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CRINKLES
Nov./Dec. 2001, pp. 39-42
Copyright © 2001, Crinkles. Published by LMS Associates LLC. November/December 2001, pp. 3942. http://www.crinkles.com.
The City Mark Twain Made Famous:
Hannibal, Missouri in the 1800s
by Annette Bailey
"I remember the annual processions of mighty rafts that used to glide by Hannibal when I was a
boy--an acre or so of sweet-smelling boards in each raft, a crew of two dozen men or more, three or
four wigwams scattered about the raft's vast level space for storm quarters."--Mark Twain in Life on the
Mississippi
(See picture, "Hannibal, Missouri.")
At the northeast corner of Missouri on the west shore of the Mississippi
River is a green, woodsy place called Hannibal. It is a port city rich with
memories. The people are kind and hospitable. Hannibal is a city where
children can climb trees, play ball, explore, and think. Kids often think about a
bright, curious boy who lived in Hannibal many years ago. Samuel Langhorne
Clemens and his family moved to Hannibal when he was just four years old.
His father worked as a town lawyer. They lived in a tiny, clapboard house on
206 Hill Street. Samuel grew up exploring Hannibal's caves, hiking through
the woods, and listening to riverboat gamblers bet and brag. He loved
watching the steamboats as they churned the waters of the mighty Mississippi
River.
Hannibal, Missouri
(See picture, "Twain, Mark.")
When Sam grew up, he became a writer. Two of his best stories, The
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, were set in
a place just like Hannibal. Through his stories, we can get a firsthand picture of
what life was like along the Mississippi River before the Civil War.
In The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Tom and his sweetheart, Becky Thatcher,
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became lost in a cave. Twain wrote, "...the cave was but a labyrinth of crooked
aisles that ran into each other and out again and led nowhere. It was said that
one might wander days and nights together through its intricate tangle of rifts and
chasms and never find the end of the cave." The cave Twain described is a ten
million-year-old limestone cavern that really exists in Hannibal. It was a place he
and his friends explored often.
Twain, Mark
Today it is called Mark Twain Cave. It was discovered in the winter of 1819. A
hunter named Jack Sims and his dog chased a small animal through the woods.
The animal disappeared into an opening that turned out to be a cave. Legend
has it that the cavern has served as a hiding place for Native Americans,
runaway slaves, and the outlaw Jesse James! You can visit Mark Twain's Cave
on the Internet (http://www.marktwaincave.com/).
The Birth of a City
Hannibal was not always a city. There was a time when it was a wilderness of trees. In 1800, Don Antonio
Soulard, a Spanish surveyor, first made a map of the area. A man named Mathurin Bouvet obtained a land
grant from the Spanish government. Before he had a chance to do much with it, he and his two assistants
were killed by Native Americans.
When President Thomas Jefferson purchased the Louisiana Territory, Missouri was part of that land. The
United States government gave the area that would become Hannibal to a man named Abraham Bird. He
received 640 acres to make up for land he'd lost elsewhere due to an earthquake.
Hannibal was founded in 1819, by a fellow named Moses Bates. It was his job to divide the land into plots
for the Hannibal Company. In turn, they sold the lots for low prices.
The city of Hannibal got its name from Hannibal Creek. Today, the creek is known as Bear Creek. But, the
name Hannibal may have come from the great Carthaginian General Hannibal, who lived from 247-183 BC.
Our Town
Imagine building a town out of a wilderness. What would you build first? A fort? A church? A school?
The first building the town people erected was a log cabin near what is today Bird and North Main Streets.
By 1830, there were thirty residents. Soon after, they built a school on the city square. Hannibal officially
became a city in 1845. Five years later, the population had grown to 2,020. Times were difficult in the
beginning, but it was a good place for pioneers to settle. Hannibal became known as a "river town," because
many of its people relied on the Mississippi River to make their living.
The people of Hannibal worked hard. They made and sold soap, candles, barrels, and rope. They also
made money by milling grain, raising pork, and tanning leather. To do business any distance away, Hannibal
citizens had three choices of transportation: horseback, horse and buggy, or their own feet! If they needed to
cross the Mississippi, they went to see Samuel Stone. He owned the first ferryboat. It traveled back and forth
across the Mississippi River to Illinois.
