1880: House lease

Look at this historic treasure: Del Anderson of Ogden, Utah, is a direct descendant of Charles Curts, a Hannibal riverboat pilot and childhood friend of Sam Clemens. He shared this document, which is the agreement in which Curts and others leased the house next door to the only house left standing on the east side of the 100 block of South Fourth Street in Hannibal, Mo. The date: Aug. 16, 1880.

The property owner was Diadamia Haines. The monthly lease payment was $20 per month, and the lease extended for six months.

Renters for the two-story, brick house were Charles W. Curts and his wife, Lethenia B. Curts, and her sister and brother-in-law, Alexander and Frances Velie.

A close look at the 1854 Hannibal map, by Hart & Mapother, indicates that the nearly identical brick houses - the one that is still standing, and the one to the south which the Curts family rented, were probably already constructed when the 1854 map was drawn.