Cong/Gov William McWillie Gravesite
From L-R: Judge Jim Herring, my son Porter, and Jim Lacey at the Kirkwood Cemetery
When I first set out to find the graves of all the governors of Mississippi (because I’m a real history nerd) I decided the best way to knock out the list was to see how quick I could find the ones closest to me and “work my way out” to the ones I had to make an effort to travel to locate. Governor/Congressman William McWillie fit the bill because he is buried at his plantation called Kirkwood in northern Madison County. For quite some time we have lived in southern Madison County so there’s the match up.
One Saturday morning I was having breakfast at Nancy’s in Canton with one of the greatest-of-all-time humans: Judge Jim Herring. I mentioned to Judge Herring about my governor’s quest and asked if he had been to Governor McWillie’s grave at Kirkwood (which is not too terribly far from Canton) and he shared that for a Leake County-born guy it was on his To Do List but had never made the visit. (Leake County is named for Sen/Gov Walter Leake and the county line is super close to Kirkwood. It was kind of like most New Yorkers have not been to the Statue of Liberty.) He was in for the adventure.
But just like Lewis and Clark, we needed a guide, and we both knew without question that Renaissance Man and Superior Historian Jim Lacey would know how to get there. So Judge Jim called Historian-Newspaper Editor Jim, who immediately told us how to get to Kirkwood, and since there was no time like the present if we wanted to pick him up he’d take us. I rushed back to Ridgeland to get two valuable assets (my son Porter and my camera – yes, I said it, a camera, not my cell phone) and hoofed it back to Canton. The drive was full of historical and political conversation (both Jims and I were on the Madison County Republican Executive Committee at the time).
I understand from some McWillie relatives that Governor/Congressman McWillie’s obelisk has fallen since we took this picture over 20 years ago. Governor McWillie is one of three governors buried in Madison County (Bill Waller and Kirk Fordice are the other two). He had about 20 legitimate children and, as I understand it, a parcel of illegitimate children, which allows for plenty content for future blog posts.
