History
1B • Daily Corinthian
Sunday, May 5, 2013
The story of Corinth architect Martin Siegrist The other night at the Gaston’s received a church there was some three story brick edifice discussion about work topped with a beautiful being done on the Ruble white dome. There were House. The old Ruble wings on either side of the home is owned by First main structure and enorBaptist Church and it mous Corinthian columns houses the activities of across the front. The interior was grand the Youth Ministry. Of course, this imme- and downright opulent diately got me thinking compared to anything else found in this corner about the Civil War. You see, several years of the state. Miss Lucy ago I was asked to partici- Irion, a student at the college, described pate in a fundraiser her new school. for the Corinth City “The hall was large Cemetery. Several and beautifully folks dressed up in ornamented with period clothing and arches and pillars. stood by the graves The rostrum was of some of the fanicely carpeted. mous and not so Tom The wainscot doors famous residents of Parson and windows were Corinth. Short pro‘oaken.’ The wingrams were given Park Ranger dows reached alto introduce visimost to the floor tors to these early and extended nearly to citizens of our town. It was my honor to por- the ceiling. The blinds tray Martin Siegrist, the were of a kinder maroon man who built the Ruble color which threw a lovely light over all.” House. Martin did so well with Now hold your historical horses. Before the fact his first job, he was soon police start calling my cell in demand for a host of phone, I am aware the new projects. We’ve all seen the phohouse was not here during the Civil War. I don’t tos of the iconic Tishowant to talk about the mingo Hotel set into the house, but the man who corner of the rail crossing of the Mobile & Ohio designed it. Way back in 1855 the and Memphis & CharlesReverend Leroy Gaston ton Railroads. Martin and his wife Susan moved built the two story brick to the brand new commu- building with the signanity of Cross City with the ture wrap-around baldream of opening a school cony. The location at the for girls. The dream be- railroad junction made gan to take shape the next it the natural spot to stay year when land was do- for traveling visitors and nated on a hill a half mile soon it was the symbol of southwest of town. The the emerging city. His next project was a holdup was finding an architect who could turn the house, and not just any house, but the home of vision into a reality. Corinth was just a clap- Hamilton Mask -- one of board affair at the time the city’s founders. We and there was no one know it today as the Vecompetent enough to de- randah or Curlee House. Another home, Rode sign and build what would be the largest structure in Cottage, went up for William Inge, a local lawyer town. A committee was dis- who would serve the Conpatched to Memphis to federacy and one day rise find a suitable candidate, to Speaker-of-the-House but the trip was a bust, of the Mississippi legislaor at least nearly so. The ture. By the time the war committee was given the name of a man in St. Louis broke out, Martin was who might be able to help the acknowledged masthem, so they jumped on a ter builder of Corinth. He boat and headed up river. had built a home for the The man in question wife and kids up on Colwas Martin Siegrist, a lege Hill not far from the carpenter and master Corona College. What Martin did and builder. Martin was an 18 year- where Martin was during old native of Switzer- the war years is a bit of a land when he traveled to mystery. I have a pretty America in 1843 aboard good hunch about his the steamer “Coltan whereabouts, but a hunch Planter.” He lived in New is not as good as a fact and York for a time and then I’ll never tell you somemoved on to the gateway thing I can’t prove. I hunted up local histocity in Missouri where he met Mary Goode, like rian Stephanie Sandy to himself a Swiss immi- see if she could shed some grant. They married and light on Martin’s wartime over the years would be activities, but she could blessed with five children. not. If Stephanie can’t tell He accepted the invita- me, no one can. We may not know what tion of the Corona College Building Committee happened to Martin durto visit Corinth. But quite ing the war, but we do frankly, he wasn’t too im- know what happened to pressed. He turned them his buildings. The Tishomingo Hodown. But someone on the committee wouldn’t tel’s location at the railtake no for an answer and road junction placed it at made a return trip to St. what was, for a time, the Louis. I don’t know if they most important piece of did some arm twisting real estate in the South. or made him an offer he Photographs and woodcouldn’t refuse, but Mar- cut engravings of the tin changed his mind and hotel could be found in brought his family to our newspapers across the divided country. In the fair community. His first project in town wake of the big battles of was, of course, the Coro- Shiloh and Corinth, it was na College. The finished used as a hospital treatproduct was incredible, ing privates and generals easily the most impres- alike. Prior to the Battle of Shisive building in Corinth. At a cost of $40,000 loh the Verandah House
Corinth artist Tony Bullard’s painting depicts the Rubel Department Store. Martin Siegrist raised this building in 1873 and it was demolished in 1961.
