Nissenbaum sells newspapers, magazines during Hannibal stint

This 1930’s era photo from Steve Chou’s collection features Ely Nissenbaum and his business, Hannibal News Company, at 309 S. Main St. The business was on the west side of Main, across the street from Union Depot. The business to the north was operated by F.B. Culbertson.

MARY LOU MONTGOMERY

October 1928 found 33-year old Ely Nissenbaum living upstairs over his retail business, the Wellston Leader Clothing Store, at 5971 Easton Ave., St. Louis, Mo.

His name appeared in print in the Oct. 11, 1928 edition of the St. Louis Post Dispatch, following a burglary, in which $75 was taken from the store’s safe, and an additional $25 from the cash register. It was thought that the thief entered the store through Mr. Nissenbaum’s second-floor apartment, where he lived with his wife and young children.

Not long after, circa 1929, after liquidating his clothing business in St. Louis, the Nissenbaums relocated to Hannibal, where Mr. Nissenbaum would ultimately take over management of the Hannibal News Company at 417 Broadway. He subsequently relocated that business to 309 S. Main St.

This wasn’t a news gathering organization, but rather a news disseminating business. He sold magazines and newspapers, including the St. Louis Post Dispatch, the same newspaper which originally reported the burglary at his store in 1928. In addition, he sold other regional and local publications.

While a resident of Hannibal, he served as president of the Hannibal-Quincy branch of B’nai B’rith. The Nissenbaums made their home at 312 N. Fourth St. Ely Nissenbaum was proficient on the violin, and his son, Alvin, was a piano student while in Hannibal. The children likely attended Pettibone School.

Temple Israel

In October 1934, while the Nissenbaums were residents of Hannibal, the Hannibal Labor Press newspaper announced that the newly organized Temple of Israel had acquired a church building located at 1005 Lyon St., formerly the home to the Assembly of God Church.

Richardson and Sons, general contractors, were hired to remodel the building inside, and to create a new front and entrance.

“For a number of years the members of the Jewish faith in Hannibal have had no permanent place of worship … when finished, they will have place of worship of which they have reason to be proud. Henceforth the building will be known as Temple Israel.”

Rabbi Ferdinand Isserman, of Temple Israel, St. Louis, dedicated Hannibal’s new temple at 2:30 p.m. May 5, 1935.

On Friday, June 8, 1935, confirmation services were scheduled to take place in Temple Israel for Marvin Earl Nissenbaum, son of Mr. and Mrs. Ely Nissenbaum. A reception was planned for 7 p.m. the following Sunday. Henry J. Stone was to be in charge of the ceremony, with Harry Feder assisting.

Relocating

By 1940, the family, including Ely, his wife Ethel Baris Nissenbaum, and their children, Marvin, Alvin, Thelma and Jerome, had relocated back to St. Louis, making their home at 5786 Kingsbury.

Ely Nissenbaum, who had been a junior mechanical engineering student at the University of Missouri circa 1917, went on to establish a new business, Wonder Novelty Co., in 1937. Ultimately, his entire family would become associated in the company.

The business was still in operation in 1982. That year Jerry Nissenbaum, Ely and Ethel’s youngest son, was president of the 45-year-old company, located at 5467 Highland Park, St. Louis.

The Pike Cafe

The South Main Street building in Hannibal, located on the west side of South Main Street, five doors south of Lyon street, is no longer standing. But as early as 1911, it was the site of a popular eatery, The Pike Cafe, S.G. Glavis, proprietor.

It’s popularity was credited not only to good food at reasonable prices, but also to the cafe’s strategic location across the street from Hannibal’s Union Depot. The station served as a round-the-clock transportation hub for trains traveling both east and west, and north and south, across the country.

Tom Andrianos was proprietor of The Pike Cafe in 1920. He and his family worked at the restaurant, and lived in apartments upstairs.

Employees in 1920 included:

George Andrianos;

John Andrianos;

Tom P. Andrianos, proprietor;

H.A. Christ;

Eva Ebbing, waitress;

Edward S. Galbraith, cashier;

Laura Hubbard, waitress;

Elenor Massie, waitress;

Helen A. Quirk; and

Effie Sullivan, waitress.

By 1922, George Sevastoo was the cafe’s proprietor.

In 1923, the cafe had been renamed the Liberty Cafe, and was operated by Roy W. Allison.

Next door

In the picture of Hannibal News Company included with this story, can be seen the business of Francis Boyd Culbertson (1899-1957) , who in 1923 operated a sheet metal business at 1704 Market.

By 1939, he relocated his shop to 307 S. Main. He was a heating engineer, offering coal, gas, and oil furnaces, and air conditioning. His home was at 116 S. 10th.

By 1950 he  was living in St. Joseph, as a partner in a sheet metal shop. 

He died at Duval, Fla.

The Pike Cafe, operated by S.G. Glavis, advertised in the Hannibal Morning Journal on April 9, 1914. After serving for many years as a neighborhood restaurant, Ely Nissenbaum opened Hannibal News Company at this address circa 1930. newspapers.com

Ely Nissenbaum was manager of the Hannibal News Company in 1929. This advertisement was published in the “The Colored Directory 1929,” accessed via the Hannibal Free Public Library’s Website. Early in the 1930s, Nissenbaum moved the business to 309 S. Main St.

Ely Nissenbaum, as pictured in the 1917 Savitar, University of Missouri yearbook. He was a junior engineering student. Ancestry.com

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