1797 and originally serving as a way station for pioneers en route to Nashville, Tennessee along the Natchez Trace to the Mississippi River.

In 1836, Sheriff Stephen Howard bought the house and added the middle dining room and the bedroom above it, built in Empire architectural style.

Since it was located so close to the railroad, a major point of battle, the house was battered by cannon blasts from both the Union and Confederate forces.

On May 18, 1864, the wealthy John Bobb, picked up a brick and threw it at a group of the 46th USCI marching back to their regiment from picket duty.

Bobb's Harrison St. home laid adjacent to the RR tracks where nearby soldiers bivouacked, and he was offended the "Freedom" fighters were crossing on his property.

John's widow Selina Bobb sold the house to a realtor in 1869 and moved to a family plantation outside of New Orleans, Louisiana called Sunnyside.

From this point on, William's daughters Annie and Ella Murray, both unmarried, lived alone in the house with no modern conveniences aside from a telephone, and no contact with the outside world except their doctor, Walter Johnston.

In 1960, Ella Murray died at the age of 81, and her sister Annie sold the house after moving to a nursing home.

The upper story was completely overgrown with vines and the sisters had resorted to chopping up the antique furniture for firewood.

Once again ready for touring, the Vicksburg Sunday Post featured McRaven's spring pilgrimage open house in their April 6, 1980, issue.

For this reason, McRaven was featured in the July 1963 issue of National Geographic Magazine which called it the "Time Capsule of the South.

They investigated reports of the aggressive ghost of Andrew Glass, a highwayman who was murdered by his jealous wife long ago.