Our History

The James Zachariah (J. Z.) George Years (1847-97)

In 1847, Carroll County lawyer and future U.S. Senator James Zachariah George purchased several hundred acres of rolling farmland that included a stagecoach inn on the old Carrollton-Grenada road, constructed in the 1830s. He enlarged that structure into a stunning Greek Revival mansion and named it 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. Cotesworth and its library remained in the George family for multiple generations. In 2013, Senator George’s great-granddaughter... Read more >>