Huger Lee Foote Explained

Huger Lee Foote
Birth Date:April 24, 1854
Birth Place:Macon, Noxubee County, Mississippi
Death Place:Greenville, Washington County, Mississippi
Occupation:Planter, politician, poker player
Children:Shelby Dade Foote
Parents:Hezekiah William Foote
Lucinda Frances Dade Foote
Relatives:Shelby Foote (grandson)

Huger Lee Foote (1854–1915) 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

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

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:

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

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]

Notes and References

  1. http://records.ancestry.com/huger_lee_foote_records.ashx?pid=19456452 Ancestry.com
  2. Jim Fraiser, The Majesty of the Mississippi Delta, Pelican Publishing, 2002, p. 47 https://books.google.com/books?id=nHUEgKiss0QC&dq=%22mount+holly%22+mississippi&pg=PA47
  3. https://books.google.com/books?id=5kCn5zzFIjkC&dq=%22mount+holly%22+mississippi&pg=PA40 Woody Woods, Delta Plantations - The Beginning, 2010, p. 40
  4. Justin Glenn, The Washingtons: A Family History: Volume 1: Seven Generations of the Presidential Branch, Savas Publishing, 2014, p. 1895 https://books.google.com/books?id=gpzwAwAAQBAJ&dq=%22William+Hezekiah+Foote%22&pg=PA1897
  5. Robert L. Phillips, Jr., Shelby Foote: Novelist and Historian, Oxford, Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi, 2009, pp. 50-51 https://books.google.com/books?id=M6XVNkCwcyUC&dq=%22huger+lee+foote%22&pg=PA50