Thereafter, the house was rented to a number of families including George and Emily Bryan (1911), Mrs. M. E. Wellborn (1913), and Mrs. M. E. Harper (1915). By 1918, it was the home of Frank and Geraldine Partee Melsheimer. Frank was a grocer and cotton buyer and the couple had eight children. Frank Jr. owned Melsheimer’s Garage and his brother Gerald worked there. Their sister Elizabeth was a secretary with Miller Auto Company, and brother Julius also worked at Miller. Their youngest son Sam was a captain during World War II, serving in the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers in the India-Burma theater building the Ledo Road. After the war, he settled in Plaquemine where he was one of the organizers of the Company A 769^th Anti-Aircraft Battalion National Guard. He and his brother Clarence also owned and operated Louisiana Appliances.

Sam was still living at the Cherry Street house in 1941 when The Vicksburg Post published a photo of him with the caption “one of the officers being trained in operation and maintenance of Ford-built military equipment at the Army Service School in the Ford Motor Company’s Rouge plant at Dearborn, Mich. He is shown tightening cylinder head nuts on the engine of a ‘blitz buggy,’ one of the revolutionary midget reconnaissance cars Ford is building for the army.”

By 1962, the house was listed as Lydia’s Beauty Shop. In 1973, it was listed for sale as a good commercial location with a price of $8,500. It was demolished and the lot later became a parking lot. The history of the 1200 block continues next week.

– Nancy Bell, Vicksburg Foundation for Historic Preservation.

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Old Post Files: March 12, 1925-2015