

The site of
the present church structure has early associations with Blanche Kelso Bruce, a
Black leader of national prominence in the post-Civil War period. Blanche K Bruce was a former slave, born in
Prince William County, VA and brought to Missouri while he was still
young.&nbsp; He escaped to Hannibal and
organized the school associated with the Eighth and Center Streets Baptist
Church. Bruce ran the school for several
years, relocating to Mississippi after the Civil War. Bruce was the only Black Senator from
Mississippi to serve a full term in the Reconstruction Era and following years,
serving in the US Senate from 1875 – 1881. Bruce later relocated again to Washington, DC, where he served as a
public official and was a leading citizen. His Washington home is on the National Register of Historic Places as
well.

Other
notable figures associated with Eighth and Center Streets Baptist Church include
Oliver Webb and GH McDaniel. Webb was
the first pastor and served in that capacity for forty years. Webb’s successor, GH McDaniel, was also the
publisher of the Missouri Baptist Standard, the only African American
publication in Missouri at that time.

The Eighth and Center Street Missionary Baptist Church is home to the oldest African-American congregation in Hannibal. Built in 1872, it is located in the Douglasville neighborhood, which is one of the oldest areas in the city. It was designed in the Romanesque style and constructed with red bricks; it also features several stained glass windows. The church, which is the second building erected at this location (the first was built in 1853), is an important religious and social landmark for the African American community. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. In 2016, the Missouri Alliance for Historic Preservation placed the church on its "Places in Peril" list due to declining membership and maintenance costs. The church appears to still be active today.

