Editors note: This story originally was printed in 1938, during the newspaper's 100th anniversary celebration.

There was a vacant lot where the Courier-Post building now stands and the public market house stood in the middle of the street in front of it. (In 1938 the Courier Post was located on the north-west corner of Third street and Broadway)

From Broadway and Third Street to the Hannibal and St. Joseph (now the Burlington) railroad tracks there was a pond.

The site of the present Union station was a sunken piece of land.

These were some of the scenes of Hannibal in the days preceding and during the civil war as remembered by Charles F. Armstrong, 110 Richmond street, retired railroader and grocer and prominent resident of the west side.

Although he was 84 years old on June 1, 1938, Mr. Armstrong is alert and active as a man 30 years younger, except that he cannot do as much walking, his favorite diversion, as he would like.

Born in Detroit, he was brought to Hannibal by his parents, the late Mr. and Mrs. Charles E. Armstrong, when he was 3 years old. His father was bricklayer and served as a Hannibal police officer for many years.

When the junior Armstrong was 8 years old he began working around the grocery store of J. B. Clement, a new building located on the northwest corner of Market and Arch streets. A few years later Clement built another building on the northeast corner of this intersection and Armstrong continued to work for him.

In 1882 he went to work in the freight office of the Hannibal and St. Joseph railroad, of which L. P. Jackson was freight agent. When the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy railroad took over the Hannibal and St. Joe in 1883 he went to work in the freight office of the Missouri, Kansas and Texas railroad where he remained until 1894.

Back To Grocery

Resigning from railroad work, he went back into the grocery business and after working for several employers he started his own store at the corner of Broadway and Richmond street, which operated until about 15 years ago.

Like most people, he has difficulty remembering exact dates of Hannibal happenings but his memory of the 1860's is very vivid.

The south side of Hannibal was the main residential section of those days and there was a high board sidewalk from South Main street to that area. This was at least six feet above the ground, and higher in some places, and provided footing when the river overflowed its banks.

There was another sidewalk, raised even higher, providing passageway from Broadway to the south side along what is now South Third street.

There were no buildings on the east side of South Main street but on East Broadway, near the everbusy levee, a man named Hewitt ran a flour mill on the site which later became the Magnolia mill.

Bryson Stillwell operated a pork packing plant on Broadway about opposite the present location of the Wabash freight house and his brother Amos ran a packing plant on Front street near the present site of the Stillwell Ice and Cold Storage company.

Main Street Busy

North Main street and Palmyra avenue (Now Mark Twain avenue) comprised the main downtown business district. A few of the stores on North Main in the '60's were the dry goods firms of Collins and Breed, and Brittingham and Strong, the book store of George A. Collins, a clothing store conducted by Jacob Harris, and the dry goods store of William Drescher. Cheever Brothers operated a drug store in a 2-story brick building at the southwest corner of Broadway and Main street.

During the 1860's there were at least fifteen saloons on Main street and lower Broadway and all had a thriving trade.

Although many stories have been told of saloon brawls in which rivermen who brought lumber rafts to Hannibal in the 30 year period after the civil war took part, Armstrong said the rafters were responsible for very few of the fights which took place frequently.

"In the first place," he said "they were few in numbers compared to the population of Hannibal and most of them were peaceable fellows when ashore."

Buildings Scattered

During the '8O's Broadway was rather sparsely built between Seventh street and the Market street neighborhood.

Much of the water supply for private homes was obtained from individual wells but there were public wells located at convenient intervals and these not only had a utilitarian purpose but provided a meeting place for exchange of neighborhood news and gossip.

Mr. Armstrong remembers that two of the Broadway wells were located at Fifth street and on the present site of the Christian church Sunday school building.

There was no sewage system and residents usually threw kitchen slops into the street.

When federal soldiers moved into Hannibal during the hectic days of the civil war, the main barracks were located between Center and Bird streets and stretched from Tenth street to Price's Heights, the section which now includes the east end of Grace street

With Marion county containing sympathizers with the northern and southern causes, the war days meant trouble for the civilian population of Hannibal.

Hannibalians who sided with the confederate cause probably were more numerous and outspoken but as more and more federal soldiers were quartered in the town the civilians who believed in the northern side of the conflict expressed their opinions more freely.

Guarded Railroad

As Hannibal was the eastern terminal of the Hannibal and St. Joe railroad and provided direct contact with Mississippi river boats, the city was a strategic point in the federal campaign in Missouri, Large forces of blue-clad soldiers were quartered here to protect the railroad and be ready to move against confederate attacks between Hannibal and Macon, then known as Hudson.

Confederate forces, regular and irregular, kept the federals busy with sorties in Marion and adjoining counties and the Hannibal garrisons early in the war were increased often.

Mr. Armstrong remembers that many nights the town was alive with reports that General Sterling Price, a confederate commander, was about to attack, and the Armstrong children were told by their mother to keep their clothes on and be ready to snatch up some family effects for flight to some place outside the line of fire if the attack came.

But it never came, Armstrong added.

The federal garrisons provided a source of income for small boys who sold pies baked by their mothers. The soldiers bought these delicacies briskly and the boys took the money home to add to the family income.

Soldiers Made Forays

The soldiers made frequent forays into the country around Hannibal to obtain provisions and often returned with horses for remounts. Armstrong said he had seen the bodies of horses dead from starvation lying on a vacant lot near the top of North Sixth street. The troops often found that after 'contrabanding" the horses they had insufficient feed for the animals.

Although Main street was the major business district of Hannibal in the '60's and '70's, there was a thriving community on Market street and the west side.

The Marion House, which still stands today, was a well known hotel and comprised the eastern end of the Hannibal-New London plank road. The hotel property included land extending to Broadway on the north and Lyon street on the west.(2001 The Marion House, now demolished, stood in what is now the parking lot next to the Muffler Shop between Broadway and Market Street)

There was a large hog lot adjoining the hostelry and it often quartered 200 hogs brought by farmers living west and southwest of Hannibal who usually spent the night at the Marion House while disposing of their hogs to butcher shops and packing plants here.

Hotel Was Busy

The hotel was a center of social life and transaction of business. There was a large public well across the street and nearby residents of the west side used this as a source of water supply.

Armstrong recalls that the hotel was owned by a man named Guyott, then by Dedrick Foss and later by Harry Lemon.

He said a Dr. Griffith owned all land between Market street and Broadway from Arch street to Houston street. The doctor's office was on the present site of the Levering hospital and was approached by a high board sidewalk.

Lumber was cheap in those days and board walks were numerous.

The Clement buildings were the first structures at the present busy intersection of Market and Arch and on the south side of Market street there was a shoe shop operated by Fred Mangels, an expert workman who made footwear for most of the residents of the west side.

Boys of these days made their shoes last a long time, wearing them during the late fall and winter months and taking them off to go barefoot as soon as early spring arrived.

Gordon street was a main east-west thoroughfare and ran from the south side to its present terminal, Minnow Creek.

Mr. Armstrong has lived on the west side since his family came to Hannibal. His father built the first house on Houston street and the family later moved into a brick dwelling at the corner of Houston and Broadway.