The Families
Isaac and Susan had two children, John was born in 1875 and Archibald in 1877. When the river changed course in the spring of 1876, the area was a breeding ground for infected mosquitoes, killing many people in Vicksburg. At five years old, in 1882, little Archie died in of diphtheria. Another tragedy struck the family, in August of 1883, when Isaac was accidentally shot while attempting to break up a fight between two of his best friends in a saloon on Washington and Clay Streets. The following year, John died of typhoid fever at the age of nine years. That same year, Susan’s father died at the age of 72. After these tragedies, Susan continued to live at the Corners, spending a great deal of her time at Cedar Grove until the death of her mother in 1909. She lived with her sister, Clara Birchett, until her death in 1935.
During World War I, the Great Depression, and World War II, this house was used at various times as an apartment and a rooming house with as many as five families living there at one time. In 1959, Dr. Robert and Susan Ivy bought the house for $8,000 and put about $50,000 worth of remodeling into it, returning it to a single family home.
In 1985, Cliff and Bettye Whitney were traveling to Washington, D.C. from Texas to meet their first grandson. They stopped for the night in Vicksburg and stayed at Cedar Grove. The next morning, while Bettye was exploring the area, she noticed that The Corners, on the National Register of Historic Places, was for sale. After visiting the house and immediately falling in love with it, by 5 P.M. that day, Cliff and Bettye had the signed the contract and purchased the home. They furnished the house with antiques, some they owned previously and the rest bought at auctions and antique stores.
Bettye and Cliff maintained the Corners as a functioning Bed and Breakfast Inn for 20 years, making numerous improvements to the property. In 2006, Macy Whitney and her husband, Joe Trahan purchased the home and are carrying on the family tradition.