Montvale Springs

7 ½ mi. S, this resort was termed the Saratoga of the South in stagecoach days. First advertized in 1832; Daniel Foute, built a log hotel there in 1837. In 1853, Asa Watson, of Mississippi, built the Seven Gable Hotel. ...

Relief of Knoxville

Maj. Gen. W. T. Sherman, U.S.A., arrived in Blount County with 25,000 men, Dec. 5, 1863, to relieve Gen. Ambrose Burnside besieged at Knoxville by Gen. James Longstreet. The 15th Corps camped around Maryville, the 11th around Louisville and the ...

William Henry Hatch

Hannibal was the home of William H. Hatch, lawyer, Congressman, and father of agricultural experiment stations. Hatch sponsored the law creating the office of Secretary of Agriculture. Adjoining Hannibal is the Hatch Farm, bequeathed to the State by his daughter ...

Tugalo Baptist Church and Cemetery

Tugalo Baptist Church, established before 1789, was first known as the Tugalo River Church. Founded by the Rev. John Cleveland, a Revolutionary Soldier, Tugalo is the oldest church in what was then Franklin County. The county covered an area in ...

Henry Collins Building

One of the first stores in Hannibal was opened by Henry Collins in a log cabin on this site. In 1839 he advertised "Country produce taken in exchange for goods." In 1851 Leer & Arrogast had a wholesale and retail ...

Joshua Mitchell Building

This building was constructed in 1836 by Joshua Mitchell. It was one of the first brick commercial store houses in Hannibal. Located on 2nd Street, now called Main St., the hub of commercial activity. It was purchased in 1844 by ...

Abner Nash Building

This building was constructed in 1836 by Abner Nash, the aged and needy Postmaster of Tom Sawyer. Nash's son, Tom, was a life-long friend of Sam Clemens.

In the newspaper of 1848, the building was described as a large, commodious store ...

Steam Era Signal and Switchstand

The purpose of the railroad signal is not unlike that of a traffic light; it tells locomotive engineers when they can proceed, when they should proceed with caution, and when they must stop. This type of railroad signal, which uses ...

Mark Twain's Father's Law Office

Young Sam Clemens (Mark Twain) saw a dead man on the floor in here one night. Sam went out at a window, taking the sash along with him. "I didn't need the sash," he recalled, "but it was handier to ...

Hannibal

The boyhood home of Mark Twain. The Clemens home and a State statue in Riverview Park stand as memorials to the great humorist. At Cardiff Hill stands a statue of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn. Twain's cave and the islands ...