From war to the supernatural, the cottage on First East Street has seen it all – The Vicksburg Post

This Greek Revival-style cottage at 1115 First East Street was built around 1857 for William and Elizabeth (Eliza) Curlee. It is said to have served as living quarters for nurses caring for Confederate and Union soldiers when the Duff Green house across the street was converted into a hospital during the Civil War.

William Curlee was a salesman for T.B. Wheeler. The Curleees owned quite a bit of land in Vicksburg and in Issaquena County and had four children, Willie, Daisy, Mrs. H.D. Carpenter (Louisiana) and Mrs. E.W. Newman (Washington, DC). Willie was a corporal in Warren’s light artillery in the 1880s and may also have been a fireman, as he played on a baseball team made up of firemen. In 1895 he helped with smallpox patients at the plague house. He died after “an illness of several weeks at the age of 38 years at his mother’s house” in First East on December 2, 1896.

Eliza died at her daughter’s home in Delhi on July 3, 1908. The funeral was held at the First East residence on July 4. The Vicksburg Evening Post reported that the distinguished woman was believed to be about 80 years old and “was one of our oldest citizens. She had lived a useful, busy and blessed life.” Daisy continued to live in the house after her mother’s death. She did not marry until 1916, at age 55, to Roland J. Williams, who was in the wholesale fruit and vegetable business. Williams died in 1938 and Daisy lived in the house until she died in 1943.

In 1947, Mrs. WH Tucker lived in the First East House. She was followed by Alva Mae Murrah and Allen Lum, a sergeant in the US Army. They were living in the house when the tornado tore through North Vicksburg on December 5, 1953. The tornado destroyed the east chimney of the house, which was not rebuilt until 2003.

After the Lums, several people lived in the house, including archaeologists conducting excavations at the site of Fort St. Pierre in the 1970s. Dr. Ian Brown, a professor at the University of Alabama, and his students were housed there and reported a number of strange occurrences in the house. He said items were often mysteriously misplaced or lost, and eventually the team believed supernatural forces may have been at play. A researcher, Dr. Stu Nightsoll, who lived in the basement, came home one evening to find all of his belongings piled in a heap in the middle of the room, although no one could explain why or how they ended up there.

In 1975, Richard Rolfe, a speechwriter for politician George Wallace, and his wife June lived in the house and also reported strange activity. He believed there were two ghosts, one in the attic and one in the backyard. After Richard’s death, June remarried and lived in the house until it was purchased by attorney Ben Sheely around 2003 and renovated using the federal Historic Investment Tax Credit.

In 2013, Andrew and Ivy Cummings bought the house and lived there with their children Silas and Jean-Alice.

– Nancy Bell, Vicksburg Foundation for Historic Preservation.