Huger Lee Foote
Huger Lee Foote | |
|---|---|
| Born | April 24, 1854 Macon, Mississippi, U.S. |
| Died | July 18, 1915 (aged 61) Greenville, Mississippi, U.S. |
| Occupation(s) | Planter, politician, poker player |
| Children | Shelby Dade Foote |
| Parent(s) | Hezekiah William Foote Lucinda Frances Dade Foote |
| Relatives | Shelby Foote (grandson) |
Huger Lee Foote (April 24, 1854 – July 18, 1915) was an American planter and politician. He served in the Mississippi Senate. He later sold his plantations to pay for his gambling debts.
Early life
[edit]Huger Lee Foote was born on April 24, 1854, in Macon, Mississippi.[1] His father, Hezekiah William Foote, was a planter and politician.[2][3] His mother, Lucinda Frances Dade Foote, inherited 3,000 acres of land in Issaquena County, Mississippi.[4] She died when he was two years old.[1] He was educated at Chillicothe Business College in Ohio and in Texas.[5]
Career
[edit]Foote served as the Sheriff of Sharkey County, Mississippi.[3] He served as a member of the Mississippi Senate.[3] He later served as secretary and treasurer of the Mississippi Levee Board.[3]
Foote managed his father's four large plantations in the Mississippi Delta:
- the Mounds Plantation near Rolling Fork in Sharkey County, Mississippi.[5]
- the Egremont Plantation in Egremont, Mississippi.[5]
- the Hardscramble Plantation.[5]
- the Mount Holly Plantation in Foote, Mississippi.[5]
His father willed him the Mount Holly Plantation in the late 1880s.[2][3] He later inherited the other plantations, but sold them to pay for his gambling debts.[5] Indeed, by then, he had moved to Greenville, Mississippi, where he played poker at the Elks Club.[5]
Death and legacy
[edit]Foote died on July 18, 1915, in Greenville, Mississippi.[1]
His grandson, Shelby Foote, became a renowned author of historic novels. In his 1949 novel entitled Tournament, the character of Hugh Bart is based on Huger Lee Foote.[3]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c Ancestry.com
- ^ a b Jim Fraiser, The Majesty of the Mississippi Delta, Pelican Publishing, 2002, p. 47 [1]
- ^ a b c d e f Woody Woods, Delta Plantations - The Beginning, 2010, p. 40[permanent dead link]
- ^ Justin Glenn, The Washingtons: A Family History: Volume 1: Seven Generations of the Presidential Branch, Savas Publishing, 2014, p. 1895 [2]
- ^ a b c d e f g Robert L. Phillips, Jr., Shelby Foote: Novelist and Historian, Oxford, Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi, 2009, pp. 50-51 [3]