In commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the incorporation of Vicksburg, we will be highlighting the histories of buildings the Vicksburg Foundation for Historic Preservation has saved over its 66 years. This is the second in the series and highlights the building that is now located at 916 Farmer Street.

In 1987, the Foundation learned this house, at the time located at 1120 Jackson St., was in danger of being demolished in order to build a new office building. The foundation worked with the property owner who donated the three-bay galleried cottage to us, as well as $500 to help fund moving the building to a new location. We moved the house intact to Farmer Street and then sold it to an investor, who rehabilitated it and the house remains today.

John C. and Anne McCalloway built the house on Jackson Street in 1885.  John was a shoemaker and a leader in the Black community. He was a member of the Knights of Honor and one of the founders of the Warren County Building and Loan Association in 1885.  He was listed as a member of the Warren County Grand Jury in 1894, a census enumerator in 1900, and appointed as a delegate to the Republican Convention in 1892.  He was also elected the chairman of the Committee of Colored Citizens of Vicksburg and Warren County for the purpose of making arrangements to take part in memorial services for the late U. S. Grant. In October 1892, The Vicksburg Post reported, “J. C. McCalloway, of this city, a colored man, a resident of Vicksburg all his life, and one who has the respect of the good citizens, has been appointed by Hon. Homer Powers, Collector of Internal Revenue for the District of Mississippi and Louisiana, as a weigher (sic) in the sugar bounty division.” 

Anne McCalloway was an important member of the community in her own right. She was a teacher at Vicksburg public schools and at St. Mary’s Episcopal for 55 years. In the announcement of her death on April 26, 1921, The Vicksburg Post reported, “Anne McCalloway, one of the most highly respected colored women of the city died at her home on Locust Street (where the couple had moved to about 1904), near Grove, yesterday after a long illness, age 74 years. The funeral services will be held this afternoon at 4 o’clock at the house and at St. Mary’s (colored) Episcopal Church at 5 o’clock. Rev. R. T. Middleton will officiate. For many years (the) deceased had been a teacher, serving for over half a century in public and denominational schools and up to the time that illness incapacitated her was a member of the faculty of the Vicksburg Industrial School. She was a good woman and died possessed of the esteem of all of the members of her race and also many white friends. She is survived by her husband, who is the recipient of much sympathy in this bereavement.”

The McCalloways moved to 1010 Locust St. in 1906. The house on Jackson Street became the home of Louis A. and Rose Herrmann and their daughter, Carrie. Louis was a clerk with Rice and Company and in an article in The Vicksburg Post shortly before his death on December 7, 1940, he was heralded as the “dean of sales force at Rice Furniture Company.” The Post reported, “As the company celebrates it seventy-second anniversary, Mr. Herrmann remains an outstanding figure in the long history of the firm. For thirty-seven years, Mr. Herrmann has catered to the needs of Rice Furniture Company’s customers, making scores of friends who today look on him as a counsellor and advisor on their home furnishings problems. As a young man, Mr. Herrmann entered the employ of Harry E. Rice, Sr., and helped him build the Rice organization to its present ranking as the state’s largest furniture house. When Mr. Herrmann went to work for Mr. Rice, there were only the two of them to carry on a steadily increasing business. There was a negro porter, a flop-eared mule and a one-horse wagon to round out the sales and delivery personnel and equipment.”  

Herrmann also stated that “the marble-topped dressers and tables were in popular demand, gas and oil lamps were the favorites even though electricity was available. Then came the phonograph which startled the nation and started the piano on the downgrade. He remembers distinctly how he was amazed by the first phonograph he ever heard. The source of the music was a mystery and ‘the music box’ was considered a miraculous invention.” He said that Rice’s kept up with the new inventions and that “everything today is designed to lighten the load of the housewife and to make the home brighter, more cheerful and comfortable.” Louis’s funeral took place from the house on Jackson Street.

After the death of Louis, Rose and Carrie continued to live in the house and Carrie lived there after her mother’s death in 1958 and remained until her passing on December 31, 1967. The house had a number of residents thereafter and was then moved to its new home on Farmer Street by the foundation in 1987. 

– Nancy Bell, Vicksburg Foundation for Historic Preservation.