Vicksburg is full of old houses. Each one has its own unique story, built up layer by layer through the years – just like the layers and layers of old wallpaper found in most of them. They can be expensive, inconvenient, and frustrating, but always interesting.
The house at 503 East Prairie Street has always intrigued people because of its architecture and bits of gossip about its early inhabitants. Over the years Vicksburg Historical Society has heard stories about kids in the neighborhood playing in “the castle”, as they called it. We don’t know when it was built, but a home at this location was owned in 1880 by William and Parmelia Robinson Axtell. The Axtells had 5 children, but their youngest two, Hila and Lola, were the ones who made the family – and the house – locally famous.
Though both girls were products of Vicksburg Schools, they would not stay around long. Hila taught school in Vicksburg in 1900, but she had dreams of a different life and soon joined the Morgan Vaudeville Company, eventually marrying the owner, Fred Morgan. She apparently was a fine actress as the troupe was soon billed under the star’s name, Hila Axtell Morgan and Company…