Roberts-Neilson-Sloan House: Neilson's- Iconic Oxford store

Jay Brothers
May 4
1 min read

911 So. Lamar (at Buchanan St.) Oxford, MS

Circa 1870. 2-story Second Empire style with mansard roof

The R-N-S Home was built from the burned ruins of the Confederate Gen. Taliaferis home.

Charles Roberts (1831-1897) and Margaret E. McKee Roberts (1837-1890) constructed their home on this site. He was one of the first merchants and had a store, Roberts and Doyle dry good emporium, on Oxford Square. Roberts was a partner with Bem Price in a private bank called Southern Bank of Oxford in the 1870s. In 1877, the Bank of Oxford purchased it. Twelve years later, in 1889, Roberts, together with B.T. Kimbrough and Herman Wohlleben, established the Merchants & Farmers Bank in the Thompson Building. The bank operated until 1914 when it failed in large part due to the boll weevil epidemic in the region.

Twenty-four years later, in 1894, Charles and Margaret sold the home and moved to Ammadelle.

That year, Joseph Edwin Neilson (1858-1936) and Bell Wohlleben Neilson (1861-1943) purchased the R-N-S House. J. E. Neilson took over the family store Neilsons (1892) in Oxford. In 1897, Joe built a new store on the east side of the Square and, in a new twist, divided it into departments. The home was then inherited by Edward Neilson, son of Capt. William Walker Neilson and Sarah Helena Frazier Neilson, Neilson relatives.