JOHN I. GUION, the seventeenth governor of Mississippi, was born in Adams County, Mississippi on November 18, 1802. He studied law in Lebanon, Tennessee and then established a successful practice in Vicksburg, Mississippi. Guion first entered politics as a member of the Mississippi State Senate, a position he held from 1842 to 1850. He also served as president of the senate in 1850. On February 3, 1851, Governor John A. Quitman resigned from office, and Guion, who was president of the senate at the time, assumed the duties of the governorship. He served in that capacity until November 4, 1851, when his senatorial term expired. The state was left without a chief executive until November 24, 1851, when the legislature was called upon to pick an interim governor. After leaving the governor’s office, Guion served on the bench of the Jackson District Circuit Court, a position he held until his death. Governor John I. Guion passed away on June 6, 1855, and was buried in the Greenwood Cemetery in Jackson, Mississippi.