Hannibal Courier-Post • www.hannibal.net • SATURDAY, AUGUST 22, 2015 B1

By MARY LOU MONTGOMERYFor the Courier-Post

Born in Lexington, Ky., in 1827, and relocated with his family just fi ve years later, Charles Wickli! Curts was considered

a pioneer in Hannibal, a resident when the town was little more than a clearing along the banks of the Mississippi, and when the log school house was in the midst of “woods,” which he would later help clear and grade in order to establish Central Park.

A boyhood schoolmate of Sam Cle-mens, Charles Curts shared the same memories that his young friend Sam would later transform into legend known the world over.

Both Clemens and Charles Curts start-ed out their careers as riverboat pilots. While Clemens would leave Hanni-bal, travel worldwide and gain fame as among the greatest of American writers, Curts kept his homebase at Hannibal while venturing out as a steamboat pilot on a number of this country’s waterways.

Charles’ parents, Abraham and Mil-dred A. Branham Curts, arrived in Han-nibal with their young son in 1833, during an era when Indian wigwams still dotted the hills around the town, and when Bear Creek meandered through the downtown, meeting the Mississippi just south of what would become Broad-way. The creek’s path would be straight-ened by a core of men of Charles Curts’ generation, wielding shovels, by 1854.

When the Curts’ family arrived in Hannibal, the population was just 35, with one steamboat arriving and depart-ing per week.

The oldest portion of the town was settled by the ferry landing, near the building that now houses Mark Twain Brewery. The next land to be developed was along Palmyra Avenue, and after that, construction started along Main Street. The land south of Market Street, later renamed Broadway, was a dense forest, and land to the west of town was a popular hunting ground.

All of Charles Wickli! e Curts’ child-hood memories were built along the banks of the Mississippi River, and he seldom — if ever — during his 75+ years of residency in Hannibal, lived more than fi ve blocks from the shoreline.

Curts’ last home, where he breathed his last breath, and where his daughter Josephine Ayers continued to live until her death in 1951, was located next door to what is, in 2015, the only surviving house on the east side of the 100 block of South Fourth Street. The address at the time of his death was 115 South Fourth, later re-numbered 116 South Fourth. The dwelling still standing is numbered 114 South Fourth.

Sanborn maps of 1885 and 1899 show that the two aforementioned houses on South Fourth Street possessed nearly identical footprints.

Notable lineageDelmas Anderson of Odgen, Utah,

is a direct descendant of Abraham and Charles W. Curts. Abraham Curts (1806-1880) is Anderson’s great-great-great grandfather. Charles W. Curts, (1827-1908) the famed riverboat pilot, and Sam Clemens’ pal, is Anderson’s great-great grandfather.

Curts, the pilotDel Anderson has shared informa-

tion he has gathered during his lifetime regarding Charles Curts, including the death notice that appeared in a 1908 Hannibal newspaper:

“He engaged in steamboating when he was 30 years old and soon became pilot and captain. He was a licensed pilot on the Mississippi, Illinois and St. Croix rivers and renewed his license from year to year, and was a licensed pilot when he died. His run on the Mississippi was from Keokuk to St. Louis, but he often piloted steamers from St. Paul to New Orleans and on the Illinois and St. Croix rivers. He was familiar with every sandbar between St. Paul and St. Louis and is said to have been the best posted pilot on the river. His services were in great demand and he could command almost any wages.”

In an undated Hannibal newspaper, circa 1903, Capt. Curts o! ered a descrip-tion of the mildest winter of his previous 48 years on the Mississippi:

“Captain C.W. Curts says that the win-ter of 1864-65 was extremely warm, and no ice of any great volume was in the river during the whole of that period. He at that time was a pilot on the Warsaw, one of the fi nest packets in the river service running between Keokuk and St. Louis. At the end of the season he contracted with Captain Malin, who had chartered the Jennie Whipple, also plying between those two cities, to pilot the boat, and states that not a trip, not even an hour

was missed throughout the months of December, January and February, the period for which he had contracted to run, and at which other boats entered into the trade for the season. He ran the boat alone, the services of no other pilot could be secured, and received as a com-pensation $200 each month.”

