Furrier did business on North Main Street for more than half a century

Bob Allen painted this mural on the south side of the building at 308 N. Main St. Photo from the City of Hannibal website, “City of Murals.” This is the building where Phillip H. Kornder conducted a furrier shop for many years during the mid to late 1800s. 

MARY LOU MONTGOMERY

A mural painted on the south side of a building located at 308 North Main Street, Hannibal, in 2019, draws visitors’ attention back toward an era when a unique variety of commercial businesses  - including, as suggested by this ad, merchants selling shoes - lined this block.

The shoe featured in this mural is an example of a turn-of-the-century Victorian/Edwardian cloth - or leather-top - button shoe. The La Mode company, mentioned in the mural, did make such shoes during this era.

The building on which the mural is painted, located at 308 N. Main, is historic in its own right. Beginning as early as the 1870s and continuing for a quarter of a century,  it was occupied by Phillip H. Kornder, who operated a furrier shop. Circa 1897, he moved his furrier shop to the historic building at 324 N. Main, and opened a shoe store at 308 N. Main, in the building which previously housed his furrier shop. The shoe store was managed by his nephew-in-law, Charles Kuhno, a shoemaker by trade.

Glove maker

Phillip Herman Kornder (1826-1910), learned the trade of glove making at his father’s side in Prussia, before emigrating to the United States in 1851.

Once settled in his new country, he practiced this trade in Cincinnati, Ohio, until 1855, before presumably taking a packet southwest along the Ohio River, and north on the Mississippi, settling in Hannibal by 1855.

Also in Hannibal during this early era was Phillip H. Kornder’s brother, August Kornder, a cabinet maker by trade, born in Prussia circa 1829.

They were the sons of Daniel and Catharine Kornder. For many years the brothers lived together, on what is now known as North River Road, in the area of the water pump house. There is a street in this neighborhood named Kornder. Early records suggest the family lived in Out Lot 93, which was located in Hannibal’s 1st Ward.

The brothers, in 1863, registered for the military at Hannibal, and P.H. Kornder served with the Enrolled Missouri Militia through the Civil War. (Biographical information from “History of Marion County, Missouri, 1884.”) 

By the early 1870s, P.H. Kornder - a life-long bachelor - had established a business of long standing at 308 N. Main St., where he sold the gloves that he made, and bought and sold furs. By 1885, according the Sanborn maps of that year, his business was located on the first floor of a three-story brick building (two stories still standing in 2025) directly south of the Adams House Hotel, which was located on the second floor of 310-316 N. Main.

(In 2025, the building at 308-310 N. Main is owned by John and Joe Noonan. The building at 308 N. Main (now two stories) is owned by Carol J. Estes-Cook.)

Tragic accident

As early as 1870, P.H. Kornder lived with his brother’s family near the river just to the north of downtown Hannibal. Living together were Phillip, August, Barbara (August’s wife) and Emma (August’s daughter) Kornder.

In 1880, August and Barbara operated a candy store in the area north of Hannibal known as Soap Hollow.

The Santa Fe Daily New Mexican newspaper (newspapers.com) of Nov. 4, 1882, picked up a story that originated in Hannibal, which told of a terrible tragedy. “The old gentleman (August Kornder, 53,) lived near the place where the rail accident occurred, and had just walked upon the track from the wagon road to look at a steamboat which was dropping a raft through the bridge. While his attention was thus diverted the St. Louis train came thundering along at the rate of about 25 miles an hour, and the pilot engine struck Mr. Kornder and threw him head first down the embankment upon the jagged rocks below. The blow broke several ribs, and the fall, which was about 25 feet, probably broke his neck.”

The Quincy Daily Whig reported on Nov. 2, 1882: “His wife, who was standing in the door of their small store a short distance from the point where the accident occurred, witnessed it. When her husband stepped on the track she realized the danger and by screaming tried to attract his attention, but in this she failed. She could not believe that life was extinct and while she caressed the dead body her screams and cries were pitiful.”

The train’s engineer was P. O’Brien.

