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Wesson, Mississippi is situated in southern Copiah County, with small portions of the town extending south and east into Lincoln County. US Highway 51 passes through the town, moving north to Hazlehurst and south to Brookhaven. Exit 48 of Interstate Highway 55 is just over three miles west of Wesson on Mount Zion Road. Other nearby communities include Beauregard to the north, as well as Bowerton, Loyd Star, Midway, Montgomery, Sand Hill, Stronghope, and Woolworth. Jackson, the state capital, is about forty-seven miles north of Wesson. The town was founded by Colonel James Madison Wesson in 1864, near the end of the Civil War. After losing his mills in Bankston to the war, Wesson relocated his operations, building the Mississippi Manufacturing Company, which produced cotton fabric. He sold the mill to William Oliver and John T. Hardy in 1871, and they renamed the operations Mississippi Mills, which became famous for the quality of its cotton fabric, known as Mississippi silk. The mill was operated by electricity one year after Thomas Edison perfected the light bulb. However, financial difficulties began after the death of Captain Oliver in 1891, and they were dismantled and sold for scrap during World War I. Today, Wesson is home to Copiah-Lincoln Community College, which arose out of Copiah-Lincoln Agricultural High School, established in 1915, while the high school was moved to a new facility in 1979.

 

 

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