Riverside: Early Hannibal street: An historic venue
Imagine this: When the funeral cortege of Jacob E. Grove, (1807-1867) moved slowly along the south easterly length of Riverside Street, in South Hannibal, en route to the newly opened cemetery at the end of the road, it is within reason to believe that the family of Mrs. Rebecca McLain was on hand to hear the cadence from the vantage point of her front door. AI image, ChatGPT
MARY LOU MONTGOMERY
Riverside Street, located on Hannibal’s South Side, played a significant role during the post-Civil War years. Funeral corteges traditionally followed the path of Riverside Street, from its inception at the junction with Fulton Avenue (formerly known as Clay Street) through the valley, then southeasterly up the hill, toward Riverside Cemetery.
Dotted along the street were frame houses built in conjunction with the surroundings, as shelter for working-class families whose breadwinners were, as often as not, employed in the nearby railroad yards.
The street is at least as old as the cemetery, which was established in 1866.
A family of note, with long-time association to South Hannibal and Riverside Street, was long headed by Mrs. Rebecca McLain, a woman of Irish ancestry who came to Hannibal from Maryland with her husband and children prior to 1840. She died in 1890, around the age of 82.
The McLains
The aforementioned Rebecca McLain, accompanied by her husband, William C. McLain and their children, arrived in Hannibal in time to be counted in the 1840 federal census. The town, at that time, was little more than a settlement on the banks of the Mississippi, with a population (in 1847) of some 3,500. A wooden bridge across Bear Creek was the only close connection between north and south Hannibal, so the neighbors learned, at an early date, to be self-sufficient.
South Hannibal had two immense slaughter houses, and a large Baptist Church, according to a history published in the Hannibal Gazette on Feb. 25, 1847. A three-story brick building had been constructed on Main Street, South Hannibal, in addition to a series of smaller buildings. In addition, in 1847 there were two more churches under construction in South Hannibal, one for the Old School Presbyterian congregation, and another for the Reformer congregation.
Mail was delivered from the south by steamboats, in season, and by horse-drawn coaches, tri-weekly, connecting Hannibal to Glasgow, St. Louis and Palmyra.
By the time of William C. McLain’s death in 1852, the family was firmly ensconced in South Hannibal. Rebecca was the family matriarch, and continued in that role until her death on Nov. 1, 1890.
The 1871 Hannibal City Directory was the first publication to specify that Rebecca McLain was living on Riverside Street, but it is suspected that this was her home for some time prior.
William C. and Rebecca McLain were parents to four children as per the 1850 census:
Lambert F. McLain, 18; (1833-pre-1886, buried at Riverside Cemetery)
Edward J. McLain, 14; (born 1836)
Charlotte E.L. McLain (Ritter Vannest), 10; (born 1840, year of death and burial information unknown); and
William M. McLain, 7. (1843-1901, (buried at Mount Olivet Cemetery, Section 8, Lot 47.)
(Lambert McLain’s daughter, Alice McLain Nesenhener, and her murder trial were chronicled in last week’s column. She died June 15, 1939, and is buried at Riverside Cemetery. Her funeral cortege would have been just one of many passing along this segment of Riverside Street, to the cemetery.)
Financial means
While William McLain was listed as a common laborer in the 1850 census, the McLains did have some financial means. Mrs. McLain, as of the 1860 census, had taxable real estate holdings totaling some $8,000.
That compares with other noteworthy names of the era:
Hiram McVeigh, real estate agent, $3,500; Wm. R. Pitts, harness maker, $7,000; Erasmus A. Moffitt, merchant, $6,000; and Robert Brewington, shoe and leather dealer, $1,400.
Estate division
When Mrs. McLain died, she left almost all of her estate, including her home at 148/527 Riverside Street and personal property, to her granddaughter, Mary Rebecca Ritter, who was at that time unmarried. (Other family members, including her daughter Charlotte and son William, and the legal heirs of her deceased son, Lambert, were gifted $1 each.)
Granddaughter
Mary Rebecca Ritter, granddaughter of Mrs. McLain, was born in 1859, to Lewis Ritter, and Charlotte Elizabeth McLain Ritter, who were married in 1856. In the 1860 census, this young family was living next door to Mrs. Ritter’s mother, Rebecca McLain. The marriage was a short one; two years later, Lewis Ritter was married to the former Deliah Smith, and together they grew a large family, making their home on Union Street in 1870.
