Selmes family.
Tilden Russell Selmes (1808?–70) was originally from England. One of Hannibal’s leading merchants, he was proprietor of the Wildcat store at the corner of Main and Hill streets and in the early 1850s was one of four owners of the ferry line crossing the river at Hannibal. He was elected mayor in 1852 and 1853, and by 1860 had established the Hannibal City Bank. His wife, Mary, died in 1849, and he married Sarah P. Benton in 1850. Clemens mentions Selmes twice in “Villagers” (94, 96) and refers to him in “Clairvoyant” (32). While the working notes to “Tom Sawyer’s [begin page 347] Conspiracy” (HH&T, 384) mention “Old Selmes (English),” he does not appear in the story (Marion Census 1850, 310; Marion Census 1860, 770; Caroline Schroter to Jane Lampton Clemens, 29 May 70, CU-MARK; Greene, 51, 52, 257; Fotheringham, 51, 73; Holcombe, 941; “Obituary,” Hannibal Missouri Courier, 12 July 49; “Married,” Hannibal Western Union, 14 Nov 50; Conard, 2:534).
Sarah Johnson Selmes, the merchant’s beautiful daughter, is mentioned in “Villagers” (96). In 1848 she married Robert M. Funkhouser, who became one of St. Louis’s most prominent merchants (Davis, 3; Conard, 2:534; Edwards and Hopewell, 143).
