Gas Works employee, family, had long N. Third presence

The Mark Twain Memorial Bridge approach is shown after the toll booth was removed. “Free Bridge Day” was celebrated Oct. 30, 1940. Post card image contributed by Robert Spaun.

MARY LOU MONTGOMERY

In August 1934, in preparation for the construction of the on/off ramp for the planned municipal toll bridge (later named the Mark Twain Memorial Bridge) to cross the Mississippi River at Hannibal, a committee consisting of members of the Hannibal City Council was charged with negotiating land purchase prices with individual property owners.

The planned bridge approach required the acquisition of certain pieces of property at and/or near the intersection of North Third and Rock Streets and between North Third Street and Bridge Street.

Those parcels, located in Block 33 and 34, and in Block 9, were purchased following negotiations with a committee consisting Baxter B. Bond, Louis L. Taylor, P.M. Walterscheid and H.E. Sanders. The total value of the properties purchased for this segment of the bridge approach was $43,900.

Among those property owners were members of the John Patrick Bird family, who had lived at 506 N. Third St., in a two-story frame house, since as early as 1900. Mr. Bird, in 1900, was a stoker for the Gas Works company, located nearby at 301 Rock Street.

In 1934, the Bird family owned: The east half of Lot Eight, Block 34; the west half of Lot Eight, Block 34; and the south half of Lot Seven in Block 34. That property was on the east side of North Third Street, in the 500 block.

Who was John P. Bird?

John P. Bird was a fixture at Hannibal’s Gas Works plant, located at 301 Rock Street, for more than a quarter of a century.

The Hannibal Labor Press, on May 4, 1934, published a 51st anniversary tribute to the Geo. D. Clayton & Sons Insurance Agency. In the full-page advertisement, an essay offered a glimpse into the world as it existed when Mr. Clayton started in business in 1883.

Among the reminisces was a fond mention of John P. Bird, regarding his long-time role with the Hannibal Gas Works:

“When the gas refused to burn, Mr. Clayton called the Gas House, and either Martin Bird or John P. Bird, saw to it that the trouble was taken care of.”

The plant opened in 1859. John P. Bird went to work at the plant circa 1882, when he was 23. He was married to Mary Burke of Shawnee, Ohio, in November 1888. They made their home for a number of years at 216 North St.

At the turn of the century, they moved to 506 N. Third St.

The extended family consisted of:

John P. Bird, 1859-1939;  born in England; came to the United States with his parents, John Bird (1815-1887) and Mary Katherine Casey Bird, (1815-1892) circa 1864;

Wife, Mary Burke Bird. 1864-1932;

Son, John Patrick Bird Jr., 1891-1979;

Son, Michael Bird, 1894-1968; and

Son, Peter Ambrose Bird, (graduate of St. Joseph’s Academy, WWI veteran, and mail carrier for the U.S. Postal Service) 1896-1938. Died of Septicemia.

After their North Third Street property was sold, the Bird family relocated to 808 Mark Twain Ave. That’s where the family was living when matriarch Mary Burke Bird died in 1932; son Peter A. Bird died in 1938; and family patriarch John P. Bird died in 1939.

In 2025, a Shell convenience store and gas station is located on that lot.

Other property owners:

Also selling their property to make way for the bridge construction were:

T.N. Moon: East half of Lot 6 in Block 33;

W.A. Coons and wife, Part of Lot 5, Block 9;

Mary Ann Bowen and Conrad C. Kriegbaum, north half of Lot 6, Block 34; and part of Lot 6, Block 34;

John F. Leitz and Katherine Leitz, part of Block 34; (Lived at 210 North Street in 1929)

Irma Karp and Jake Karp, part of Lot 6 in Block 33; and

Adolph H. Niedermeyer, Lot 2 and part of Lot 3, Block 34. (Lived at 505 N. Main in 1929)

Gas Works

A major reorganization of the gas and water companies - where John P. Bird worked - was announced in the Hannibal Courier-Post on Feb. 14, 1906.

Two primaries in the company, Col. Charles Parsons and Judge Horatio D. Wood, had recently passed.

The company was rechartered as the Hannibal Gas, Light and Coke Company. New officers in the company were:

Mr. E.A. Potter of Chicago, as president;

Mr. Arthur M. Hart of Mattoon, Ill., who moved to Hannibal with his family, was secretary; and

Mr. F.H. Wood of Cincinnati, Ohio, as foreman.

Mr. C.J. Lewis would continue in his role as superintendent of the water company.

On May 1, 1907, the aforementioned John P. Bird, about 46 years old, was promoted to the post of superintendent of the Gas Works plant. The Hannibal Morning Journal announced: “This is a merged promotion as Mr. Bird has been a faithful employee of the firm for the past quarter of a century.” (This hints that he started work at the Gas Works circa 1882, when he was 23 years old and still a bachelor.)

But his affiliation with the gas company didn’t last long. By the time of the printing of the 1909 Hannibal City Directory, John P. Bird was working as a laborer for the Burlington Railroad; and in 1910, he was a millwright for the cement plant.

In August 1916, he was employed as the sexton of St. Mary’s Cemetery.

The “Old Gas House” plant at 301-325 Rock St., was abandoned in 1911, when production was moved to a new plant at 11th and Collier. The Citizens’ Gas Company, incorporated under the laws of Missouri, took possession of the new plant on Oct. 8, 1911.

In January 1919, Peter J. Bird, son of John P. Bird, petitioned the city to rid the neighborhood of the remnants of the abandoned plant at the corner of Rock and Third Streets, describing the scene as a nuisance.

Third St. improvement

The intersection where North Third Street and Palmyra Road (Mark Twain Avenue) meet wasn’t  always as seamless as it is today.

A creek, which meandered east along Palmyra Avenue, was trained into underground pipes as it crossed Rock Street, then North Third, before flowing in a southeasterly direction toward the river.

Aug 11, 1905:

A new brick walk was being put down by Capt. C.J. Lewis around the Gas house coal and coke yard. Walter Barnes is superintending the work.

Aug. 26, 1905:

“Yesterday afternoon the machinery at the Gas house was stopped for a couple of hours to put in a new Hydraulic  Main above the bench. This is the second time that the gas house works has been closed down in 26 years. The first time it stopped was on hour when President McKinley was buried. It is a long record.”

Aug. 30, 1905

The Hannibal Gas Company is putting down a walk in front of the Gas House facing Fourth Street and running into Palmyra Avenue. The walk is being laid by a number of men in the employ of J.H. Huss and is about one hundred feet long. The work will be finished this week.”

October 9, 1905

Cinders from the Gas Works plant at 301-325 Rock St., were used to fill Third Street, between North and Rock streets, raising the level of the roadway about a foot. “When completed (it) will be a fine and very commendable improvement,” the Hannibal Courier-Post reported on Oct. 9, 1905.

This map represents two combined Sanborn map versions; one circa 1925, and an overlay circa 1935, when the approach was built for the first Mark Twain Memorial Bridge. Because of the overlay, traced by Mary Lou Montgomery, the dimensions are not exact. It does show where buildings stood prior to the construction of the bridge. The John P. Bird family lived at 506 N. Third Street for some 35 years prior to the bridge construction. Mr. Bird was a long-time employee of the Hannibal Gas Works plant, located nearby at Fourth and Rock streets. During his retirement years, he was sexton at St. Mary’s Cemetery (now Holy Family) where he, his wife and his parents, and members of his family, are buried. (Image based upon a Sanborn map contributed by Judy Cernea.)

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