The Mighty Mississippi
Twain must have seen flat boats docked at the water's edge, carrying cargos of grain and hemp. He may
have watched fattened livestock being driven to Hannibal to be sold. Packet steamers came west from St.
Louis and south from Keokuk, Iowa, every day.
Mark Twain may have watched logs as they were directed down the river from Wisconsin and Minnesota.
The logs were sent to mills and turned into lumber. The lumber was then shipped west to pioneers.
Twain admired the ruggedness and skill of the Mississippi riverboat captains. He couldn't rest until he had
earned his own pilot license. Twain marveled at the power of the mighty river. He would later write, "The
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Mississippi River will always have its own way; no engineering skill can persuade it to do otherwise...."
According to a 1910 article in the Hannibal Courier-Post, Twain and his friend, Henry Nash, nearly
drowned in the Mississippi! One winter, they decided to have some fun by sliding down a chute that was used
to move rocks from Holiday's Hill to the boats waiting on the bank. They thought the Mississippi was frozen
over. It was not! Twain and Nash splashed into the frigid water. Twain recovered. Unfortunately, Nash lost his
speech and hearing.
America's Headlines
By 1837, Hannibal had its first newspaper, The Commercial Advertiser. It brought America's news to the
people of the northeast part of Missouri. Stories described powerful, new locomotives and steamships. There
were reports of a new process called photography that copied scenes from life. The pictures were called
daguerreotypes. Factories in the east were just beginning to use a new invention called the sewing machine.
There was great excitement among farmers over a new mechanical harvesting device. Doctors were
interested to read about a new form of anesthesia called nitrous oxide or "laughing gas." Samuel Colt had
recently invented a pistol that could fire six shots before having to be reloaded. President Martin Van Buren
had new ideas for getting the country out of the economic depression. The newspaper reflected the fact that
America was growing up. And so was Twain.
In 1848, Twain began working as an apprentice compositor at another newspaper, The Hannibal Courier.
It was dirty work, but Twain enjoyed it. A coworker later said of him, "He could get more ink and grease on
him for the amount of work he did than any other man in the shop."
Thar's Gold in Them Thar Hills!
Soon there was more exciting news to report: GOLD! In 1849, newspapers reported stories of miners
striking it rich in California. Over 200 men from the Hannibal area decided to get in on the gold rush. Many
bought their mining supplies (picks, pans, ropes, bedrolls, boots, hats, and cooking pots) from a local general
store owned by Tilden Selmes. Then they set off for the hard trip to the California hills. Most of the men
returned with at least a little gold.
Trains A-Comin'!
Missouri didn't have an interstate railroad until 1859. In 1860, train engineer Addison Clark made the first
run. He transported Pony Express mail from nearby Palmyra to St. Joseph, a western Missouri city, near
Kansas. Clark made the 206-mile trip in four hours and twenty minutes! For many years, no one was able to
do it faster.
Then someone came up with the idea of sorting the mail while it was on the train. The first railway car for
sorting mail en route was manufactured in Hannibal in 1862. In fact, the first locomotive made west of the
Mississippi River was made in Hannibal. It was the 34-ton General Grant.
Twain was sorry to see the locomotives taking work from the steamboats he loved so well. He once wrote,
"The romance of boating is gone, now. In Hannibal the steamboatman is no longer a god. The youth don't talk
river slang any more. Their pride is apparently railways--which they take a peculiar vanity in reducing to
initials 'C B & Q'--an affectation which prevails all over the west. They roll these initials as a sweet morsel
under the tongue." Mark Twain left Hannibal in 1853.
Hard Times
By 1854, the people of nearby Kansas were against slavery. But, Missouri had been admitted to the Union
as a slave state. Now the two states were at odds and border warfare began. The citizens of Hannibal
argued. Some favored the Union's cause. Many favored the Confederate's cause. Union soldiers stayed in
Hannibal during the war. From 1861 to 1865, the state of Missouri became a battlefield.
Fast Forward
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In 1866, the city had its first power plant and its first high school. The school was built so well, it still stands
today. A railway bridge was built in 1871 for the Wabash Railroad. In 1879, three years after they were
invented, telephones began ringing in Hannibal. The city's first official water system began at the same time.
There was no stopping Hannibal's progress, but the people never forgot Sam Clemens.
