Miss Isabel’s House
Miss Isabel Person lived to be 93 years old. She lived at 1009 Church St, Port Gibson, MS for all of those years except for a
couple of years at MSCW for college and a couple of years at business school. She was raised here and, after schooling, lived
here with her parents and after they died, lived the last 30 years here by herself. She was one of the main characters in a town
full of characters. She was my aunt. My brothers and I were the closest thing she had to children and her house was, and still is,
magical to us. It is huge, with 6 bedrooms, grand parlors, living rooms, dining rooms, breakfast rooms, offices, porches, and of course,
an attic filled with treasures. The house was filled with wonderful objects from all over the world and, to a child, the furniture was so
huge that the pieces took on personalities of their own.
Miss Isabel’s father was a Person and her mother was a Gage. Port Gibson, founded in 1748, was influenced by the Person and Gage families
beginning in the 1820’s.
Miss Isabel’s Great-Grandfather, James Jones Person, emigrated to Port Gibson from Person County, North Carolina and he arrived with money.
Family lore has it that he left home at an early age because his mother had died and he did not get along with his Father’s second wife.
His father used the early dispensation of his inheritance to convince him to move West. He acquired farms in Port Gibson and in the Delta,
commercial property and businesses, and was president of the Bank. He eventually established a cotton brokerage in New Orleans, and ended up
spending part of his time there. He married Harriet Wells and they had 11 children, but only 2 survived infancy and their daughter died of
cholera at 16, leaving James Wells Person, Miss Isabel’s Grandfather, as the only surviving child. James Jones Person was against the War
Between the States, believing that slavery was doomed and that if the South would refrain from fighting a war it could not win, the government
would eventually outlaw slavery and compensate the slave owners. James Wells fought in the war and his mother sewed a family diamond into his
uniform for him to use to buy his way out of any difficulty. He survived the war and did not need to use the diamond. He had it set in a ring
and gave it to his future wife as an engagement present. It has been passed down, as such, through the generations and now belongs to Mrs.
James Wells Person V. James Jones survived the war financially intact, probably because his cotton brokerage business had accounts in England
and he had a good deal of his money there in Pounds as the Confederate dollar became worthless. There are numerous instances of him lending money
to Port Gibson friends to pay their taxes during reconstruction. Believing that the South would be decades recovering financially, James Jones
wanted to move to New York, thinking that there would be the economic center of the US and the world, but his wife, Harriet, from Massachusetts,
stopped the move by declaring that “she wasn’t going to move up there with those damn Yankees.”
Miss Isabel never married, although she definitely liked men. She was very attractive, impeccably dressed, intelligent and the life of the party.
And did she like to party. She enjoyed company and drink and indulged in both into her 90’s. She used to tell me about her great friend Lambert Huff,
somewhat of a rounder, but an intelligent businessman and a charming person. After a few drinks Lambert would often ask Isabel to marry him. Miss
Isabel, after a few drinks of her own, would invariable reply, “Lambert, if you think I would marry you, you must have taken leave of your senses.”
I like to think that Miss Isabel was a modern woman and that during her marriageable years, the 1930’s and 40’s, the institution of marriage, as it
was at the time, was not something that she was interested in. Maybe she would be more interested in a modern marriage where men and women are on
more equal footing. Miss Isabel was not one to be on unequal footing with anyone. On the other hand, she was so fiercely independent, that it is
hard to see her agreeing to even equal footing.
Miss Isabel’s Gage Great-Grandfather, James A. Gage, arrived in Port Gibson from Ohio, about the same time or just after J. J. Person. James A.
and his brother would build a flatboat, load it with goods, and float down the River to Natchez. They would sell the goods, dismantle the flatboat,
sell the lumber, and walk back to Ohio, or if they had been particularly successful, buy horses and ride back. Their route home was up the Natchez
Trace and through Port Gibson. On their second trip through James A. decided to settle here. He became a merchant and lived above his store on Main
Street before he bought what is now known as the Gage house at 602 Church Street. James A. was taken hostage by General Grant, along with a few other
older men, to protect his flanks from the local citizens as he moved through Port Gibson on his way to Vicksburg and the siege. They were released
after a few weeks. James A. Gage served as Chancery Clerk and Mayor of Port Gibson. Although he was not as wealthy as his friend J.J. Person,
they were both very community minded and they undoubtedly worked together on numerous civic projects.