Curts: The manWhile no photos of Capt. Curts have

surfaced, a description of the man at the age of 76 was included in the 1903 newspaper article:

“Although 76 years old he never uses spectacles and can see better than most men, at the age of forty; in fact, his sight is perfect and he can see as well as any-one. His hearing is likewise good, and his physique is in a wonderful state of preservation, he standing over six feet, lithe as an Indian and straight as an ar-row; no one would suspect him of being almost four scores of years in age. He has the appearance of a man around sixty.”

Fifth St. propertyIn 1880, Capt. Charles W. Curts owned

the property at the southwest corner of Fifth and Broadway, Hannibal, Mo. He was approached by the leaders of the Congregational Church about selling the land for construction of a new church.

Capt. Curts agreed, and sold the cor-ner lot for $3,200. The sale was noted in the St. Louis Globe Democrat on Dec. 1, 1880. (Nineteenth Century U.S. News-papers)

The church was to cost $25,000, and building was to be started early in the spring. The deed was in the name of Rev. Dr. Goodell, of St Louis.

Mary Lou Montgomery is a writer, speaker and researcher with a specialty in history. She is the former editor of the Hannibal Courier-Post.

(OUR AREA)

BRIDGESshops visitorsschoolsarts coummunity

PARKSriverboats,

Long before the...

riverman left lasting footprint

HISTORY IN HANNIBAL

The membership of the Congregational Church constructed this church building on the west side of the 100 block of South Fifth Street circa 1880. The members purchased the land from Capt. Charles W. Curts. OTIS HOWELL PHOTO/STEVE CHOU COLLECTION

Hannibal Courier-Post • www.hannibal.net • SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2015 B1

(OUR AREA)

MARY LOU MONTGOMERYFor the Courier-Post

John Keefe was a 30-year-old Irish-born American citizen when he settled at Hannibal with his young family, sometime in the early 1870s. A shoe-maker by trade, he went to work for Southard & Waller, a wholesale boot and shoe business operated by Lott Southard and Frederick Waller, at 109 N. Main in downtown Hannibal.

Mr. Keefe’s existence in Hannibal might have fallen into obscurity, had it not been for a blessing of extraordinary talent bestowed upon his youngest son, Mathew.

Matt Keefe, born circa 1874, was raised in the 200 block of Hill Street in Hannibal, just steps from the house where Sam Clemens spent his boyhood some two decades prior.

Matt’s best friends from childhood, “Bullett” and Dave Mirtzwa, were sons of a Russian immigrant, Andrew Mirtz-wa, and they followed their father in his trade; by 1900 they were all working as barbers in Hannibal.

Matt J. Keefe, on the contrary, would become an entertainer in his adult-hood, traveling with top names in both minstrel shows and in vaudeville.

He ultimately earned the moniker: “America’s Greatest Yodeler.”

While his life wasn’t destined to be long, it was fruitful.

A Hannibal boyWhen Matt Keefe died in January

1920 at the age of 48, “Bullett” Mirtzwa told the Quincy Daily Herald that he and Matt Keefe began singing together on the street corners in Hannibal while still boys.

But singing wasn’t Keefe’s only love. He often took a steamboat to Quincy during his youth, working as a jockey and running in races at Baldwin park.

On Feb. 14, 1913, the Quincy Daily Herald reported, “Keefe earned quite a reputation as a jockey and rode on nearly all of the big tracks of this coun-try. He also rode in New Mexico, South America and in Europe, returning to New York in time to join a minstrel show for the winter seasons.”

Matt Keefe returned to his home-town of Hannibal and nearby Quincy in February 1913, for the first time in 30 years. He was called upon to perform at Quincy, serving as a substitute for Shelton Brooks (1886-1975) who lost his wardrobe and stage properties in a fire at the Burlington, Iowa, vaudeville theater earlier in the week.

