Rare Hannibal photo collection found within 1878/79 scrapbook
Walter J. Hilton performed “He was an Englishman” on stage at Hannibal's Mozart Hall during 1878/1879. Hilton was, at the time, the treasurer for the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad. Photo courtesy of Joseph Haslwanter, a descendant of W.J Hilton.
MARY LOU MONTGOMERY
In the spring of 1878 or 1879, twenty-eight-year-old Clarence C. Deane, in his studio at the corner of Main and Broadway in Hannibal, Mo., took portraits of the amateur actors and musicians who were performing in a local production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s rave opera sensation, “H.M.S. Pinafore.” The opera was staged March 27, 1879, at Hannibal’s Mozart Hall, located on the third floor of 407-409 Broadway, in a building which is still standing in 2025.
Among the key performers was 38-year-old Walter J. Hilton, Hannibal-based treasurer of the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad, who sang the renowned tune, “He was an Englishman.”
To publicize the opera, the actors, in full costume and makeup, posed in character for portraits in Mr. Deane’s studio. The photos were subsequently printed on card stock and compiled into an album. Jane Maria (Jennie) Butler Hilton (1846-1923), Mr. Hilton’s wife, later wrote identifying notes beside the photos, in her own handwriting, thus providing a lasting memento while identifying notable Hannibalians of that era.
Most of the cast members were congregants of Hannibal’s noteworthy Congregational Church, located at Sixth and Lyon streets. Proceeds from the performance were dedicated to the church mortgage fund and/or to the organ fund.
Quite miraculously, that album of rare Hannibal photos remained intact, and was handed down, generation to generation to generation, within Mrs. Hilton’s family for the next 145 years. Finally, in December 2024, Mrs. Hilton’s great-great grandson, Joseph Haslwanter, of Tennessee, decided that the album should be made accessible to Hannibalians interested in the town’s history.
Just prior to the start of the new year, the album transferred ownership to the author of this column, a dedicated student of Hannibal’s history. Thus the work begins to study and interpret the lives and accomplishments of these noteworthy Hannibalians who took part in this classic opera on the Hannibal stage in 1878/1879.
Of the opera, the Hannibal Daily Courier noted, in a paragraph on page four of the April 19, 1879 edition: “The opera was well rendered, and frequent applause made manifest the appreciation of the audience.”
The performances were ongoing:
The Brookfield Gazette on April 17, 1879, offered a preview of the upcoming performance, slated for the Strawberry Hall.
The newspaper encouraged its readers to attend the performance in Brookfield:
“It may be the only opportunity for our citizens to witness this opera, as the number of performers is so large that no professional troupe can afford to put it on the stage except in the largest towns and cities, and our Hannibal friends are only able to do so through the courtesy of the (Hannibal and St. Joseph) R.R. management in providing free transportation (to the actors.) This will be the sixth performance of the Hannibal amateurs, and the press of Hannibal and Palmyra speak loudly in their commendation.”
The Brookfield Gazette posted: “Come out, one and all, and see: Mr. J.R. Winchell as Sir Joseph Porter, K.C.B., who is a ruler of the ‘Queens’s Naveee,’ and in his travels is surrounded by his sisters and his cousins and his aunts, as handsome a bevy of females as any one could wish to see.”
In addition, the Palmyra Spectator of March 19, 1880, noted that several ladies and gentlemen from Paris, Mo., came to Hannibal on the M.K.&T train the week prior in order to see the opera. Mr. Burnet, one of the editorial staff of the Mercury, was among those in attendance.
Hannibal residents
Walter J. Hilton, an officer with the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad, which first crossed the state of Missouri prior to the onset of the Civil War, was born about 1841 in New York. He came to Hannibal circa 1875, along with his family: wife Jane Maria Butler (Jennie) Hilton and their twins Emma and Edward, born about 1867, and their youngest son, Frank F. Hilton, born about 1874.
In 1875, the family lived on the southeast corner of Godfrey Avenue and Bird. (Godfrey Avenue may have later been renamed North 10th Street. If so, the address of that still-standing house may be 220 N. Tenth.)
In 1877, the Hiltons were living on Bird Street, west of Tenth.
In 1879 they were living at the Helm House, on Broadway between Fifth and Sixth.
In 1880 the family lived at 212 Bird, in a row of adjoining two-story brick buildings on the north side of the street, located between the mid-block alley to the east and North Third Street to the west. (The land now serves as a parking lot.) The E.C. Hays family lived directly to the west, at 214 Bird. Lucy Payne and her son George, lived across the street in a two-story brick duplex at 213 Bird, adjoining the alley (also a parking lot in 2025.)
In 1881: 509 Bird, a two-story frame house on the south side of Bird, just east of the alley. Jennie Hand, a domestic, also lived with the family.
Well loved
W.J. Hilton was admired and respected by his colleagues in Hannibal. In July 1877, the Hannibal Daily Clipper posted a testimonial on W.J. Hilton’s behalf, presented at a Congregational Church sociable at the Hilton’s house, then on Fifth Street.
More than 100 people contributed to a magnificent photo album, which was presented to him during the event.
"We meet tonight to tender to you this testimonial of good will and esteem. During your association with us your uniform kindness and courtesy have warmly endeared you to our hearts,” his Hannibal associates stated.
J. Richardson of New York, president of the H&St. Joe Railroad, visited Hannibal in late April 1877. In November 1877, the stockholders of the railroad company came from New York to Hannibal for a stockholder’s meeting. They came aboard a special train, and once in Hannibal were hosted by W.J. Hilton, whose brother, J.A. Hilton, served as secretary of the company.
Leaving Hannibal
The Hiltons left Hannibal during the early part of the 1880s, resettling in St. Joseph, Mo.
It was there that their daughter, Emma, was married to Norman S. Donnelly, who, according to family lore, was not approved of by her parents.
She had a son in association with this marriage, Harold Butler Donnelly. The marriage ultimately ended in divorce. She was married to Edmund J. Lowry, of whom her parents approved, and bore two daughters, Mildred and Jennie, before Mr. Lowry passed in 1907.
In 1911 she remarried Mr. Donnelly, who by that time had acquired a sizable estate. They divorced in 1918. Norman Donnelly died in 1939.
Mrs. Lowry Donnelly, who spent her youth in Hannibal, died Nov. 11, 1953, in Highlands, New Jersey.
Her father, Walter J. Hilton, died in 1930.
Her mother, Jennie B. Hilton, died in 1923.
A scrapbook of Hannibal photos, dated 1878 or 1879, has been preserved within the family of Walter J. Hilton for some 145 years. Thanks to the generosity of Hilton’s descendants, the photos - of Hannibalians of that era - will soon be accessible to the public. Photo by Mary Lou Montgomery
Mary Lou Montgomery 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
