Miss Zereda's House in Fulton

The home that sits at the corner of East Hill and North Cummings streets in Fulton has been known for years as the Zereda Greene home. Zereda Greene was an Itawamba County historian who wrote a series of articles in the Itawamba County Times during the 1960’s called These Things I Remember. She moved into the house with her family, when four years old during 1901 and lived there until her death during 1989. Zereda’s father was a blacksmith and coffin maker in the town of Fulton and her mother owned and operated a millinery shop west of the courthouse.

The original section (front) of the home was built circa 1849 by Robert O. and Louisa Maupin. Robert was a Fulton attorney and his wife Louisa operated the Fulton Female Academy, a boarding school located near the corner of Main and South Cummings Street, two blocks south of the home. The boarding school taught the young daughters of many planters from southern and western Itawamba County including the Whitesides, Dabbs, Standifer, Crayton and Lindsey families.

Zereda Greene once wrote about the old home “My grandmother, Jane Whitesides, her sister, Katherine Whitesides and Miss Dessie Wiygul…were among the pupils..My grandmother said that my home was being built then, that the teacher would take the girls walking, they would come to the new house, walk over the sleepers, etc. and note the progress being made. Aunt Katie’s granddaughter has a sampler embroidered by Aunt Katie when she was here in school and it carries the date 1850. As Aunt Katie married in January 1851 and my grandmother in January, 1852, we know that the house was built before that date.”

Below is an abstract from the 1850 Itawamba County Census:

Page 438
Town of Fulton
24-24
Robt. O. Maupin: 35, Attorney, Virginia
Louisa: 36, Tennessee
Martha Lindsay: 20, Student, AL
Sarah Johnson: 17, Student, AL
Emily Johnson: 15, Student, TN
Samantha Glover: 16, Student, SC
Frances Dabbs: 17, Student, MS
Ruth Standifer: 17, Student, GA
Mary Welborne: 17, Student, MS
Anna Welborne: 15, Student, AL
Anna S. Stovall: 14, Student, TN
Sarah Hankins: 15, Student, AL
Mary Lindsay: 12, Student, AL
Malissa Burgess: 15, Student, AL
Vernna Warren: 13, Student, KY

House Photographed February 6, 2008 by Bob Franks