Hezekiah William Foote

Hezekiah William Foote (a.k.a. Henry Foote) (1813–1899) was an American Confederate veteran, attorney, planter and state politician from Mississippi.

Hezekiah William Foote
BornDecember 17, 1813
Chester County, South Carolina, USA
DiedJanuary 29, 1899(1899-01-29) (aged 85)
Macon, Noxubee County, Mississippi, USA
OccupationAttorney, planter, politician
Spouse(s)Lucinda Frances (Dade) Foote
ChildrenHuger Lee Foote
RelativesHenry S. Foote (distant cousin)
Shelby Foote (great-grandson)

Early life

Hezekiah William Foote was born on December 17, 1813 in Chester County, South Carolina.[1] He moved to Macon, Noxubee County, Mississippi as a teenager.[1][2][3] He studied the Law and passed the Mississippi Bar.[1]

Career

Foote raised cattle in Noxubee County, becoming the first settler to raise pedigree cattle in Mississippi.[3] Meanwhile, he started a newspaper called The Macon Intelligencer.[1] He then served as Chancery Clerk of Noxubee County and was elected as district judge.[2] He joined the Whig Party and later the Constitutional Union Party.[1] He ran and lost the election to the Mississippi House of Representatives in 1856.[1]

Foote became an ardent secessionist in favor of the Confederate States of America by 1860.[1] During the American Civil War of 1861-1865, he served as a Colonel in the Confederate States Army during the Battle of Belmont and the Battle of Shiloh.[1][2][3]

Foote was elected as a member of the Mississippi House of Representatives and the Mississippi Senate.[2] He also served as President of the Farmers and Merchants Bank of Macon, Mississippi.[1]

Foote owned four plantations in the Mississippi Delta:

Foote served as Superintendent of the Methodist Sunday School in Macon, Mississippi for fifty-six years.[1] He was one of the co-founders of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, founded as a Methodist institution, and served on its Board of Trustees.[1][3] He was related to Henry S. Foote, the Governor of Mississippi from 1852 to 1854, who lived where the campus of Vanderbilt University was established.[3]

Personal life

Foote married Lucinda Frances Dade (1816-1856) in 1836.[1] She inherited 3,000 acres of land in Issaquena County, Mississippi.[1] They had a son, Huger Lee Foote.[4]

Death and legacy

Foote died on January 29, 1899 in Macon, Mississippi, where he was buried.[1][3] His great-grandson was Shelby Foote, the Civil War author.[1]

References
  1. Justin Glenn, The Washingtons: A Family History: Volume 1: Seven Generations of the Presidential Branch, Savas Publishing, 2014, p. 1895
  2. Woody Woods, Delta Plantations - The Beginning, 2010, p. 40
  3. John Griffin Jones, Mississippi Writers Talking, Oxford, Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi, 1982, pp. 37-56
  4. Jim Fraiser, The Majesty of the Mississippi Delta, Pelican Publishing, 2002, p. 47
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