Eighth and Center Street Missionary Baptist Church

Completed in July 1901, the Marion County Courthouse is the only stand-alone courthouse constructed in Hannibal and one of two courthouses built that year in Marion County. The other courthouse arose in the rival-city Palmyra, amidst political debate between the two cities; Hannibal's population far exceeded Palmyra, the county seat, during the late nineteenth century, So, rather than relocating all of the court's activities to Hannibal, officials decided to divide the courthouse functions among the two towns, which appeared to appease everyone involved in the debate. The building arose at a time when Hannibal's economic and population boom had nearly peaked after decades of expansion, which primarily started in the 1850s.White settlers began filtering into what is now the Marion County area (slowly displacing the indigenous population) after the 1803 Louisiana Purchase and even more so after the federal government surveyed the area in 1818. The Panic of 1819 further pushed people west into Missouri, allowing it to transition from a territory to a state in 1821. Still, most travelers crossed the Mississippi River into St. Louis and traveled to the state's interior rather than make the arduous trip north along the river to what is now Hannibal. Thus, while modern-day Marion County hosted fur traders and a few settlers, the population only slowly climbed during the first decades of the nineteenth century.The establishment of the Missouri Territory included dividing the area into four districts, with Marion County existing as part of the St. Charles District. All civil matters and land claims had to be taken to the district court in St Charles, an onerous trip, to say the least. But, population increases led to county governments and increased courts. Missouri became a state in 1821, and four years later, in 1825, the state established Marion County with Palmyra as the county seat. Although there had been an order to build a courthouse in Palmyra in 1829, the contract was not let until 1831, and it was not until 1835 that the first Marion County Courthouse, a brick building, was completed. From 1853 to 1855, the construction of a new courthouse took place, replacing the first courthouse on the same property. The large, brick building had a tall dome reached by winding stairs that provided a panoramic view of Marion County and the Mississippi River, seemingly demonstrating Palmyra's significance. However, by the 1830s, investors established Hannibal as a riverboat port where farmers traveled to Hannibal to receive or send goods to St. Louis from Hannibal. Although farmers had to travel along poorly maintained roads to Hannibal, the town slowly evolved into the county's primary commercial center due to its connection to St. Louis. By the 1850s, several industries began to arise in Hannibal, furthering its economic expansion and concurrent population increase. Investors viewed the town's growth and access to the river positively, leading to the construction of the Hannibal-St Joseph Railroad. In addition to such industries as wholesale grocery businesses, cigar making, pork packing, flour mills, carriage making, and various small businesses, Hannibal supported a burgeoning lumber industry by the end of the 1850s. Rafts of logs were floated down the Mississippi River from northern forests to Hannibal, where they were cut and processed before getting shipped on the railroad. As a result, Hannibal's population tripled during the 1850s so that by the start of the Civil War, Hannibal's 6,505 residents accounted for nearly half of the country's entire population (14.874); Hannibal had grown from a small settlement to a bonafide economic hub and urban center.The genesis of Hannibal's boom occurred nearly simultaneously with the opening of Palmyra's new courthouse. Even when Hannibal only served as a popular riverside port in 1844, the county established a small Court of Common Pleas, which first only handled maritime matters but quickly grew to handle a variety of legal matters, effectively becoming a City Court. Indeed, in 1861, county officials purchased an old church building to use as the offices for the Hannibal Court of Common Pleas, the Court Clerk's office, and the office of the Probate Court; the urban rivalry had commenced.Although the U.S. Civil War hindered Hannibal's growth, expansion continued quickly after the war ended. Hannibal stood as the nation's fourth largest lumbering center by 1870 and matured into a significant railroad center, demonstrated by the construction of a bridge across the Mississippi in 1871 and the completion of the Union Depot in 1882, effectively ending the town's complete reliance on St. Louis to reach eastern markets. Even when the significance of the lumber industry waned considerably by the 1890s, Hannibal's stance as an economic hub had been cemented, and the city's burgeoning shoe industry helped secure that role. By the early 1900s, Hannibal's population exceeded 18,000, and the city enjoyed the benefits of a streetcar line, had an established modern infrastructure (including electricity, telephone, gas, and water companies), and otherwise appeared as a modern, albeit small, city.Throughout the decades following the Civil War, pressure mounted to build a County Courthouse in Hannibal; some even considered moving the county seat to Hannibal. Palmyra's central location within the county proved less significant because Hannibal's growth coincided with more (and better) roads. The debate created a division within the county, forcing officials to find a compromise that would appease residents and businesses in both cities, as well as rural citizens with attachments to either town. Finally, in 1900, the county decided to fund the construction of two new county courthouses, one in Hannibal and one in Palmyra. In doing so, it required a division of county services with a probate clerk, collectors, assessors, and sheriff's offices operating in both locations. Palmyra remained the official county seat and provided offices for the treasurer, road and bridge commissioner, surveyor, public administrator, and county superintendent of schools, while Hannibal continued to house the county attorney, court clerk, and Court of Common Pleas. The two towns have both served as county-government centers since the 1900 compromise.Hannibal's new building opened on July 12, 1901, while Palmyra's was finished on August 4, 1901. The Palmyra County Courthouse stood as an imposing, three-story, Victorian Romanesque gray brick building with massive round-arched recessed entries and a tall square tower. Hannibal's design drew upon the popular Neoclassical Revival style, noted mostly for its two-story portico and a large dome. The Hannibal County Courthouse also enjoyed the beauty of electric illumination. Not long after the courthouse opened, Hannibal's pattern of growth declined significantly, peaking on the eve of the Great Depression, with a population of 22,761 (the county also reached its peak population of 33,493). Although another boom occurred during the 1950s, the overall county population continued to decline. Thus, the courthouse stands as a reminder of a time when two competing cities battled for regional superiority during a period of growth, but growth that unbeknownst to anyone had nearly peaked. Although the Federal Building has mainly supported bars and restaurants since the 1980s, it stands with the Hannibal Courthouse as one of the few well-preserved public buildings. The courthouse has undergone an extensive, two-decade-long historic rehabilitation that began in 1982.

Designed by well-known Kansas City architect James Oliver Hogg, the Neoclassical Marion County Courthouse was erected in 1901. It features architectural elements typical of the style including Corinthian columns, and a portico. In the center is a large octagonal dome that is topped with an octagonal lantern. The courthouse was the only stand-alone courthouse built in Hannibal, built simultaneously with one built in the county seat of Palmyra. After decades of debate, officials decided to divide county services and built two courthouses in both the county seat and the county's economic hub of Hannibal.

