We are coming to you this week from the southern most point in Copiah Country, we are in the town of Wesson. Colonial James Madison Wesson decided to make a new start on this site after his plants in Choctaw County were destroyed by federal troops in 1864. With the building of a sawmill and later a cotton and woolen mill, the town that bears his name began to prosper for Colonial Wesson. At one point the town boasted a population of more than 4,000 people.

In 1880 the town built its own generating plant and the people of Wesson enjoyed the benefits of electric lights just one year after Thomas Edison perfected them. Not even New York City nor Chicago had yet incorporated this new luxury. But with the death of one of the mills backers, labor problems ensued and by 1910 the mills had shut down and the towns population began to decline.

We travel to Hattiesburg and visit a mother and daughter who spend a lot of their free time together enjoying the hobby of quilting.

In Jackson, we uncover the story of the "Jackson Advocate". A newspaper that expresses the opinion of the African American community in the capital city.

In use as a school until 1960, The Old Wesson Public School has been added to the Historic Endangered List in Mississippi and has been vacant and the victim of poor maintenance and vandalism since 1994.

Walt takes us on a tour of one of the oldest houses in the state of Mississippi, the Springfield Plantation, on this weeks edition of Walt's Way.

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