Hannibal is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

located in Taylor County,

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

, United States. Hannibal is located on

Wisconsin Highway 73 State Trunk Highway 73 (often called Highway 73, STH-73 or WIS 73) is a state highway in the central part of the US state of Wisconsin that runs mostly north–south from Ingram to near Edgerton. The exception is in Wood and Adams coun ...

and County Highway M north of Gilman, in the town of

Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...

. Today Hannibal is quiet, but once it was a bustling little economic hub at the junction of two logging railroads.

History

In 1903 the Stanley, Merrill and Phillips Railway cut up through the forest and swamps from the south, reaching the site of Hannibal before continuing to

Jump River The Jump River is a small rocky river in north-central Wisconsin. In the late 19th century it was used to drive logs down to the Chippewa River (Wisconsin), Chippewa River. Today it is recreational, rambling through woods and farmlands, used mos ...

and beyond. The owners of the railroad named this stop "Hannibal" because they had previously run a business in

Hannibal, Missouri Hannibal is a city along the Mississippi River in Marion County, Missouri, Marion and Ralls County, Missouri, Ralls counties in the U.S. state of Missouri. According to the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. Census, the population was 17,108, ...

. The Eau Claire, Chippewa Falls, and Northeastern Railway (a.k.a. Omaha) came through Hannibal from the west shortly after, on its way to Hughey on the

Yellow River The Yellow River, also known as Huanghe, is the second-longest river in China and the List of rivers by length, sixth-longest river system on Earth, with an estimated length of and a Drainage basin, watershed of . Beginning in the Bayan H ...

. The two railroads shared a depot where they crossed. These were

logging Logging is the process of cutting, processing, and moving trees to a location for transport. It may include skidder, skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or trunk (botany), logs onto logging truck, trucksNagel, Paul. ''S.M.&P. RY. - The Stanley, Merrill and Phillips Railway'', 1979. The first structure in Hannibal was a

boxcar A boxcar is the North American (Association of American Railroads, AAR) and South Australian Railways term for a Railroad car#Freight cars, railroad car that is enclosed and generally used to carry freight. The boxcar, while not the simpl ...

beside the SM&P's tracks. A little town quickly grew up at the crossing, with

sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logging, logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes ...

s, saloons, the Kearney hotel, and dance hall, another hotel, a grade school, a

livery stable A livery yard, livery stable or boarding stable, is a stable where horse owners pay a weekly or monthly fee to keep their horses. A livery or boarding yard is not usually a riding school and the horses are not normally for hire (unless on wor ...

, a

blacksmith A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from #Other metals, other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such ...

shop, a shoe shop, a meat market, Burss's

general store A general merchant store (also known as general merchandise store, general dealer, village shop, or country store) is a rural or small-town store that carries a general line of merchandise. It carries a broad selection of merchandise, someti ...

, and Keefer's store. By 1910, all these were in place, mainly serving logging operations nearby. In 1912 the "Hannibal Manufacturing Company" was established southwest of the railroad junction, making lath, Wood shingle, shingles and wagon wheel hubs. At its peak the mill ran around the clock and employed 30 men. In 1913 the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Presbyterian church was started and the Guinn Brothers store opened, with an opera house upstairs. But that was probably the peak of the boom. A fire destroyed some businesses in 1913. Hannibal Manufacturing ceased operation in 1916. With major logging done, the SM&P Railway finally shut down in 1934 and the Omaha in 1939. But the lumber companies sold the cut-over land to families and logging was replaced by farming. A cream collection station opened in Hannibal in 1915, and the Farmers Union Feed Store in 1923. A Cheesemaker, cheese factory operated there from 1924 to around 1945. A four-year high school opened on the west side of town in 1937 and operated until 1955. After that the building served as a grade school into the 1990s, and is now a Baptists, Baptist church. Larmon's store and a gas station also operated into the 1990s. The town's post office closed on May 25, 2011. Now no businesses remain - only homes and the two churches, sprinkled among empty lots and old buildings. The one-time boom town is now usually quiet.

History

References

Further reading