Divorced, Charlotte Elizabeth McLain Ritter headed west, settling in Lawrence, Kan. She was married to John M. Vannest, a traveling salesman for T.T. Haydock buggies. She assumed the role of stepmother to his children. His travels took him away from home for weeks at a time, as far east as Palmyra, Mo., and deep into western Kansas.
The Vannest marriage ended in divorce. On Dec. 15, 1885, the Evening Tribune, Lawrence, Kansas, reported that twice-divorced “Mrs. Vannest received the appointment of assistant matron at the Indian School today.” The school, which opened in 1884, started as an assimilation-era American Indian boarding school. Today, the school has evolved into the “Haskell Indian Nations University.” It is a federally supported institution within the Bureau of Indian Education. (Source, the school’s website.)
No further traces of Mrs. Vannest were found during research for this story.
In 1888, Rebecca McLain, 80, and her granddaughter, Mary Rebecca Ritter, 29, were living together at 148/527 Riverside St.
Meanwhile, Lewis Ritter, father of Mary Rebecca Ritter, died in 1880. His widow continued to live in Hannibal until 1901, when she moved to Lafayette, Ind., with her son, Irvin E. Ritter. She made several trips back to Hannibal, including a visit in 1910, when she stayed for 10 days with her step-daughter at 148/527 Riverside Street. Deliah Smith Ritter died in 1915, and is buried beside her husband in Section 10, Lot 25, Mount Olivet Cemetery, Hannibal.
(It is believed by this author, that based upon the appearance of the house now standing on that lot, that the current structure replaced the original structure occupied by Mrs. McLain and her granddaughter, Mary Rebecca Ritter, probably in the 1920s, when cottage-style houses, with front porches, came into popularity.)
On Oct. 11, 1893, Mary Rebecca McLain was married to Benjamin M. Pulliam, a railroad postal clerk, at Denver, Colo.
They had one son together, Albert F. Pulliam.
Benjamin M. Pulliam died Aug. 20, 1896 in Marion County, Mo.
Mary Rebecca Pulliam again took up residency in Hannibal, at 148/527 Riverside, where she had once lived with her grandmother. She was united in marriage with Albert W. Hunstock in 1902, and they lived together in the house.
Mary Rebecca Ritter Pulliam Hunstock died on May 5, 1913. Albert Hunstock died in 1933. Mrs. Hunstock and both of her husbands are buried in Section 2, Lot 201, Mount Olivet Cemetery.
Road interrupted
Riverside Street’s intersection with the cemetery of the same name was interrupted a century after its inception, in the mid 1960s, when work began on the construction of what is now Missouri Highway 79. But the street stub remains intact today, as a proud representation of the early blue-collar families who lent their character to the persona of South Hannibal.
Note: The address of Mrs. Rebecca McLain’s house changed from 148 to 527 circa 1912. The house was located on the south side of Riverside, in Out Lot 17. From a visual look at the house where she lived with her granddaughter, Mary Ritter, it appears that the original house was replaced by a newer house in the 1920s. This conclusion is based upon speculative, rather than scientific evidence.
Note: Thanks to Deborah White and Brenda Peterson Martin for sharing their insights into history of Riverside Street for this story. Deborah White’s grandmother, Frances Lane, lived at 130/427 Riverside. Brenda Martin currently lives on Riverside Street.
Note: Newspaper and Ancestry.com files reveal numerous spellings for “Nesenhener" and “McLain”. For consistency, these spellings were used throughout the story.
Deborah White shared this photo of a house she owns at 138/515 Riverside Street. Frank A. Nesenhener lived at this address in 1897. His wife, Alice McLain Nesenhener, was convicted of poisoning her husband with acid. She was sentenced to hang, but the Missouri Supreme Court overturned her conviction. Frank and Alice Nesenhener, and several of their children, are buried nearby at Riverside Cemetery. It is believed that the house pictured replaced (in the 1920s) the house that the Nesenheners once lived in. (See this author’s story, published in the Hannibal Courier-Post on March 22, 2025, https://www.maryloumontgomery.com/single-post/mo-supreme-court-ruling-saves-woman-from-gallows.)
This hand-drawn map reflects the map produced by Integrity for Marion County, Missouri. There are three circled pairs of addresses, representing pre- and post-1912. These addresses represent residents who are featured in the accompanying story. Illustration 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