Miss Isabel had the body type that could live well beyond 100, and if not for cancer she undoubtedly would have. The only ounce of fat she ever
had on her was in her first year of College. She accused the laundry there of shrinking her clothes but soon realized that the dining hall had
put 10 pounds on her. She lost it quickly and vowed to never gain it back – and she didn’t. Always athletic, she took up and loved golf in her
60’s and played until her last few years. I remember seeing her at 90 run, in a near sprint, to catch her brother. I used to worry about the
older members of my family getting out of my SUV because the seat is so high. Miss Isabel, the shortest of the bunch, would just jump – no problem.
The Person and Gage families owned several large homes in Port Gibson over the last 180 years and as they were sold, a good bit of the furniture,
silver, china, family artifacts, papers, and financial records ended up in Miss Isabel’s house. I have found papers dating to 1850 and handwritten
bank statements from 1919.
Miss Isabel’s Grandfather, Judge R. D. Gage was probably the most interesting of her ancestors. Born in 1860, graduated from Ole Miss Law in 1880,
he literally “went west young man.” He stopped at a settlement and ford in the Pecos River and helped found the town of Pecos. He was lawyer, Judge,
banker and Representative to the state legislature in Austin. He knew Pat Garrett and Judge Roy Bean. He had 4 children and when his oldest, Mary Anna,
Miss Isabel’s mother, went to Fort Worth for school he moved the family there and became President of the First National Bank. His wife became ill
and wanted to move home so he “retired” to Port Gibson and the Gage house in 1918 at the age of 58. He didn’t take to retirement so within a year
he bought the Port Gibson Bank for $20,000 and actively ran it for another 33 years!
Miss Isabel’s house was built around 1880 in the late Victorian style. Her father, J. W. Person II, the eighth of nine children of James Wells Person,
bought the house from a Mr. Bock in 1912, right before he married Mary Anna Gage. Story was that Mr. Bock was asking $5,000 and Jim only offered $4,500.
After several days of negotiating, Jim stuck to his offer. Mr. Bock finally relented saying, “Jim, I’ll sell you the house for $4,500 on the condition
that you’ll let the deed read $5,000. I don’t want anyone in town to think I’m fool enough to let this house go for $4,500!” Jim and Anna Gage Person
raised 5 children there and with the help of Miss Isabel and her sister Miss Lucile, helped in the upbringing of several grandchildren, myself included.
We’re all blessed with the experience we had with these people and this house.
About that attic that I loved to play in. 2000 square feet plus, chocked full of chests and trunks full of clothes, books, and the like, and many
pieces of furniture – some broken, some just saved. I don’t know what for. Well, Miss Isabel cleared out some of it in the last 20 years. She met
an antique dealer, from New Orleans I think, and he would stop in to visit her about once a year. She would send him up to the attic (she wouldn’t
go up there as she was deathly afraid of the bats that lived there) and tell him to pick out a piece of furniture and bring It down and they would
arrive at a price. That dealer must have loved Miss Isabel!
The house, although showing some neglect (Miss Isabel could afford the maintenance but couldn’t stand the inconvenience), is still a beautiful
thing to see. The tall columns on the porch, the leaded stained glass across the front, 12 foot ceilings, huge sliding pocket doors, beautiful
staircase, real parquet floors, are all from a bygone era. But it still holds the magic for my brothers and myself and for all the friends that
loved Miss Isabel.
By: Jim Person
Note: Miss Isabel’s house and many of its contents will be available for viewing at an open house on October 30th concluding with
music on her porch (a town tradition) at 5:00. An estate auction will be held on October 31st.
