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Editor’s note: This story was printed in the mid 1870s in The Hannibal Clipper. Editor Mary Lou Montgomery set aside the story for use in this section, but lost the accompanying date of its publication. Three years worth of Hannibal Clipper newspapers are accessible on the Hannibal Free Public Library’s website.
HANNIBAL CLIPPER
Mid 1870s
In the year 1814, Jacob M. Lowe, a colored boy, nine years of age, was sold at public auction in the town of Vicksburg, Mississippi. That was a long time ago and Jacob is an old man now – the oldest inhabitant in the city of Hannibal – and he cannot remember who was his former owner, but thinks his name was Lowe from whom he took his own name.
Neither does he remember the place of his nativity and has but an indistinct recollection of father, mother, brothers or sisters.
Moses Bates, of South River township, and James Bates, President of the First National Bank at Palmyra, was the purchaser of the boy. Mr. Bates was then running a keel boat on the lower Mississippi and he brought his young slave to Shippings Port, now Louisville, Kentucky, where he was also engaged in the carpenter’s business and worked a large number of hands. But ere long the growing fame of the rich country on the Mississippi attracted the attention of Mr. Bates, and in 1817 that restless enterprising gentleman, moved to St. Louis with several of his old workmen and three or four slaves, where his first contract was for doing the carpenter’s work at the residence for Governor Clark, then governor of the territory of Missouri.
Not long after this Mr. Bates was sent on a surveying expedition to North East Missouri by Gov. Clark, Jacob thinks; and in 1818 he, with the other slaves, Moses, Randall, William and Jemima, and two carpenters, James McHenry and Jonathan Flemming, received notice that they were to come to the present site of Hannibal. Upon arrival of the workmen here, they found only a wilderness without a sign of civilization. Indians were numerous but peaceable and only upon one occasion, was there ever blood shed in Marion County between the Indians and the whites.
A log dwelling house, and adjoining a small store, were soon erected near the present site of Robert Bacon’s grocery store. Jacob says a small warehouse was also built by his master on the present site of the Planters house he thinks, “but things have turned around so” he is not sure. At this time Mr. Bates owned a keel boat that run between St. Louis and this point, and a cargo of dry goods and groceries would be brought up the river which was traded to the white settlers and the Indians for furs, which were shipped back to St. Louis.
At Palmyra was a large settlement of whites, … a few miles Northwest of the city, R.S. Abram and Joe Culbertson, Charles, Gabriel and William Turner, James and Isham Ables, and John Rush, had settled a short time previous to the arrival of the Bates’ party in Hannibal. Chas. Turner was the father of Hon. .. M. Turner, and John Rush was the father of Alex. Rush of Palmyra and Squire Rush of Miller Township. Several families had also settled in the vicinity of New London, and several also between here and New London.
In the fall of 1819 John S. Miller, the second white settler on the site of Hannibal, built a blacksmith shop near the place where Robt. L. Bacon’s store now is. He afterwards abandoned the shop and went to Galena, Ill. The next year Abram Huntsbury established a hat manufactory near the place where the city calaboose now stands – generally not using any other process than cutting the skins out and sewing them together in the shape of a cap or hat. Huntsbury did not, however, stay her long, but some of his relations are still living in the county.
The first steamboat up the Mississippi river was owned by James Johnson of Kentucky, and in the summer of 1821 made two trips up to the Galena lead mines. The next boat up was the Gen. Putnam in 1825. Mr. Bates bought this boat in St. Louis, and during the spring and part of the summer of 1825 he ran between St. Louis and the Galena lead mines. Jacob Lowe, then nineteen years of age, was employed on the boat in the capacity of a cabin boy. There is also living in Hannibal another colored man, Nathan McDonnel, who was employed on this boat as fireman. Daniel G. Bates, a cousin of Moses Bates, was the captain of the boat, but Jacob says he has forgotten the names of the pilot, clerk and engineer. The boat tied up while the hands cut the wood on the banks of the river. The trip up, the boat was loaded with dry goods and provisions which his old master purchased from Messrs. Von Phul & … and Scott & Rule in St. Louis, and which at Galena was traded to miners for lead, and there and at intermediate stops, to the Indians for furs. Jacob said his old master made money at this businesses. He says he sold acorn fed …, which he got very cheap at St. Louis, and St. Charles to the miners for $12 a barrel. In the fall of this year the General Putnam abandoned the trade on the Upper Mississippi, and afterwards ran the lower rivers for a month to two, when she sunk.
Jacob was sent by his master to the large farm he had bought on the Palmyra road — the same now owned by Moses Bates — where he lived until … when he came back to this city, where he has since lived.
Jacob Lowe is now an old man. He has seen the wilderness between Lover’s Leap and Holliday Hill transformed into a thriving, prosperous, go-ahead city of thirteen thousand inhabitants, and though his memory has greatly failed him, not an event of any importance has ever transpired in Marion county that he does not have an indistinct recollection of. The city directory of 1871 says: “Joshua Mitchel and Mr. Stone are probably the oldest inhabitants of Hannibal now living.” This however is a mistake, as Jacob Lowe was here years before either of the gentlemen named.