In honor of his visit, the Quincy Daily Herald published a summary of Keefe’s youth and career.

The Daily Herald reported that Keefe “earned quite a reputation as a jockey and rode on nearly all of the big tracks of this country. He also rode in New Mexico, South America and in Europe, returning to New York in time to join a

minstrel show for the winter seasons.”Keefe performed popular songs and

yodeling with Al G. Fields minstrels, working with the Fields company for four seasons.

San Francisco Interview: 1913Walter Anthony of The San Francisco

Call newspaper conducted an interview with Matt Keefe in August 1913, when the performer was in town staring in the Empress show.

The article was published on Aug. 10, 1913, and included a sketch of Keefe by an artist by the name of Rogers.

Anthony described Keefe’s talent: “His cuckoo singing has been the de-light for 20 years of those who love yodeling.”

At the height of his popularity with audiences, Keefe reflected that he had worked his way to the top. “I played at all the dumps, believe me. I didn’t miss anything,” said Matt, while adjusting a large scarf pin that shone in the late afternoon sun.

Anthony wrote: “Although he is still a young man – 39, he told me - Matt’s memory goes back far enough as a showman to anchor itself and its own-er’s career in the epoch of minstrel-sy when some of the greatest of the present day entertainers were doing parades and giving darktown imita-tions in the ‘oprey houses’ of a now minstrel-deserted and otherwise dark-ened country.”

“I came to this town about 25 years ago, with Leavitt’s show, ‘The High Rollers,’” Matt Keefe said. “We were broke before we landed, and afterwards we didn’t get any better. In 1889 I came out here with a drum corps organized

in Denver by George W. Cook. That was the finest drum crops that ever tapped a quickstep,” he reflected. “But my first high class appearance in this city was when Ned Holman and Harry Conners organized a juvenile company and produced ‘Cinderella’ at the Cal-ifornia Theater. I was young enough – about 15, I suppose – to qualify with the juveniles, and was good enough, or youthfully rash enough to go out with the organization on a tour of the coast.”

His pleasantest tour on record was “The Friars’ show.”

The newspaper reporter explained: “Every year the Friars, which is an or-ganization of actors, performers and newspaper men, gives a great show in New York and makes a brief tour during the summer, the purpose be-ing, so Matt, who is a member, says, is to abstract su!cient change from the people to build a clubhouse of amazing proportions and beauty in New York. Now, this organization is su!ciently strong in talent to command a cast of extravagant entertaining merit. No producer, merely trying to support his playhouse, could a"ord to o"er such an aggregation as annually travels for the Friars, unless he demanded a price per seat that would make the price of a box reservation at a championship fight seem like a nickel at a church fair.

“George M. Cohan is an endman,” the reporter continued. “Willie Collier is another. De Wolf Hopper is one of the comedians. Weber and Fields play again at their team work. Nearly every player known to fame assumes a role of serious or comic import, and they all go along to raise money to build an expen-sive clubhouse on very expensive land.

That they will succeed in their e"orts is not to be doubted, since, according to Matt Keefe, they made $100,000 in 11 performances in the last tour, which lasted just 11 days.”

Keefe reflected on that trip. “That was the finest trip I ever took,” he said.

“When we played in Providence,” said Matt, “they had to rope the streets to keep the crowds from mixing up the parade.”

Providence, the reporter explained, is Cohan’s home town, that he makes fun of consistently.

Keefe said that he feared the days of minstrelsy were irrevocably over. “The form of minstrel entertainment is dead that once amused our fathers and that began when the negro was as interest-ing in comedy as he was in ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin.’” Keefe said.

“There will be,” he said, “some forms of the minstrelsy that will live, however, and they will be found in vaudeville. The sons of the minstrels will be heard and his comedy will be o"ered, but it isn’t likely that San Francisco will ever support again a minstrel organization such as that of Reed or Emerson, or even Dockstadter.”

The singer’s deathAt the time of his death in January

1920, Keefe was playing in a Philadel-phia vaudeville house. He was taken to a Pennsylvania hospital, where he died. He was 48 years old and was survived by a wife and child.

