Historical Marker
Benton
Benton, Yazoo County · Mississippi
Erected by Mississippi Historical Commission, 1954
Cedar Grove plantation bookended John Sharp Williams's life. His father, a Confederate officer, was killed at Shiloh in 1862, and his grandfather took the boy to Cedar Grove, in a county where 16,716 of 22,373 people were enslaved in 1860. Williams entered Congress in 1893 and the Senate in 1907, beating James K. Vardaman by 648 votes. He shared his era's belief in white supremacy yet refused Vardaman's push to make race the campaign's center. He retired to Cedar Grove in 1923, died there in 1932, and lies in the family cemetery.
Where it stands
32.82706, -90.26129 · Directions
Worth the stop nearby
- Triangle Cultural Center — 8.9 miA 1904 school on Main Street in Yazoo City that survived the great fire of that May and now holds the county's historical museum, in a town rebuilt in brick on the same lots.
- Blue Front Cafe — 14 miA cinder-block juke joint in Bentonia, opened in 1948 by Carey and Mary Holmes, home of the Bentonia school of blues and a stop on the Mississippi Blues Trail.
More markers nearby
- Civil Rights March — 1.7 mi
- Gatemouth Moore — 7.8 mi
- Redoubt McKee — 8.4 mi
- St. Francis Mission School — 8.5 mi