In 1847, Carroll County, Mississippi, lawyer and future U.S. Senator James Zachariah (J. Z.) George purchased several hundred acres of rolling farmland, including a roadside inn. He enlarged the structure into a stunning Greek Revival mansion and named it “Cotesworth” for his friend, Mississippi Supreme Court Chief Justice Cotesworth Pinckney Smith. In the late 1880s, he added a landmark hexagonal library on the south lawn to house his vast collection of law books.