In commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the incorporation of Vicksburg, we will be highlighting the histories of buildings that the Vicksburg Foundation for Historic Preservation has saved over its 66 years. This is the third in the series and highlights 916 Farmer Street. In 1987, the foundation learned this house was in danger of being demolished. The Foundation bought the building and then sold it to an investor who rehabilitated it, and the house remains today.

This modest house was built between 1902 and 1907 by Magdalena (Lena) Ludke on the location of the house she and her husband Adolph most likely built after the Civil War. Ludke was employed by George C. Kress, continuing with the firm when it became Warner and Searles, and was only absent during the four years that he was a soldier in the Confederate Army.  In October 1894, Ludke took his own life by taking an overdose of morphine while in his Farmer Street house. 

The current house was built in the same location as the first, but in the later Queen Anne style. On Feb. 1, 1905, the Vicksburg Herald reported that, “yesterday morning at a very early hour a strange scene was enacted at the court house. The circuit clerk’s office was the scene of the occurrence, which was a marriage, the parties being John R. M. O’Reily and Mrs. Lena Ludke, the ceremony being performed by Justice W. A. Murch. Both parties are well known in this city where they have resided for many years. Owing to the extra early hour it was necessary for them to arouse Deputy Circuit Clerk Guscio in order to secure the license. The couple will probably reside at the Ludke home on Farmer Street.”  

O’Reily was a wealthy man whose first wife, Caroline Bobb, had died in 1886. The couple had no children. O’Reily died from heart disease just six days after marrying Lena. He had not changed his will after the marriage and had left several of his friends what were, at the time, large amounts of money. He bequeathed $5,000 to Lena, $2,000 to her daughter Amelia and $2,000 to her daughter Agnes. Lena, however, believed his entire estate should be left to her.  She contested the will and lost. 

In May of 1905, Lena brought a charge of insanity against her daughter Amelia, alleging she was of unsound mind. When the charges were brought, Sheriff Hyland refused to restrain Miss Ludke of her liberty and she stayed with friends. The Vicksburg Herald reported that, “after a searching examination, during which quite a number of witnesses were heard, the court ruled that the original inquiry into the young woman’s mental condition was void, as three of the jurors were not freeholders and that the evidence before him did not warrant him ordering another inquiry.  In other words the defendant was adjudged of sound mind.”  

In July 1907, Amelia married George Rector Caldwell and they eventually moved to Jackson. She died Nov. 25, 1918, of the Spanish Flu and is buried in Cedar Hill Cemetery.

Lena died in the house July 25, 1914, leaving four sons – William, John, Henry, and Adolph –  and two daughters – Agnes and Amelia. Thereafter, the house became rental property and was, at one time, converted into two apartments. The house had fallen into disrepair when the foundation purchased it, but was quickly rehabbed by the new owners and continues to be an important building on Farmer Street.  

– Nancy Bell, Vicksburg Foundation for Historic Preservation.