Editor’s note: This story was printed in the mid 1870s in The Hannibal Clipper. Editor Mary Lou Montgomery set aside the story for use in this section, but lost the accompanying date of its publication. Three years worth of Hannibal Clipper newspapers are accessible on the Hannibal Free Public Library’s website.
HANNIBAL CLIPPER
Mid 1870s
In the year 1814, Jacob M. Lowe, a colored boy, nine years of age, was sold at public auction in the town of Vicksburg, Mississippi. That was a long time ago and Jacob is an old man now – the oldest inhabitant in the city of Hannibal – and he cannot remember who was his former owner, but thinks his name was Lowe from whom he took his own name.
Neither does he remember the place of his nativity and has but an indistinct recollection of father, mother, brothers or sisters.
Moses Bates, of South River township, and James Bates, President of the First National Bank at Palmyra, was the purchaser of the boy. Mr. Bates was then running a keel boat on the lower Mississippi and he brought his young slave to Shippings Port, now Louisville, Kentucky, where he was also engaged in the carpenter’s business and worked a large number of hands. But ere long the growing fame of the rich country on the Mississippi attracted the attention of Mr. Bates, and in 1817 that restless enterprising gentleman, moved to St. Louis with several of his old workmen and three or four slaves, where his first contract was for doing the carpenter’s work at the residence for Governor Clark, then governor of the territory of Missouri.
Not long after this Mr. Bates was sent on a surveying expedition to North East Missouri by Gov. Clark, Jacob thinks; and in 1818 he, with the other slaves, Moses, Randall, William and Jemima, and two carpenters, James McHenry and Jonathan Flemming, received notice that they were to come to the present site of Hannibal. Upon arrival of the workmen here, they found only a wilderness without a sign of civilization. Indians were numerous but peaceable and only upon one occasion, was there ever blood shed in Marion County between the Indians and the whites.
A log dwelling house, and adjoining a small store, were soon erected near the present site of Robert Bacon’s grocery store. Jacob says a small warehouse was also built by his master on the present site of the Planters house he thinks, “but things have turned around so” he is not sure. At this time Mr. Bates owned a keel boat that run between St. Louis and this point, and a cargo of dry goods and groceries would be brought up the river which was traded to the white settlers and the Indians for furs, which were shipped back to St. Louis.
At Palmyra was a large settlement of whites, … a few miles Northwest of the city, R.S. Abram and Joe Culbertson, Charles, Gabriel and William Turner, James and Isham Ables, and John Rush, had settled a short time previous to the arrival of the Bates’ party in Hannibal. Chas. Turner was the father of Hon. .. M. Turner, and John Rush was the father of Alex. Rush of Palmyra and Squire Rush of Miller Township. Several families had also settled in the vicinity of New London, and several also between here and New London.
In the fall of 1819 John S. Miller, the second white settler on the site of Hannibal, built a blacksmith shop near the place where Robt. L. Bacon’s store now is. He afterwards abandoned the shop and went to Galena, Ill. The next year Abram Huntsbury established a hat manufactory near the place where the city calaboose now stands – generally not using any other process than cutting the skins out and sewing them together in the shape of a cap or hat. Huntsbury did not, however, stay her long, but some of his relations are still living in the county.
The first steamboat up the Mississippi river was owned by James Johnson of Kentucky, and in the summer of 1821 made two trips up to the Galena lead mines. The next boat up was the Gen. Putnam in 1825. Mr. Bates bought this boat in St. Louis, and during the spring and part of the summer of 1825 he ran between St. Louis and the Galena lead mines. Jacob Lowe, then nineteen years of age, was employed on the boat in the capacity of a cabin boy. There is also living in Hannibal another colored man, Nathan McDonnel, who was employed on this boat as fireman. Daniel G. Bates, a cousin of Moses Bates, was the captain of the boat, but Jacob says he has forgotten the names of the pilot, clerk and engineer. The boat tied up while the hands cut the wood on the banks of the river. The trip up, the boat was loaded with dry goods and provisions which his old master purchased from Messrs. Von Phul & … and Scott & Rule in St. Louis, and which at Galena was traded to miners for lead, and there and at intermediate stops, to the Indians for furs. Jacob said his old master made money at this businesses. He says he sold acorn fed …, which he got very cheap at St. Louis, and St. Charles to the miners for $12 a barrel. In the fall of this year the General Putnam abandoned the trade on the Upper Mississippi, and afterwards ran the lower rivers for a month to two, when she sunk.
Jacob was sent by his master to the large farm he had bought on the Palmyra road — the same now owned by Moses Bates — where he lived until … when he came back to this city, where he has since lived.
Jacob Lowe is now an old man. He has seen the wilderness between Lover’s Leap and Holliday Hill transformed into a thriving, prosperous, go-ahead city of thirteen thousand inhabitants, and though his memory has greatly failed him, not an event of any importance has ever transpired in Marion county that he does not have an indistinct recollection of. The city directory of 1871 says: “Joshua Mitchel and Mr. Stone are probably the oldest inhabitants of Hannibal now living.” This however is a mistake, as Jacob Lowe was here years before either of the gentlemen named.