(Philip Kornder continued to live with his brother’s family until 1898. Barbara Kornder died circa 1889, according to testimony given by her daughter, Emma Kornder Kuhno in a civil suit filed in 1910.)

In 1900, Emma Kornder Kuhno was living in the building where her uncle long operated his furrier store, at 308 N. Main. Living with her were her husband, Charles; and children: Gussie, 17; Callie, 16; Carl, 11; and Anna Kuhno, 8. At the time, Emma was a restaurant keeper, and she employed May Smith as a cook.

In 1901, the Kuhno family relocated to St. Louis, presumably parting ways with Emma Kuhno’s uncle.

The Oct. 12, 1901 edition of the Hannibal Weekly Journal reported: “Mrs. C.F. Kuhno and children of North Main Street, were passengers for St. Louis on the steamer Sidney yesterday afternoon and will make that city their home in the future. Mr. Kuhno has a position in St. Louis. The household goods were also shipped to that city yesterday.”

The building at 308 N. Main St., was sold in February 1906, by the owner, John Burkholder, to John Little. Mr. Little bought the building for investment purposes. (All of the middle third of lot 7 in block 7 in city of Hannibal. Consideration $3,000.)

Death

Philip H. Kornder died July 20, 1910, at his home on Bridge Street.

His colorful death notice, published in the July 21, 1910 edition of the Hannibal Morning Journal, read, in part:

“Phillip H. Kornder, one of Hannibal’s old and highly respected citizens has responded to the bugle call, has gone to join that great army in the other world.” He died “at his home on Bridge street at 2:30 o’clock yesterday morning, He was aged 84 years and his death was more from senility than from any disease. It is true that he had been quite feeble for several years, but less than a week ago he was down town and was cheerful and happy. He had resided in Hannibal for a period of 55 years having located in this city in 1857 and did business in the same block for a period of fifty years. He was known  as the “veteran glove maker” and was a dealer in hides. He was a good citizen and served as a member of the city council several terms. He was never married.”

He was buried at Riverside Cemetery, Section J10.

At the time of his death, his nearest relatives were:

Nephews: Jacob Kornder of Hannibal and George Kornder of Germany; and

Nieces: Mrs. Mary Schnieter and Mrs. Dina Gerlach of Baltimore, Md., Mrs. Nettie Schweitzer of Los Angeles, Calif., and Mrs. Emma Kuhno of St. Louis.

His niece, Emma Kornder Kuhno, unsuccessfully challenged his will, of which she had been bequeathed just $1.

This photo, taken during the early part of the 1900s by Anna M. Schnitzlein (1869-1939), represents what was known as Soap Hollow, north of what would become Riverview Park. The extended Kornder family lived in this valley for many years. Phillip Kornder died at his home in this valley in 1910. Steve Chou collection.

This view of North Main Street, estimated from the 19-teens or early 1920s, shows the three-story building at 308 N. Main at far right. Note the building has a metal fire escape attached to the front. There is a gas pump on the sidewalk, and a sign behind it that appears to say: Sinclair Gasoline. In 1920, Norris V. Brite operated a restaurant at 308 N. Main, and Paul Resnick operated Hannibal Iron and Metal Co., at 304-306 N. Main. Steve Chou collection.

Philip Kornder advertised his furrier business in the 1901 Hannibal City Directory. Accessed via the Hannibal Free Public Library’s website. He conducted his fur business in the 300 block of North Main Street for half a century.

Mary Lou Montgomery, Suburban Newspapers of America Editor of the Year, Dailies, 2010, retired as editor of the Hannibal (Mo.) Courier-Post in 2014. She researches and writes narrative-style stories about the people who served as building blocks for this region’s foundation. Books available on Amazon.com by this author include but are not limited to: "The Notorious Madam Shaw," "Pioneers in Medicine from Northeast Missouri,” “Hannibal’s ‘West End,’” “Oakwood: West of Hannibal,”  and “St. Mary’s Avenue District.” Montgomery can be reached at Montgomery.editor@yahoo.com Her collective works can be found at www.maryloumontgomery.com