Although Twain loved his town, he left Hannibal while he was still a young man. But he could never forget
Hannibal's riverboats, whitewashed fences, rowdy gamblers, fresh-baked apple pies, welcoming churches,
fresh air, juicy watermelons, or his beloved Mississippi River. Twain journeyed back at least twice to see the
friends he'd left behind. In 1882, as he was preparing to write Life on the Mississippi, he returned via the river.
His last visit would be in 1902 when he received an honorary degree from the University of Missouri. He
quipped, "In the small town of Hannibal, Missouri, when I was a boy, everybody was poor but didn't know it;
and everybody was comfortable and did know it."
Since the time of Mark Twain, Hannibal has had other noteworthy citizens. Cliff Edwards was the voice
behind Disney's Jiminy Cricket. William Lear invented the car radio and the Lear Jet. Margaret Tobin Brown,
better known as '"The Unsinkable Molly Brown," survived the sinking of the Titanic. But, it was Mark Twain's
love for his boyhood home that made Hannibal famous.
"Hannibal has had a hard time of it ever since I can recollect, and I was 'raised' there. First, it had me for a
citizen, but I was too young then to really hurt the place."--Mark Twain
Missouri State Emblems
State Bird: Bluebird
State Flower: Hawthorn
State Tree: Dogwood
State Song: "Missouri Waltz"
Missouri State Flag to Color
http://www.angelfire.com/mo/sasschool/MOFlag.html
Includes the state emblems.
State Symbols of Missouri
http://www.sos.state.mo.us/symbols/
Printable Missouri Map in Color
http://www.angelfire.com/mo/sasschool/MOMap.html
Missouri State Government Homepage
http://www.state.mo.us/
Missouri: Where the Rivers Run: State Tourism Page
http://www.missouritourism.org/
***
Mark Twain's home and his father's law office still stand in Hannibal. So does the home of his friend, Laura
Hawkins (the real Becky Thatcher). You can visit them at The Mark Twain Boyhood Home and Museum
(http://www.marktwainmuseum.org/). You also may visit Hannibal Missouri: America's Hometown
(http://www.hanmo.com/).
To remember the way Twain's Tom Sawyer character tricked his friends into doing his whitewashing
chores for him, Hannibal holds National Tom Sawyer Days every July. Kids compete in The Tom Sawyer
Fence Painting Contest.
(See picture, "Tom Sawyer's Fence, Hannibal, MO.")
References:
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SIRS Discoverer ® : Document : The City Mark Twain Made Famous: Hannibal, Missou... Page 5 of 6
Encarta Encyclopedia. Microsoft, 1999.
The New Grolier Student Encyclopedia. Vol. 13, Grolier, 1997.
The World Book Encyclopedia. Vol. 13, World Book, 1994.
Yenne, Bill. 100 Inventions That Shaped World History. Bluewood Books,
1993.
Learn about Hannibal in books like these.
Hintz, Martin. Missouri. Childrens Press, 1999. 144p.
LaDoux, Rita. Missouri: Hello USA. Lerner, 2002. 84p.
McCandless, Perry, and William E. Foley. Missouri Then and Now.
University of Missouri Press, 1992.
McAuliffe, Emily. Missouri Facts and Symbols. Hilltop Books, 2000. 24p.
Thompson, Kathleen. Missouri. Raintree/Steck-Vaughn, 1996.
Tom Sawyer's Fence,
Hannibal, MO
You can find out more about Hannibal, Missouri by writing to:
Hannibal Convention and Visitors Bureau; 505 N. 3rd St.; Hannibal, MO 63401. Or call them toll free at 1TOM AND HUCK. You also may visit their website at: http://www.visithannibal.com/
Learn more at these websites.
Mark Twain Cave.
http://www.marktwaincave.com/
Welcome to Hannibal, Missouri!
http://www.hanmo.com/
Mark Twain Boyhood Home and Museum.
http://www.marktwainmuseum.org/
Hannibal Courier-Post.
http://www.hannibal.net/twain/stories/escape_mississippi.shtml
***
Hannibal has been the site of four first-day stamp issues that honor Mark Twain.
Related Articles:
The Missouri Compromise of 1820
Steamboats: Queens of the Mississippi
Citation :
You can copy and paste this information into your own documents.
Bailey, Annette. "The City Mark Twain Made Famous: Hannibal, Missouri in the 1800s."
Crinkles. 39-42. SIRS Discoverer. Web. 13 Dec 2013.
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