When Hannibal was incorporated as a "town" in March 1839, it had nearly a thousand residents. That same year, Mark Twain's father, John M.Clemens, concluded that nearby Florida was unlikely to development as he had hoped. In November, he sold off most of his Florida property, bought land in Hannibal and moved his family there.
The Clemens moved around within Hannibal several times, but always lived on or near Main and Hill streets, several hundred yards west of the river and a similar distance south of Cardiff Hill. By 1844, they occupied a modest house at 206 Hill Street --- a building now known as the Mark Twain Boyhood Home.(cited from Mark Twain A -Z)
Hannibal:
city, Ralls and Marion counties, northeastern Missouri, U.S., on the Mississippi River, there spanned to Hull, Ill., by the Mark Twain Memorial Bridge (1935). Noted as the boyhood home of Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain), it was the setting for some of his books, including his classics about Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn. Settled (1819) by Moses Bates on land given (1818) to Abraham Bird as compensation for property damaged in the New Madrid earthquake (1811), the town received its Carthaginian name from Hannibal Creek (later Bear Creek).A trading centre for grain and dairy products, it has light manufacturing (electrical appliances, cement, and fabricated steel buildings). Memorials to Mark Twain include his boyhood home and museum (1937), Judge Clemens' Law Office, "Becky Thatcher" House, and the Pilaster House. Mark Twain Cave, also a reputed hideout for the outlaw Jesse James and a station on the Underground Railroad for runaway slaves, is 2 mi (3 km) south. Jackson's Island, adventure territory for Tom and Huck, is near the Illinois shore of the Mississippi. Twain's two-room cabin birthplace at Florida in Monroe County is preserved in the Mark Twain State Park, 25 mi southwest. Tom Sawyer Days, a national fence-painting contest, is held in July.
Molly Brown, heroine of the "Titanic" sinking and the subject of the musical The Unsinkable Molly Brown, was born in Hannibal, and her birthplace is preserved. Portraitist Carroll Beckwith was also a native of the city. Hannibal-La Grange College was founded in 1929. Inc. town, 1839; city, 1845. Pop. (1990) 18,004.
[cited from "Hannibal" Encyclopedia Britannica Online
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Hannibal's History
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