Grave of Gov. James Lawson Kemper

A mile west is the grave of James L. Kemper (1823-1895). Born into a prosperous slaveholding family in Madison County, Kemper practiced law and was elected to five terms in the Virginia House of Delegates, where he was speaker from 1861-1862. As a Confederate brigadier general, he was badly wounded during Pickett’s Charge at Gettysburg in July 1863. Kemper was a founder of Virginia’s Conservative Party, formed in 1867 to oppose Radical Republicans’ policies for Reconstruction. He served as governor from 1874-1878 during a growing financial crisis precipitated by Virginia’s massive antebellum state debt. He moved to nearby Walnut Hills ca. 1882 and is buried in the family cemetery there.