Marion County Courthouse

William C. Ebert had lived in Hannibal since before the Civil War when he partnered with William League at the Daily Messenger. He then formed a new partnership named Frazee, Ebert, &amp; Co., and they subsequently purchased the paper from League in 1860. In 1863, as part of a new firm called Winchell, Ebert &amp; Marsh, Ebert consolidated the Daily Messenger with the Palmyra (Missouri) Courier, the paper for which Mark Twain had worked when it operated in Hannibal from 1848-1855. (The resulting paper, now known as the Hannibal Courier-Post, has remained in business to this day.) Ebert built the historic home in 1865, only a couple of years after the newspaper consolidation. The house enjoyed a Second Empire design style, a popular choice for homes and businesses at the time. The term, Second Empire speaks to the French designs associated with the reign of Napoleon III (1852-1870), or the nation's "second empire." Under Napoleon III, famed urban planner Eugene Haussmann and other builders transformed Paris into a city of grand boulevards and large buildings enjoying Renaissance-inspired architecture. The Second Empire architectural trend spread throughout Europe and the U.S. during the nineteenth century. In addition to operating the newspaper, Ebert's firm, which was incorporated in 1870, also printed blanks and blank books and became widely known, employing about fifty people. However, substantial financial losses in 1879 and 1880 resulted in the company's liquidation and forced Ebert to sell the historic home.The home changed hands a few times during the 1880s until Fanny W. Dulany, wife of George William Dulany, bought the house in 1886. George W. Dulaney's father, William H. Dulany, spent twenty years as a tobacco farmer before moving to Hannibal in 1867 and thereupon establishing a lumber company in partnership with his brother. Hannibal benefited first from a steamboat and river trade industry, followed by a flourishing railroad and lumber industry, which boosted Hannibal's commercial growth and economic prosperity considerably. The Dulany family enjoyed tremendous success with their lumber operation, known as the Empire Lumber Company; they also owned an operated the Hannibal Saw Mill Company. George W. Dulany eventually served as manager of the family business. However, despite Minnesota and Wisconsin once having bountiful forests, the timber companies depleted those natural resources, which meant less lumber available for processing in Hannibal by 1900. Thus, the Hannibal Saw Mill Company closed in 1901 after twenty years of business, and the Empire Lumber Company closed its doors a few years later. G. W. Dulany played a pivotal role in diversifying Hannibal's economy, which ostensibly saved the town from significant decline. Dulany arranged for the Business Men's Association to purchase thirty-three acres of his lumber yard, which they offered free to new industries. He then helped organize the Bluff City Shoe Company, which became one of the first and most successful factories to locate in this new industrial district. In addition to aiding the town, his success in bringing in a new industry resulted in personal financial gain, demonstrated by improvements he made to the historic home during the first decade of the 1900s.In 1911, Dulany underwrote roughly forty-two percent of the construction costs of the YMCA, and he bequeathed another $40 thousand to the organization when he died in 1923. Between those times, in 1917, George and Fanny Dulany sold their house and moved to Dallas, Texas, to be with their daughter. During the Great Depression, the historic home was subdivided into apartments and a small retail business. In 1981, a restoration company specializing in historic preservation purchased the Ebert-Dulany house and then spent several years removing the subdivisions and restoring the home to its original design.

The Ebert-Dulany House, constructed around 1865-1870 in Hannibal, is an exemplary Second Empire style home. William C. Ebert, who worked for newspapers and printing companies, built the historic home. Later, George W. Dulany, whose family existed among Hannibal's elite lumber-industry barons, purchased the house. Dulany proved significant in diversifying Hannibal's industrial base when the decline of the lumber industry at the turn of the century threatened the city's future.

Ebert-Dulany House

John J. Cruikshank Jr. learned about the lumber industry beginning at a young age as his father was a successful lumberman. John Sr. moved his business to Louisiana and Missouri in 1856 to take advantage of the Mississippi River, which was used to float lumber from Minnesota and Wisconsin to mills downriver. The lumber would then be shipped via railroad to markets to the western and southern states in the U.S.. John Jr. took over the business in 1864 and oversaw its dramatic growth. The company went from processing one million feet of lumber in the first year to 40 million feet by the late 1880s. It is estimated that John Jr. owned half a million dollars in 1883.John Jr. built the mansion in 1898 showing his standing in the community and hosted many gatherings here. At the mansion's opening reception in 1901, an orchestra serenaded 700 guests. His daughter, Gladys, got married twice here and famous writer Mark Twain gave a speech to 300 guests in 1902 at a reception of the Hannibal Society. However, John Jr. passed away in 1924 and his family moved away which left the mansion vacant for 43 years. Eventually, it was scheduled for demolition. Fortunately, three local families saved the house and began working on it to give it more care after years of vacancy. After the work was completed in 1968, a member of John Jr.’s family returned many of the original furniture that was in the mansion when it was finished the first time. Despite the decades of no one living there, the mansion has remained in good shape even before renovations. Future plans are to keep the mansion looking like it did when it first opened. The mansion now operates as both a public museum and a hotel.

