Huger Lee Foote
{{short description|American politician}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2024}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Huger Lee Foote
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| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1854|4|24}}
| birth_place = Macon, Mississippi, U.S.
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1915|7|18|1854|4|24}}
| death_place = Greenville, Mississippi, U.S.
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| occupation = Planter, politician, poker player
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| spouse =
| children = Shelby Dade Foote
| parents = 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
Huger Lee Foote was born on April 24, 1854, in Macon, Mississippi.[http://records.ancestry.com/huger_lee_foote_records.ashx?pid=19456452 Ancestry.com] His father, Hezekiah William Foote, was a planter and politician.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][https://books.google.com/books?id=5kCn5zzFIjkC&dq=%22mount+holly%22+mississippi&pg=PA40 Woody Woods, Delta Plantations - The Beginning, 2010, p. 40]{{Dead link|date=August 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} His mother, Lucinda Frances Dade Foote, inherited 3,000 acres of land in Issaquena County, Mississippi.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] She died when he was two years old. He was educated at Chillicothe Business College in Ohio and in Texas.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]
Career
Foote served as the Sheriff of Sharkey County, Mississippi. He served as a member of the Mississippi Senate. He later served as secretary and treasurer of the Mississippi Levee Board.
Foote managed his father's four large plantations in the Mississippi Delta:
- the Mounds Plantation near Rolling Fork in Sharkey County, Mississippi.
- the Egremont Plantation in Egremont, Mississippi.
- the Hardscramble Plantation.
- the Mount Holly Plantation in Foote, Mississippi.
His father willed him the Mount Holly Plantation in the late 1880s. He later inherited the other plantations, but sold them to pay for his gambling debts. Indeed, by then, he had moved to Greenville, Mississippi, where he played poker at the Elks Club.
Death and legacy
Foote died on July 18, 1915, in Greenville, Mississippi.
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.
References
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Category:19th-century American planters
Category:Mississippi state senators
Category:Chillicothe Business College alumni
Category:People from Macon, Mississippi
Category:People from Sharkey County, Mississippi
Category:People from Washington County, Mississippi
Category:Politicians from Greenville, Mississippi
Category:19th-century members of the Mississippi Legislature