If you’ve spent time paging through late 19th-century county atlases, you may have spotted the imprint: “Published by Hall & Babbs, Stockton, MO, 1886.” That and what to make of the earlier map of Cedar County, MO in 1879 by “Babbs & Stoddard”.
The name rang a bell for me—but who exactly were Hall and Babbs? And what became of the modest shop that turned out one of the most detailed maps of Cedar & Vernon Counties, MO?
A few archival dives later, I’ve traced the printers behind the name: Albert W. Hall and Francis “Frank” Hoffman Babbs Sr., a pair of industrious craftsmen and entrepreneurs who started with a treadle press and carved out a formidable publishing presence in Cedar County, Missouri.
From storefront to stereotype foundry
The duo’s shop began as a humble one-room outfit on Main Street, but by the mid-1890s had grown into a two-story, five-department operation. They upgraded to a Chandler & Price iron press powered by a belt-driven Remington engine and installed an electrotyping foundry that allowed them to reproduce maps like Vernon’s in multiple runs without resetting type.
The ground floor was divided into composing, presswork, binding, and plate-making areas—each with its own equipment inventory, from marble imposing stones to guillotine paper cutters. Upstairs, they curated a map showroom and sales counter. It’s a rare case of small-town ingenuity rising to meet big printing ambitions.
Who was Francis “Frank” Hoffman Babbs, Sr?
Born in Cross River, Westchester, NY on 19 December 1854, Lewis was the son of Thomas Babbs and Charlotte Seymour. His early exposure to printing came through a relative’s press in nearby Nevada, Missouri, where he learned the trade before launching his own venture in Stockton.
In 1876, he married Annice M. (Hayter) Jones, and together they raised one son, Francis H. Babbs, born in 1901. Lewis’s life was deeply rooted in Stockton—he not only co-founded Hall & Babbs but later managed the Cedar County Gazette, remaining a fixture in the town’s civic and publishing life until his death in 1928.
He was remembered locally not just as a printer, but as a community-minded businessman who helped shape the visual and documentary identity of Cedar and Vernon Counties. His maps, broadsides, and ledgers captured the pulse of a growing region—and his name, though often reduced to a surname on a title page, deserves to be remembered in full.
We aren’t able to connect Thomas and his parents into one of the known pedigrees at this time, so they have been placed in a new Pedigree, which is little more than a fragment. The current working name of the Pedigree is: Connecticut Pedigree (1822) and it only contains Thomas and his parents.