Built in 1898 and designed in the Georgian Revival style, Rockcliffe Mansion is one of the largest and most beautiful buildings in Hannibal. It was built on a bluff overlooking the city and the Mississippi River by wealthy lumber baron John J. Cruikshank Jr. in 1898. The exterior of the house features numerous interesting design elements including Corinthian columns, a two-story portico, arched windows, and a cupola on the center of the roof. As one may expect, the interior is elaborately designed, specifically in the Late Victorian and Art Nouveau styles. There are 30 rooms, 10 unique marble and tiled fireplaces, Tiffany-designed stained glass windows, chandeliers, hand-carved woodwork, and antique furnishings and fixtures, most of which are original to the mansion. The mansion now operates as a museum and bed and breakfast hotel.

Rockcliffe Mansion

Margaret Tobin Brown was born on July 18, 1867 in Hannibal. Her parents were Irish Catholic immigrants and she had four siblings and two-half sisters. Throughout her life, she was mostly referred to as Maggie, not Molly. She attended a school run by her aunt until the age of 13 and started to work in a local tobacco factory. In 1886, she moved to the mining town of Leadville, Colorado to live with&nbsp;her brother, Daniel, who worked as a miner. Their half-sister, Mary Ann and her husband, had already moved there in 1883. Maggie found work at a dry goods store sewing and carpets and draperies.&nbsp; Soon after she arrived in Leadville, Maggie met her future husband James Joseph Brown, who worked as a miner. They got married on September 1st 1886 and would have two children together, Lawrence and Catherine. After several years of hard work, James struck it rich. In 1893, working for the Ibex mining company, James found a large vein gold in a mine called the Little Johnny Mine. The company rewarded him with thousands of company shares and was given a seat on the board of directors. As a result of these developments, he and Maggie became rich. They moved to Denver where she began her life as a socialite and political and social activist, joining the Denver Woman's Press Club and other organizations. She believed in many causes including&nbsp;suffrage for women and other women's rights issues, supporting women and children in need, and worker's rights. She and Joseph separated in 1909 but did not divorce each other, and maintained a good relationship for the rest of their lives. In 1912, Maggie left to tour Egypt and Europe, her first of many travels abroad. However, upon hearing that her grandson was ill, she quickly made arrangements to return home. These included booking a first-class ticket on the Titanic—a decision that would substantially&nbsp;change her life. After the disaster, Molly became a celebrity as she told the story of how she helped passengers evacuate onto lifeboats. According to her version of events, Molly&nbsp;persuaded the man in charge of her lifeboat to go back and look for survivors and even helped row the boat as well. While some claimed that Molly's story exaggerated her role, the scope of the disaster led people around the world to seek&nbsp;out stories of selflessness and survival. They&nbsp;embraced&nbsp;Molly as a heroine and&nbsp;Brown decided to use her notoriety to support the causes she believed in. She&nbsp;also formed a committee of first-class passengers who survived the Titanic&nbsp;to provide basic necessities and counseling for second and third-class passengers who also survived the disaster.&nbsp; Molly also ran&nbsp;for political office including two unsuccessful runs for the US Senate in 1909 and 1914. While women's right to vote was recognized in Colorado and other western states at this time,&nbsp;women's right to vote was not yet recognized nationwide until the ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920. After World War I started, Brown donated&nbsp;her summer home in Newport, Rhode Island to the&nbsp;American Red Cross. She also traveled to France to serve as a director for the American Committee for Devastated France, whose purpose was to help the war-torn country recover after the war. She received the French Legion of Honor for her efforts. Maggie passed away on October 26, 1932, of a brain tumor while staying at a hotel in New York City. She was buried next Joseph in Westbury, New York.

This simple two-story home was where famous wealthy socialite, social activist, traveler, and philanthropist Margaret Tobin Brown (1867-1932), was born. Brown acquired the nickname "The Unsinkable Molly Brown" for her actions that helped others survive the sinking of the Titanic on April 15, 1912. Visitors to the museum will see a room furnished in the mid-1900s context of the city of Hannibal after the Civil War and her experiences as a survivor of the Titanic. Brown lived until 1932 and used her fame as a survivor and heroine of the Titanic to support social and political causes she supported such as women's suffrage. 

Mark Twain to Unsinkable Molly Brown; The Downtown Hannibal Missouri Walking Tour

Veterans Memorial, Hannibal Missouri

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context

Additional Information