The AtoZ Challenge letter today is "H." I'm featuring Mark Twain's hometown of Hannibal, MO.
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| Hurry! The tour starts soon! |
Ghost Tours
"America's Hometown" is also sometimes referred to as "Haunted Hannibal." The Hannibal History Museum, located next to the Mark Twain Museum, hosts nightly excursions especially popular in the fall around Halloween.
Twain's last night in Hannibal:
Rockcliffe Mansion, built in 1898 by John Cruishank, is the place Mark Twain stayed during his last visit to Hannibal in 1902. Of course, the old mansion slash B&B is said to be haunted. You can experience a spooky night's unrest and see for yourself if the rumors are true.
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| Rockliffe Mansion (photo: Wikipedia) |
Stillwell Murders
Hannibal was home to wealthy citizen Amos J. Stillwell and his wife. He was found in his bed on December 30, 1888, murdered with an ax. The whole story can be read in the New York Times. The mansion has since been torn down. (Who wants to live in a house with that reputation?) A bank's parking lot sits on the empty space, full of eerie noises and haunted happenings late at night.
Tom Sawyer's infamous graveyard scene
Of course, we provide several ghoulish graveyards (circa 1830's) close to the Mississippi River. It is debatable whether or not the "Old Baptist Cemetery" was the one Mark Twain used to describe his lovely graveyard scene in Chapter 9 in his book Tom Sawyer. And, yes, it's creepy even in the daytime. I came across Becky Thatcher's (aka Laura Hawkins) dad's headstone. Historians think Twain used the "Old Cemetery" as writing inspiration, which was abandoned after the Civil War to make way for a housing development. Does that mean those bodies are still buried underneath the residential area?! CREEPY.
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| Poster in the Hannibal History Museum |
