Inside of these walls: What history prevailed

Believed constructed prior to the onset of the Civil War, this manse was located on the west side of Fifth Street, south of Broadway, until circa 1969. Within this house, Amos J. Stillwell was murdered in 1888, and Gilchrist Porter, noted legislator, circuit judge and attorney, died in 1894. Photo by Bill Partee, Steve Chou collection. Reprinted with permission.

MARY LOU MONTGOMERY

For more than 100 years - until it was torn down in order to make room for the new F&M Bank  building circa 1969 - a stately mansion stood on the west side of Fifth Street, just to the south of Broadway. (Lot 2, Block 28, Hannibal, Mo.)

As early as 1859, and continuing until the end of 1888, this house was occupied by Amos J. Stillwell, who owned and operated a pork packing business at 307-309 Front St.

This house is perhaps best remembered as the site of Stillwell’s sensational murder, which took place in his bedroom on Dec. 30, 1888. While much ink has been devoted over the years to the unsolved Stillwell murder case, the tragedy did not put an end to the mansion’s desirability as a downtown residence.

A number of people, during the next 80 years, would call 112 (later renumbered 115) S. Fifth Street their home.

Among of the most prominent might be Gilchrist Porter, born in 1817, and members of three successive generations of his family. They occupied this dwelling for about two years, beginning circa 1892. The Porter family vacated the house after the elder Mr. Porter’s death in 1894.

Porter was an attorney, circuit judge and politician. He and his wife, Comfort, had 12 children, seven of whom survived them. But even when their own child-rearing years were over, there was more child-rearing to come for the aging couple.

Daughter’s death

Julia Porter Roberts, born in 1848, was the second-oldest of Gilchrist and Comfort Porter’s children who survived into adulthood. Julia was married to Richard Morris Roberts. He was a native of Clarksville, Mo., was a former Hannibal resident, and in 1883, he was newly elected sheriff at Joplin, Mo.

Mrs. Roberts died on June 14, 1883, leaving behind three young children, Nellie, Annie and G. Porter Roberts.

Sheriff Roberts believed it best to send his three young children to Hannibal to live under the supervision of their maternal grandparents, Gilchrist and Comfort Porter, who lived at  211 S. Sixth (later renumbered 212.)

Nellie Roberts, 10, the oldest of the three children, was taken in by her mother’s sister, Ella Porter Levering (Mrs. A.R.) who lived on the southwest corner of Fifth and Lyon, Hannibal. Nellie continued to live with her aunt and uncle until her marriage to Dr. Junius D. Young in June 1889. (The Marion County Herald of June 19, 1890, noted that Nellie Roberts was “a reigning bell in society circles” when she resided in Hannibal.)

Annie Dorsey Roberts, the middle child, who was about 6 when her mother died, was reared by her grandparents in Hannibal, as was her brother, Porter, age 4 when their mother died.

The Roberts children went to school in Hannibal, and likely attended Trinity Episcopal Church with their grandparents.

But then, in 1892, their maternal grandmother, Comfort Porter, died at the age of 69.

After his wife’s death, Gilchrist Porter moved the extended family into the former Stillwell Mansion, where his unmarried daughter, Annie D. Porter (circa 1855-1940) cared for her niece and nephew.

Two years after moving the family to 112 S. Fifth, Gilchrist Porter, 77, died at this house on Nov. 1, 1894.

California

After his grandfather’s death, G. Porter Roberts, who was by then a high school student, moved to Stockton, Calif., where his oldest sister, the aforementioned Nellie Roberts Young, had settled with her husband, Dr. Junius D. Young. Dr. Young was long associated with leadership of the state Hospital of California, located at Stockton.

G. Porter Roberts graduated from high school in Stockton, then entered Stanford University, graduating with honors  in 1900. He was married to Abbie M. Hammond on October. 7, 1903, at Stockton, Calif., and they had three sons, Gilchrist P. Roberts Jr., Junius Young Roberts and John Hammond Roberts.

Middle child

Annie Dorsey Roberts (1876-1953) was married to Frank Trowbridge Hodgdon (1873-1950)  in 1898, and for many years they made their home at 1000 Hill Street, Hannibal. Frank Hodgdon was a long-time associate of the Farmers and Merchants Bank and Trust Company, and was named bank president in 1949. They had two children, Ann Dorsey Hodgdon (1910-1974) and Frank Trowbridge Hodgdon, (1899-1962).

Porter siblings

Information from Find-A-Grave and Riverside Cemetery records.

Ella M. Porter Levering, 1841-1912, Riverside Cemetery, Hannibal, Mo.

Emma Rebecca Porter, 1844-1845, Dorsey and Porter Family Cemetery, Bowling Green, Mo.

Lizzie Rebeca Porter, 1845-1847, Riverside Cemetery, Hannibal, Mo.

Gilchrist Porter Jr., 1847-1883, Riverside Cemetery, Hannibal, Mo.

Julia Porter Roberts, 1848-1883, Riverside Cemetery, Hannibal, Mo.

Margaret D. Porter, 1849-1851, Dorsey and Porter Family Cemetery, Bowling Green, Mo.

Edward D. Porter 1852-1901, buried Fairview Cemetery, Joplin, Mo.

Anna Porter, 1855-1940, Riverside Cemetery, Hannibal, Mo.

Gilchrist Porter Jr., 1859-1873, Riverside Cemetery, Hannibal, Mo.

Susan Porter

Comfort (Byrdie) Porter, 1858-1950, died in San Diego, Calif.

John Dorsey Porter, 1861-1936, Stockton Rural Cemetery

William C. Porter, 1864-1934

Charles Porter, 1862-1949

Comfort (Birdie) Porter Smith, the last surviving of the Porter siblings, had two children, as obtained from census records:

Aaron L. Smith, born about  1887; and 

Mary Eleanita Smith Meredith, born about 1891.

(Aaron Smith, as told in the death notice for Ella M. Porter Levering, was born at the Levering family home,  302 S. Fifth Street.)

Street numbers

The city of Hannibal changed the even and odd configurations of the street numbers to the south of Broadway circa 1912.

The Levering house, at 302 S. Fifth, became 301 S. Fifth.

The Stillwell mansion, at 112 S. Fifth, became 115 S. Fifth.

The Porter house at 211 S. Sixth became 212 S. Sixth.

Note:

Perhaps the best source of information regarding the Stillwell murder is a book written by Minnie T. Dawson of Hannibal in 1908. The book was transcribed by Chase Hickman (1951-2023) and made available through the Hannibal Free Public Library’s digital archives.

https://www.hannibal.lib.mo.us/stillwell.htm

The Roberts siblings, grandchildren of Gilchrist and Comfort Porter, grew up in Hannibal. From left, Annie Dorsey Roberts Hodgdon, G. Porter Roberts and Nellie Roberts Young. Photo, from Ancestry. Permission for reprint granted by Lynne Roberts.

Gilchrist Porter was an American lawyer, jurist and politician who served two non-consecutive terms as a U.S. Representative from Missouri, from 1851-1853; and again from 1855-1857. Wikipedia.

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