Samuel Edmund Foote
350px|Portrait of Samuel E. Foote, by Joseph Oriel Eaton, 1855
Samuel Edmund Foote, 1787-1858 was born at Guilford, New Haven county, Connecticut, 29 Oct 1787 to Eli Foote and Roxanna Ward.
He died at Guilford, 1 Nov 1858 (aged 71); and is buried at the Foote-Ward Cemetery Guilford, New Haven county, Connecticut. [findagrave;14530277]
He married at ___ Elizabeth Betts Elliott, 1807-1878.
Biography
In the volume Andrew Warde and his Descendants, the entry for Samuel reads as follows:
Mr. Samuel Edmund Foote was a sea captain at eighteen years of age, having fitted himself by study and practice, and he continued to be until 1826. He was a man of wide interests and culture; “one of the best educated men of his time”; he spoke and wrote French, Spanish and Italian fluently, he had a wide knowledge of literature, made improvements in ship rigging and building.
In Cincinnati he did much for the improvement and growth of the city. Director and secretary (without pay) to the water company until it was sold to the city; director of Louisville (Ohio River) Canal, etc., etc. In the financial crisis of 1837 lost much of his fortune and became secretary of Whitewater Canal Company and later of the Ohio Life Ins. & Trust Co., until he had gathered another fortune, and retired from business in New Haven in 1850. During the years Samuel lived in Cincinnati, he allowed his home to be the center of a small literary salon known as The Semi-Colon Club (his niece Harriet Beecher often attended this gathering). According to Wikipedia, “the Semi-Colon Club…was a literary club, made up of some of the best minds in Cincinnati, including future Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Salmon P. Chase; Judge James Hall, who was editor of Western Monthly Magazine; and the couple Calvin Ellis Stowe and Eliza Tyler Stowe.
”Samuel’s wife Elizabeth was from a prominent Guilford [Connecticut] family. She was a descendant of John Elliot, "Apostle to the Indians" and one of the editors of the Bay Psalm Book, and her father Andrew Elliott’s house still stands on the Guilford Green. Samuel and Elizabeth are buried in the General Andrew Ward Cemetery.
They had four children
- Frances Elizabeth Foote Godkin, 1835–1875
- Katharine Virginia Foote Rockwell, 1839–1902
- Harry Ward Foote, 1844–1873
Nephew
Samuel Edmund Foote was born January 20, 1843.
He died May 4, 1887, and his wife died January 24, 1934.
He married Lucy Bullard (1812-1908) on October 23, 1875.
They had six children:
- Raymond Ward Foote,
- Florence Foote,
- Esther Beecher Foote,
- Harold Spencer Foote,
- Clarence Ward Foote,
- Josephine Hawley Foote.
Lucy Bullard’s father, Oliver Crosby Bullard, was the superintendent of his brother-in-law Henry Ward Beecher’s farm, and also worked with Frederick Law Olmsted at the U.S. Sanitary Commission during the Civil War. In the 1870s he was the Park Inspector of Prospect Park, Brooklyn, and the Superintendent of Parks in Bridgeport in the 1880s. He supervised the construction of Beardsley Park in Bridgeport for Olmsted. His sister, Eunice White Bullard, was the wife of Henry Ward Beecher.
Samuel Edmund Foote was close to the uncle for whom he was named. They were both ship’s captains. In the appendix of the memoirs of the elder Capt. Samuel E. Foote, young Sam’s uncle John reported that his brother “spoke of and introduced young Samuel E. Foote to his friends as his son so frequently that, at length, he apparently forgot their real relationship.” The elder Samuel had two sons of his own, but one died at age 5, and the other died at age 10.
[[ |thumb|350px|Stephen Bishop, built at New Haven in 1867. Part-owner Samuel Edmund Foote. Painting by Percy A. Sanborn.]]
Young Samuel was a private in the 10th Connecticut Volunteers and wounded in the Civil War at Roanoke. After recovering from his injuries he went into the Navy at age 22 in 1865 as “Master’s mate.” At age 42 he entered the Navy at Brooklyn Navy Yard. For most of his life he was a ship master and owned the Stephen Bishop, a brig.
