Elgin, William C. (1802?–51), born in Virginia, moved to Hannibal in 1836. He worked for several years as a merchant, and by 1847 was proprietor of the City Hotel. A contemporary of Clemens’s called “Col. Elgin . . . a prominent figure in Hannibal society. . . . He had a great gift of Mesmerism which he practiced greatly to the entertainment of some and the annoyance of others, among the latter his wife. . . . he used to claim that he could mesmerize her hand or leg without her knowledge and render either member ‘paralized’ temporarily” (Ayres 1917). In June 1851, Colonel Elgin and twenty-three other residents died when cholera struck Hannibal. Mark Twain’s working notes for “Tom Sawyer’s Conspiracy” (HH&T, 383, 385) identify Elgin as the model for Colonel Elder (166–68, 170, 178, 203, 210). For clarification of the reference to him in “Villagers” (101), see Allen B. McDonald (Marion Census 1850, 306; “City Hotel,” Hannibal Missouri Courier, 13 Jan 49; Wecter 1952, 120, 214; “Obituary,” Hannibal Western Union, 26 June 51).
