Gas Company.-- The Hannibal Gas Light and Coke Company was chartered in 1858, with a capital stock of $100,000. The works were erected during the year 1859, at a cost of $65,000. The capacity of the works is 60,000 cubic feet per day. The total number of consumers is about 400; number of street lamp-posts connected with the mains, 156; average cost of gas per thousand feet, $2.42.

Cotton Transfer.- The cotton transfer, in the western part of the city, was established a few years since for the convenience of handling the cotton shipped here over the railroads coming from Texas and the Southwest. In 1882 there were here received 200,000 bales, which were loaded and reshipped to the East, principally to New England.

Street Railway.-As long ago as 1868 a street railway was contemplated in Hannibal, but nothing substantial was done until a few years since. May 25, 1878, the Hannibal Street Railway Company was incorporated, with J. L. Van Every, Benton Coontz, E. D. Brewington, C. N. Armstrong and William Van Every as incorporators.
The first officers were C. N. Armstrong, president; J. L. Van Every, vice-president; Benton Coontz, treasurer; E. D. Brewington, secretary. A few days after the organization ground was broken and the construction of the line rapidly pushed through. In a few weeks the cars began to run from Hill and Main to the junction of Broadway and Market.

Water Works.- The water works at Hannibal were constructed in the summer and early fall of 1879, the work being begun on them even before the articles of incorporation were drawn or the city had accepted them. The ordinance making the contract with Carroll E. Gray, of St. Louis, the builder, was approved September 6, 1879, and the articles of incorporation were drawn September 1, preceding.
The works are the property of a company of St. Louis capitalists, whose first officers were John B. Gray, president; H. D. Wood, secretary and treasurer; J. H. Decker, superintendent. The capital stock of the company was $100,000-the approximate cost of the entire works. The present officers, except J. G. Chapman, president, are the same as the first. The company has mains along the principal
streets, and about 700 customers or "taps." The reservoir, on the bluffs in the northern part of town, has a capacity of 1,500,000 gallons.

Military Company.-The Garth Rifles, named in honor of John H. Garth, Esq., a fine military company belonging to the Sixth regiment of the National Guards of Missouri, was organized in 1882, with about fifty members. Its first captain was James T. Barber, afterward elected colonel of the regiment. The present officers are F. W. Dubach, captain, and J. T. Ray and Warren Drescher, lieutenants.