House atop highest hill consumed by fire in ’08

The John Blinn Price family home, as illustrated in the 1884 book, “History of Marion County, Missouri.” The house was destroyed by fire in 1908.

MARY LOU MONTGOMERY

At the top of an expansive hill, where Collins Street meets Grace in Hannibal, Mo., once stood a two-story frame house with a wrap-around porch, perched so tall upon the summit that it could supposedly be seen from a distance in all directions.

The address would come to be known as 100 Grace Street, or more commonly, during the first decade of the 20th Century, the location was referred to as at the top of Mt. Pisgah. (Biblical reference: Mountain from which Moses viewed the Promised Land.) The property was located on the east half of Lot 5, Collins Addition. The acreage was also locally referred to as Price’s Hill.

The original house on this hilltop, built long before the era of the Civil War, was owned and occupied by John Blinn Price Sr., (1822-1895) who was associated in the lumber business with S.T. McKnight as early as 1866. Mr. Price purchased the hill-top property from Henry W. Collins, via a contract first initiated on May 3, 1858.

John B. Price and his first wife, Virginia Mckown Price, were parents to two sons,  Charles G. Price (1857-1908) and Frank Norton Price (1860-1917). Virginia Price died in 1864, and is at eternal rest in Hannibal’s Riverside Cemetery.

The children of Mr. Price’s second marriage, to Susan M. Price, were John B. Price Jr., (1866-1936) Agnes V. Price (1869-1953), William A. Price (1871-1930), Eugene Price (1873-1934) and George H. Price (1877-1952).

Charles G. Price, the oldest of John B. Price’s sons, was heir apparent to the hilltop manse following his father’s death in 1895.

In his will, which is recorded in Book 112, Page 349, Marion County, Mo., John B. Price Sr., penned: “I have heretofore advanced to my son, Charles G. Price, a house and lot of the value of one thousand dollars.”

(The elder Mr. Price was not specific as to what house and land he referred to; it is a presumption on this column writer’s part that it was the hilltop house. It is known, via newspaper reports, that Charles G. Price did occupy and expanded this house for use as his own.)

Charles G. Price also kept the social spotlight upon the hilltop manse.

Social setting

The “Gentlemen’s Whist Club” met in April 1900 at the Price home. Participants were Messrs. C.M. Alger, W.A. Munger, Lewis Munson, R.A. Curts, C.J. Trickey, S.R. Carter, R.L. Hixson, L.P. Munger, George D. Clayton, Joseph Kirkland, H.F.  Morris, Dr. J.S. Howell, F.W. Hixson, Dr. F.A. Bishop, C. Voorhis, W.B. Pettibone, C.A. Kettering, W.F. Drescher, W.F. Chamberlain and J.T. Holme Jr.

(Note: Whist is a classic English trick-taking card game which was widely played in the 18th and 19th centuries. Wikipedia)

On Sept. 18, 1900, Charles and Emily Price hosted an event at their home, celebrating their 21st wedding anniversary. Those in attendance were Hannibal socialites:

Mr. and Mrs. W.F. Chamberlain;

Mr. and Mrs. Charles T. Lamb;

Mr. and Mrs. R.L. Hixson;

Mr. and Mrs.H.F. Morris;

Mr. and Mrs. T.G. Dulany;

Mr. and Mrs. C.J. Lewis;

Mr. and Mrs. E.D. Brewington;

Mr. and Mrs. R.H. Stillwell;

Mrs. W.H. Pindell and

Dr. F.A. Bishop.

The house, in all its splendor, served as the site for a wedding reception for the daughter of Charles G. and Emily Gould Price: Miss Florence Price. She was married to Slifer Overstreet on June 7, 1901, at Trinity Episcopal Church.

The Hannibal Weekly Journal reported the following day:

“Following the wedding ceremony at the church a reception was tendered the bridal party at the home of the bride’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Charles G. Price on Mt. Pisgah. Mrs. Price was assisted in receiving by (a number of Hannibal’s elite) Mrs. George W. Dulany, Mrs. W.F. Chamberlain, Mrs. E.D. Brewington, Mrs. W.H. Pindell, Mrs. R.H. Stillwell and Mrs. Geo. Clayton.”

W.T. League, florist, provided decorations. The illuminations were extensive, the newspaper reported. The “Opera House Orchestra, under the direction of Prof. (John) Lamberts, dispensed sweet (music) during the evening.”

Until the time of the fire in 1908, the following would call this house their home:

Charles G. and Emily Gould Price; 

Mrs. Catherine Gould (widow of George G. Gould), mother of Mrs. Price (she died in xxxx);

Daniel Dulany Price, (born in 1898)  son of Charles G. and Emily Gould Price; and

Florence and Slifer Overstreet, (their daughter, Emily, was born in 1908.)

Destructive fire

On Dec. 10, 1908, an early morning fire consumed the hilltop house, despite the efforts put forth by the Hannibal Fire Department, of which Theron P. Parks was chief.

“Departments No. 1 and 2 promptly responded and soon had three streams of water playing on the flames that were rapidly eating their way to the roof of the house,” a Hannibal newspaper reported on Dec. 11, 1908. “The water pressure was very poor owing to the high hill which the firemen were obliged to bring the hose up. The firemen all fought heroically but their efforts to extinguish the flames were without success and in less than two hours the once beautiful home was in ruins.”

The fire crew, as listed in the 1909 Hannibal city directory:

T.B. Parks, chief;

Henry Clancy and William Dunn, drivers for Station 1;

D.F. Mahoney, hoseman for Station 1;

F.M. Gay, driver for Station 2;

William J. Groves, hoseman for Station 2;

Minutemen No. 1: Frank Tessmer, A.A. Varney, Fred Nagel and Henry Tomer.

Minutemen No. 2: Ed Nerlich and E. Waller.

Note: Fire horses would have pulled the apparatus to the scene. Hannibal’s first motor-driven fire engines were not put into service until circa 1924.

After the fire, the Price/Overstreet family relocated to 200 N. Fourth, where Charles G. Price died in May 1909, at the age of 51.

Emily B. Price, widow of Charles G. Price, sold the property atop the hill, the east half of Block 5 in Collin’s Addition, to Charles E. Rendlen in March 1917.

He subdivided the property and named the neighborhood Rendlen Heights. It was divided into six lots, and today the land ownership is registered to Kelli R. and Scott B. Jaenicke.

Thanks to Kelli Jaenicke, who loaned a copy of the property abstract to help with research for this story.

John B. Price Sr., advertised his association with the Wisconsin Lumber Yard in the Hannibal Daily Messenger, Aug. 13, 1857. newspapers.com

Illustration showing the east half of Block 5, Collins Addition, on which members of John Blinn Price Sr.’s family lived from circa 1858 until the house was destroyed by fire in 1908. Original document attached to the property abstract, loaned by  Kelli Jaenicke.

The east side of Block 5, Collins Addition was sold to Charles E. Rendlen in March 1917, and the land was subsequently divided into 6 lots, known as Rendlen Heights. Original document shared by Harla Friesz, Marion County, Mo., recorder.

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