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=== Later nineteenth century to present === Reportedly, many of the historic buildings in the town survived the Civil War because Grant proclaimed the city to be "too beautiful to burn". These words appear on the sign marking the city limits.<ref>{{cite book|last=Hendrickson|first=Paul|title=Sons of Mississippi|publisher=[[Alfred A. Knopf]]|year=2003|place=New York|isbn=0-375-40461-9|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/sonsofmississipp00paul}}</ref> Despite postwar economic upheaval, the city continued as a center of trade and economy associated with cotton. In 1882, the [[Port Gibson Oil Works Mill Building|Port Gibson Oil Works]] started operating, established as one of the first [[cottonseed oil]] plants in the United States.<ref name="PGOWMBNom">{{Citation | last1 = Gold | first1 = Jack A. | date = January 1979 | title = Historic Sites Survey: Port Gibson (cottonseed crushing) Oil Works Mill Building | url = {{NRHP url|79003422}} | access-date = August 5, 2018 | format = PDF }}.</ref> This historic industrial building was listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]] in 1979.<ref name="NPG">{{citation | last = National Park Service | authorlink = National Park Service | title = NPGallery: Port Gibson Oil Works Mill Building | url = https://npgallery.nps.gov/AssetDetail/NRIS/79003422 | access-date = August 5, 2018 }}.</ref> The mill finally closed in 2002.<ref name="kilborn">{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/18/us/a-vestige-of-king-cotton-fades-out-in-mississippi.html|title=A Vestige of King Cotton Fades Out in Mississippi|last=Kilborn |first=Peter T. |work=New York Times| date=18 October 2002|access-date=8 October 2021}}</ref> [[File:PortGibsonSynagogeExxon.jpg|thumb|''[[Gemiluth Chessed]]'' synagogue]] ''[[Gemiluth Chessed]]'' synagogue, built in 1892, had an active congregation when the town was thriving as the county seat and a trading center. It had attracted nineteenth-century Jewish immigrants from the German states and Alsace-Lorraine. After starting as peddlers, the later generations of men became cotton brokers and merchants. This is the oldest [[synagogue]] and the only [[Moorish Revival]] building in the state.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/09/29/us/small-town-south-clings-to-jewish-history.html|work=[[New York Times]]|title=Small-Town South Clings to Jewish History|author=Peter Applebome|date=September 29, 1991|access-date=September 1, 2011}}</ref> It is topped by a Russian-style dome. As the economy changed, the Jewish population gradually moved to larger cities and areas offering more opportunity, and none remain in Port Gibson. [[The Rabbit's Foot Company]] was established in 1900 by [[Pat Chappelle]], an African-American theatre owner in [[Tampa, Florida]]. This was the leading traveling [[vaudeville]] show in the [[Southern states of the United States|southern states]], with an all-black cast of singers, musicians, comedians, and entertainers.<ref name=abbott/> After Chappelle's death in 1911, the company was taken over by [[Fred Swift Wolcott]], a white planter. After 1918, he based the touring company at his plantation near Port Gibson, with offices in town. He continued to manage it until 1950, when he sold it. The Rabbit's Foot Company remained popular, but as some white performers joined and used [[blackface]], it was no longer considered "authentic".<ref name=abbott>[https://books.google.com/books?id=u4rc-BKNCyoC&dq=%22Pat+Chappelle%22&pg=PA248 Lynn Abbott, Doug Seroff, ''Ragged But Right: Black Traveling Shows, Coon Songs, and the Dark Pathway to Blues and Jazz''], University Press of Mississippi, 2009, pp.248-268</ref> In 2002 the ''[[New York Times]]'' characterized Port Gibson as 80 percent black and poor, with 20 percent of families living on incomes of less than $10,000 a year, according to the [[2000 United States Census|2000 Census]].<ref name ="kilbornb">PETER T. KILBORN, "A Vestige of King Cotton Fades Out in Mississippi", ''New York Times'', October 18, 2002.</ref>
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