Governor Hugh McVay

This ground recalls Hugh McVay, the ninth governor of Alabama and a Lauderdale County man through and through. Born in South Carolina in seventeen sixty-six, he came to this area after the death of his wife and settled near Florence, working as a surveyor and lawyer. He helped write the state's very first constitution at the convention of eighteen nineteen, then served long stretches in the Alabama House and Senate, eventually elected Speaker of the Senate.

His turn as governor was brief and accidental. In eighteen thirty-seven, when Governor Clement Clay left for the United States Senate, McVay stepped up as acting governor, serving only from July to November of that year. He retired to the community of Mars Hill, near Florence, and died in eighteen fifty-one.