Lost Mansions of Mississippi, Volume II

Colonel Thomas White House

{ 100 } Lost houses are not a rarity in Mississippi. The antebellum townhouses and plantation mansions that dotted the landscape in the mid-1800s were not valued in the early twentieth century, and those that didn’t burn were frequently torn down with no controversy. At the sites, even decades later, a foundation may be hidden under weeds, or a pile of discarded bricks will mark the spot where there was once a home. In other instances, all traces of a house will have vanished under asphalt or redevelopment . Regardless, documents and records show that the house was there for a certain length of time and then it was gone, reverted to the history books and often forgotten. Two notable exceptions to that rule were the Colonel Thomas White House of Hernando and Flynnwood of Columbus. Separated by the width of the state, these two homes are forever linked together, both figuratively and literally, as their architectural elements were dismantled, labeled, and stored away in a now-forgotten corner of DeSoto County, awaiting a resurrection that never happened. Their fate is one of the enduring mysteries of historic preservation in Mississippi. The ten counties carved from the six million acres of the 1832 Chickasaw Cession attracted hordes of land-hungry settlers and untold speculators into the region, eager to scoop up this fertile land for $1.25 an acre. Many were soon successful and built Greek Revival mansions to flaunt their wealth. In towns like Holly Springs, Red Banks, Como, and Oxford, that was the prevailing architectural style. Colonel Thomas White followed a different path, contracting for an Italianate home in Hernando which stood until progress pushed it aside. ThomasWilliamWhite was a Georgia native, born in Elbert County in 1824. When his family relocated to the burgeoning northwest corner of Mississippi in 1845, Thomas came with them, although some accounts say he was enrolled at Harvardduringthistime.Whateverhisacademic background was, his adult life would be spent practicing law in Hernando, and his career led to financial well-being and community respect. He served one term in the pre–Civil War state legislature and was president of the Delta levee board, a position of extraordinary power as that region began to open up for development. In the years immediately preceding the war, White began building his Italianate manor just east of the town square.Old histories record that the house’s components were shipped downriver from Cincinnati,which raises the possibility that White may have been familiar with the Hinkle Guild catalogue of architectural designs. The finished product was by far the finest house in the region, encompassing twenty-eight rooms Colonel Thomas White House • • • { 101 } coLoneL tHoMas wHite HoUse Colonel Thomas White, a prominent Hernando lawyer, built the town’s most notable mansion in the years preceding the Civil War. Photo courtesy of DeSoto County Museum. Columbus’s Flynnwood was demolished with the intention of merging its architectural elements with those of the Colonel White House. Photo courtesy of Mississippi Department of Archives and History. { 102 } coLoneL tHoMas wHite HoUse and an imposing three-story square tower. Elaborate grillwork outlined the front gallery and heavy carved brackets shadowed the deep eaves. Shortly after the house was torn down, its interior was described in a local historical brochure: In the hall of the house was a beautiful curving staircase with handsome mahogany handrail. On the left side was the drawing room. And at the side of the chimney were cords that were pulled to ring bells on the back veranda to summon certain servants . Behind this room were a parlor, dining room and kitchen. Between the rooms were massive doors approximately 12 feet high. They were constructed so high to contain the summer heat in the upper parts of the rooms. On the right side of the entrance hall was the fine library of Colonel White . . . In the front rooms there were fireplaces of fine marble imported from Italy. The walls and ceilings had beautiful designs painted by J. Lemser, an artist brought here from France for this purpose, whose work was exquisite. His name and the date, 1861, were clearly discernible 105 years later at the base of one of the painted columns in the entrance hall.1 At the outbreak of the Civil War, Thomas White was chosen as first lieutenant of the DeSoto Irrepressibles, a volunteer infantry unit which saw action at Shiloh. Little is known of “Colonel...