04/11/2026
Today’s featured spotlight is dedicated to Abraham “Abram” Beech Reading.
Surrounded by a brick wall reduced, through time, to rubble—stands a solitary obelisk dedicated to the Reading family. A plot so derelict that one might assume that it belonged to a modest family as opposed to one of the wealthiest men in all of Vicksburg at one time.
Born in 1814, accounts of his place of birth and early life differ or are missing altogether. Some document his place of origin as New Jersey, while others claim he came to Vicksburg from “his Kentucky home.” What we do know about Mr. Reading is that he had a knack for quickly acquiring great fortunes and losing them almost as fast. Starting modestly enough working in William Pescods’ dry good store on Main Street, his business acuity and “head moldered for a grand career” soon saw Abraham amass a considerable fortune by the age of 19 in 1833. With money burning a hole in his pocket, he would purchase a large swath of land from the Merritt brothers to construct a grand estate that would later be nicknamed “Reading’s Folly.” As construction commenced on his urban villa, Abraham continued to diversify his business portfolio by dabbling in a little bit of everything. From banking, to sawmills and brick manufacturing, to owning a foundry and operating a large plantation, Mr. Reading had established a robust stream of income. Seemingly a man with an excess of tastes, he did not abide by the restraints of frugality but spent freely and frequently. So liberal was his spending that many in town looked at him as a great benefactor for his financial generosity, especially among his family and friends. With the completion of an estate fit for a king, Abraham moved his family into the enormous mansion on the outskirts of town. With an imposing brick façade towering over the surrounding landscape and 24-inch-thick walls encircling lavishly large rooms, the final product seemed capable of housing a quarter of the town’s population let alone a single family. Little did he know that those grand rooms would eventually hold more people than he could have ever imagined.
By 1837 Abraham looked to capitalize on his good fortunes by purchasing $15,000 worth of stock in the Mississippi Insurance Company, equivalent of almost $500,000 today. As was a popular way of finagling the financial system, Abraham took out a mortgage on his estate to cover the cost of the shares. Doing this allowed him to become a major stockholder without having to put up a single physical cent. This was an easy way to finance, “so long as things went well.” With the passage of two years, Mr. Reading would again take another mortgage out on his property. This time for $31,500, a whopping $1,050,000 in today’s money. Everything was going smoothly until the following year when the financial bubble burst. Losing almost everything, Abraham’s relative, Cornelius Reading, took over as trustee of his land and business holdings. Abraham and his family would move to a more modest abode within the city, claiming the change of address was purely for the reason of wanting to be closer to town. For the next several years the house was “subjected to various legal maneuvers including a sheriff’s sale” before coming into the possession of Dr. Birchett in 1842. For the next 4 years it would house Dr. Birchett’s private practice before being sold to the city in 1847 for use as the new city hospital.
Not one to rest on his laurels, Abraham would soon find his pockets jingling with the sound of coins again with the lucrativeness of a partnership between Mr. Gaines and W. H. Sims in the ownership of a foundry. Their foundry specialized in the manufacturing of saws, pipes, boilers and steam gauges. But with the advent of the Civil War, their focus shifted to the production of cannons and shells. For almost the entirety of the war, their foundry reintroduced Abraham to a prosperity he had not enjoyed since before the financial setback of 1840. As the saying goes, all good things must come to an end. With the surrender of Vicksburg to Grant’s Union Army in 1863, his property was confiscated and he was returned to financial ruin. Two fortunes obtained and lost within a 30-year period. As his obituary would later state, “fifty years of constantly varying fortunes swept over his head and in a thousand transactions of business of all sorts incident to a man of versatile affairs, that happy character was never stained nor that happy integrity humbled. It never damages the character of an upright man to be overtaken by adversity, although it may require both time and opportunity for his victory and coronation. Many trials beset his pathway, but the needless yet fullness of the uncharitable was always hushed by his triumphs while he rose higher and was more respected and loved for the fortitude, patience and pluck with which he fought and overcome.” Never again would Abraham’s finances reach heights similar those of his heyday, and in 1887 he would pass away from “paralysis agitaus” at his daughter’s home in St. Louis, MO.
“Reading’s Folly” would continue to dominate the hillside on which it was perched for over a century serving as a hospital. Designed to be an obvious display of immense wealth with its great expansiveness, the interior rooms were so vast that each bedroom was capable of housing 16 hospital beds. By the 1870s the hospital was taken over by the state just in time for the yellow fever epidemic of 1878, becoming the city’s strongest line of defense against the disease. As the years progressed, the original facade found its walls ensconced by new additions and was renamed Kuhn Memorial Hospital in honor of its benefactor, Lee Kuhn in 1955. For 34 more years Kuhn would serve the community as a charity hospital before finally shuttering its doors for good in 1989. Much like Abraham’s family plot, the following decades saw the old hospital reduced to an empty and decaying shell until it was demolished in 2018. The site is now the future home of Vicksburg’s Civil Rights Park.
Fun facts, one of the cannons manufactured at A.B. Reading's Vicksburg foundry is on display at the The Old Court House Museum.
Reading's Folly is not the only house considered a folly in Mississippi. Natchez, Mississippi is home to Nutt's Folly, commonly known as Longwood.
Check the comments section for pictures of the original structure.
