Marion City —- In April, 1836, a town was laid out on the river bank about six miles above Hannibal, in Marion County, and called Marion City. Within a year it had a population of 300 people, contained thirty houses, two large steam sawmills, and was important as a river shipping point. Dikes were built to prevent overflow by the Mississippi River. In 1844 high water washed the town out of existence and little remains to mark the place where the prosperous village once stood. The founder of Marion City was William Muldrow, a man with a wonderful genius for fascinating his fellow beings. At that time the maps represented the great American Desert as approaching near to the Missouri River. Governmental reports authorized this assumption. On this basis, Muldrow considered that the great cities of the valley must be on the Mississippi instead of on the Missouri River. Though extremely visionary and imaginative, he was a true colonist-the worthy successor of Delauriere, Between 1830 and 1835, 300 families, through his influence, settled in this region. – Thomas. H. Bacon.
Source: 1901 Encyclopedia of Missouri
I visited the Marion City Marker today on July 21, 2022. I wonder about the stories of the people who lived there, what their faces looked like, where they ended up.
My 3rd great-grandparents were part of Marion City. I wish I had a picture of them but here is a brief story about them. My 3rd great-grandfather, Thomas Hoke, was born about 1789 in Maryland, Pennsylvania, or Virginia (in 1789 both Virginia and Pennsylvania claimed Southwestern Pennsylvania). Autosomal D N A verified Thomas’ wife as Elizabeth Roadman of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania but the names of his parents and siblings remain a mystery. Thomas and his young family lived in southwestern Pennsylvania and Pittsburgh before the lure of the West in 1836 enticed them on a new adventure nearly 700 miles west in Marion County, Missouri. Here along the Mississippi River, he invested in town lots for the newly laid out town of Marion City founded by visionary William Muldrow. Even with dikes built along the riverbanks, the overflowing high water wiped out the town of Marion City in 1844. Thomas and others sought and fought to reclaim their investments from a town that no longer existed. He was then fortunate to invest in property outside St. Louis, Missouri where he and his family built the acclaimed Hoke Farm. This magnificent country property later was advertised as ‘Beautiful Building Sites’ in the Thomas Hoke Subdivision.