Wesson, MS

Wesson is a town in Copiah and Lincoln counties, part of the Jackson metropolitan area. The 2020 census counted 1,833 residents. Col. James Madison Wesson founded it in 1864 after losing his mills at Bankston and building the Mississippi Manufacturing Company here. The later Mississippi Mills made cotton cloth known as Mississippi silk and brought electric light to the mill before the complex was dismantled during the First World War. Wesson's old identity is industrial, even though the mills are gone. Education is now the town's clearest present-day institution.

Wesson Attendance Center covers local K–12 schooling, while Copiah-Lincoln Community College has its main campus here with two-year degrees, career programs, nursing, and technical training. Its students come from across the region, keeping Wesson tied to both counties. The college grew out of Copiah-Lincoln Agricultural High School and was organized in 1928, tying today's campus to the town's early school history. Wesson's local scoop is a former cotton-mill town that turned its industrial center into an education center.