Mary Lou Montgomery is a writer, speaker and researcher with a specialty in history. She is the former editor of the Hannibal Courier-Post.

Hannibal native made yodeling cool as ‘America’s Greatest Yodeler’

HISTORY IN HANNIBAL

This undated photo from the Steve Chou collection shows the north side of the 200 block of Hill Street. Sam Cle-mens once lived in the house at the far right. To the left, up the hill in one of the houses pictured, lived Matt Keefe with his family in the mid to late 1870s. Keefe, circa 1913, was known as “America’s greatest yodeler.” CONTRIBUTED

YO!He put the

in yodeling

Matt Keefe was profiled in the San Fran-cisco Call newspaper in August 1913.

Hannibal Courier-Post • www.hannibal.net • SATURDAY, AUGUST 29, 2015 B1

(OUR AREA)

MARY LOU MONTGOMERYFor the Courier-Post

Sandy and Daron found a box of World War II-era letters in the attic of their garage located on Grand Avenue in Hannibal. The letters chronicle the courtship of Mary El-len Hulse of Rensselaer and Richard Webster Trower of Hannibal, who married when Richard was home on leave from the U.S. Navy.

This week, after posting an online plea for family to claim the letters, Vicki Trower of Florida, niece of Mary Ellen and Richard, came for-ward and asked that the letters be shipped to her, so that she can keep them in their family.

Before shipping the letters, here are snippets that tell the story of the love that grew in the midst of war.

Three local men enter navyJune 16, 1942The following men from Hanni-

bal have enlisted in the U.S. Navy, through the United States naval

r e c r u i t -ing office at Quin-cy, Ill ., during the past week.

Hurley He n d e r -son Jr., Hannibal, Mo.

Richard We b s t e r Tr o w e r , Hannibal, Mo.

J a m e s T h o m a s Rowland, Hannibal, Mo.

T i m e -line: June 1942. U.S. c a r r i -er-based a i r c ra f t , alerted to Japanese

moves by code breakers, stop a Japa-nese invasion of Midway, a U.S. base that guards Hawaii. U.S. dive-bomb-ers sink four Japanese carriers; one U.S. carrier is lost. The Battle of Midway is the turning point of the war in the Pacifi c.First letter home

June 26, 1942. Richard W. Trow-er wrote to Miss Mary Hulse from Great Lakes, Ill. “Dearest Mary. Well I fi nally got here last night about 9 and have really been busy today. I got my clothes and my hair cut today. You should see me. I took the last exam this morning and I passed OK. Got to write Mother a few lines. Loving you as much as ever, Dick.

Timeline: August 1942. U.S. Ma-

rines land on Japanese-held Guadal-canal in the Solomon Islands. This is the fi rst battle in a U.S. “island hopping” campaign that will keep moving U.S. forces closer to Japan.

Aug. 6, 1942. Dearest Mary, I made my trip OK. Don’t worry about me a bit. I am getting along swell. Lots of love, Dick. My address is: U.S. Navy, USS Prairie 1st Div. C/O P.M. New York N.Y.

Timeline: September 1942. An aircraft launched from a Japanese submarine drops fi re bombs on for-ests near Brookings, Oregon, in the fi rst bombing of the continental United States.

Sept. 18, 1942. Dearest Mary, Honey, I sure wish I could see you and talk to you. I could at least tell you where I am and where I have been, but the way it is, I can’t. There is a boy sitting here writing a letter to his girl and I think he is trying to propose. He is having an awful time trying to get me to tell him what to write and he will write something and ask me if it sounds all right. I told him he had better use his own judgment.

Timeline: October 1942. After months of desert fi ghting, the Brit-ish Eighth Army in North Afri-ca puts Germany’s Afrika Corps to fl ight.