The Verandah House is shown in a photo from August 1862 with Union camps on its lawn. The Curlee family gave the home to the City of Corinth. The home is currently under restoration. became the headquarters of Major General Braxton Bragg and he stayed in it until the Confederates abandoned the city at the end of May, 1862. A week later it was the HQ of Major General Henry Halleck, the commander of the three Union armies which had so much to do with Bragg’s change of address. General John Bell Hood also used the house as his headquarters for a brief time in early 1865. In the wake of the disastrous Nashville campaign Hood’s Army of Tennessee stopped in Corinth for a few weeks to catch their breath. When they continued their retreat southward, Hood ordered the Tishomingo Hotel, filled with excess supplies, to be burned to the ground. The beautiful Corona College also went up in flames, on January 24, 1864, the day the Union occupation ended.
Lore has it that the Federals were the ones responsible for the fire, but I don’t buy into that story. There was a local boy by the name of W.E. Small who recalled the flames began hours after the troops had left, indicating that the blaze was probably some random, senseless, act of violence. Small recalled visiting the smoking ruins the next morning, “A man came along and asked to borrow my toy wagon I had with me. He said people were going to use the bricks to help rebuild the town.” Martin’s bricks would be used again. After the war the town was in need of repair and a carpenter with the talents of Martin Siegrist was kept busy. It took a few years for the money to start flowing again, but when it did, Martin’s buildings again became symbols of Corinth. At first he worked out of his home, but as business
picked up, he opened an office and workshop on Franklin Street, the current site of Biggers Hardware. In 1869, Martin, along with brick mason Robert Richie, built the imposing factory of the North Mississippi Cotton and Woolen Manufacturing Company. We knew it as the Corinth Machinery Building and it was the oldest documented industrial building in the state until it fell in a terrible wind storm last year. Next came a home and a store for prosperous merchant Abe Ruble. The store on “Ruble’s Corner” was another iconic building of Corinth, one fondly recalled by a number of our citizens. It sat on the corner of Cruise and Fillmore in the very spot where The Corinth House hotel had stood during the war. Today it is the site of the Corinth Academy of Cos-
metology. If you’d like to see Martin’s work in present day Corinth, it is not hard to find. The Verandah House and the Ruble home are still standing as is perhaps his most beautiful work of all -- the Fillmore Street Chapel. The Gothic Revival architecture and the exquisite stain glass windows make it a true treasure of Corinth. My biggest disappointment in researching this piece was not being able to find a photograph of the man. It would have been nice to let you see him. In the end I don’t think it is really necessary. Take a look around town. The talented carpenter from Switzerland left an enormous footprint on Corinth -- one not easy to miss. (Tom Parson is a National Park Service ranger at the Corinth Civil War Interpretive Center.)
Iuka’s antebellum Hammerly House a place of devotion, refuge RaNae Vaughn Historically Speaking
The Hammerly House is one of a few remaining antebellum cottages built in the earliest phase of European/ American settlement in the new town of Iuka. George P. Hammerly, a former Eastport merchant, bought the lot on West Quitman Street in Iuka where his house was erected in 1860.
The house is believed to have been originally built in 1847 in the town of Eastport and moved to Iuka by an ox team. Mr. Hammerly and his wife, Mary, were devout Methodists. They built a guest room in the yard which came to be called “The Prophet’s Chamber” because it was so often used by vis-
iting Southern Methodist ministers. Mr. Hammerly served as superintendent of the Methodist Church Sunday School for 50 years, and Mrs. Hammerly was renowned for her 45 years of Tuesday prayer meetings for Methodist women. The home was the scene of weekly prayer meetings during
the Civil War and for many years thereafter. Mr. Hammerly was an active participant in the civic affairs of Iuka. He was a member of the local Board of Aldermen, on which he served as Secretary and Treasurer. He also served on the Board of Trustees of the Iuka Female College and was
later on the Board for the Iuka Normal Institute. Mr. Hammerly was also one of the backers of the new Iuka Springs Hotel built in 1872 to replace the earlier hotel; this hotel was later called the Mineral Springs Hotel. During the morning after Please see HISTORY | 4B