The Bernheimer Complex

Samuel Bernheimer, born in Austria in 1812, clerked in New York, Charleston and Liberty, Mississippi, before settling in Port Gibson by 1847. He sold from his home, then in 1851 or 1852 went into partnership with his brothers Adolph and Jacob. The store carried general goods and imported luxuries from Austria, England, Italy and Switzerland. After Samuel died in 1888, his son Jacob took sole control in 1891; Jacob died in 1911. Surviving ledgers from 1891 to 1904 list families across the county.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Windsor Ruins — 8.6 mi
  Twenty-three standing Corinthian columns left by an 1890 fire, the largest antebellum mansion in Mississippi, built with enslaved labor on a 2,600-acre cotton plantation.
• Alcorn State University and Oakland Memorial Chapel — 11 mi
  The 1871 Reconstruction college on the old Oakland College campus, first led by Hiram Revels, with the 1838 chapel built by Black craftsmen.
• Lake Bruin State Park — 13 mi
  A state park on a Mississippi River oxbow near St. Joseph, named for a territorial judge who owned a plantation beside it, on a former fish hatchery site.
• Mount Locust — 22 mi
  A 1780s Natchez Trace inn and cotton farm at milepost 15.5, with an enslaved people's cemetery of 43 graves and a brick kiln behind the house.

More markers nearby

• Battle of Port Gibson — steps away
• Port Gibson — steps away
• Bruinsburg — steps away
• First Baptist M.B. Church — steps away