October 3, 1942. Dearest Mary, Honey, I don’t think there is a chance of me getting a leave for a long time yet. I wish I could get one for Christmas but I don’t guess I will. If I could get one I am so broke I wouldn’t have the money to get home on so I guess I just won’t think about it. Besides we are shipping out again right away and I don’t know where this time. Sending you all my love, Dick.

Timeline: November 1942. U.S. and British troops invade French North Africa and will later link up with the British Eighth Army.

Nov. 14, 1942. Dear Mary. I got the pack Mother sent this week. I got two cartons of cigarettes. I wish I had told them that I can buy them here for fi fty cents a carton.

Timeline: December 1942. Ger-man troops are near Moscow. But, forced to fi ght in freezing weather, the troops pull back—defeated by the Russian winter, which had also defeated Napoleon’s army in 1812.

Feb. 15, 1943. Dearest Mary, I cleaned out my locker yesterday morning and had to go on watch af-ternoon. I am feeling just fi ne. Have you been working hard?

Timeline: February 1943. German troops surrender at Stalingrad (now Volgograd). The Soviet Red Army, turning the tide of war, begins an o! ensive that will end in the capture of Berlin in 1945.

April 8, 1943: Dearest Mary, I am back in the U.S. again and boy it sure looks good. They sent me back here to Newport, R.I., for treatment. It sure is a nice hospital here. All I get is milk and eggs and it is the best milk I’ve had since I left. I am going to try to get leave after I get well. I will be here a month or two.

April 14, 1943. Dear sweetheart. Honey you asked what kind of a ship I was on. It was a destroyer tender, in other words, we carried supplies and ammunition for a gunner on another aircraft carrier. That is what I went to school for.

Timeline: U.S. code breakers in-tercept a Japanese radio message saying that Admiral Yamamoto is fl ying to the Solomon Islands. He is killed when U.S. fi ghters shoot down his plane.

May 3, 1943. Dear Sweetheart. The X-ray showed up OK so I am going back to duty. I will be glad to get out of here. I just hope I can get a leave.

May 5, 1943. Dear Sweetheart. I feel pretty good now after I have rested up. I don’t know just when I am going to leave yet. The nurse said this morning that it may be Monday or Tuesday. I got paid this morning but I didn’t draw as much as I thought I would. I guess they stopped my sea pay while I am in the hospital.

May 8, 1943: Dear Sweetheart. They told me yesterday I was going to the training station here in Rhode Island. From here I don’t know what that is for. Some of the boys here

seem to think I will have shore duty there. I guess I will soon fi nd out.

Timeline: May 1943. The U.S. Navy announces that, except for the U.S.S. Arizona, U.S.S. Utah, and U.S.S. Oklahoma, all warships sunk at Pearl Harbor have been repaired and returned to sea.

June 2, 1943: Letter from Boston, Mass. Dear Sweetheart, I tried to call you about 8 o’clock but couldn’t get through and while I was waiting a boy from here came along and wanted me to go have a drink with him and I tried again and they got it right through. I am pretty sure I am going back next week. Maybe I will be home by that time.

Timeline June 1943. A Japanese destroyer rams and sinks a small U.S. Navy vessel, PT-109, command-ed by Lt. (and future President) John F. Kennedy. He and other sur-vivors swim for fi ve hours to reach a small island, where they are later rescued.

June 7, 1943. Mary Ellen Hulse and Richard Webster Trower are married in Hannibal while Richard is home on leave from the U.S. Navy.

Richard Trower died Oct. 29, 1985. Mary Ellen died May 27, 1999. They are buried side by side at Grand View Burial Park

Mary Lou Montgomery is a writer, speaker and researcher with a spe-cialty in history. She is the former editor of the Hannibal Courier-Post.

LOVE

LETTERS

OF WAR

Letters reminiscent of World War II love stories

Mary Ellen and Richard Trower“Dearest Mary, Honey, I

sure wish I could see you and talk to you. I could at least tell you where I am and where I have been, but the way it is, I can’t. — Richard Trower, Sept. 18, 1942

Letters from a deployed Richard Trower were found in a Hannibal home.

HISTORY IN HANNIBAL