Grave of Gov. James Lawson Kemper

Orange County · dedicated 2024 · Rte. 15, north of Orange, near Orange/Madison County line

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.

Barry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

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under a mile from where William Gabby lived in the 1760s

what this marker records spans 1777 to 1789, overlapping William Gabby's years here

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