| Biography* | Foote, George M., of Hattiesburg, Perry county, is one of the most progressive and capable of the younger generation of business men who are lending their energies to the forwarding of the industrial and commercial advancement of Mississippi. He is president of the George M. Foote Company, conducting a large wholesale grocery business, with headquarters in Hattiesburg, and has other capitalistic interests of importance, while he is at the present time representing the Fourth ward on the board of aldermen of his residence city. Mr. Foote was born in Macon, Noxubee county, Miss., May 13, 1873, and that county was also the birthplace of his parents, Henry D. and Susan (Walker) Foote, who now maintain their home in Columbus, Miss. The father was a valiant soldier of the Confederacy, in which he served with the Mississippi troops, participating in many of the leading battles of the great conflict and laying down his arms only when the cause of the Confederacy was lost. George M. Foote secured his educational training in the public schools, having completed a course in the excellently conducted high school at Columbus, Lowndes county. In politics a stalwart advocate of the principles of the Democratic party, he early secured official preferment, having served for eight years as deputy chancery clerk of Lowndes county, while, as before stated, he is now a member of the board of aldermen of Hattiesburg, to which office he was elected in 1904. In 1899 Mr. Foote engaged in the merchandise brokerage business at Columbus, this State, and in October, 1901, located in Hattiesburg and engaged in the same line of enterprise by founding the firm of George M. Foote & Company, wholesale dealers in groceries and provisions. The enterprise so rapidly expanded in scope and importance that it was soon found expedient to augment its capitalistic and other facilities. Accordingly, in 1903, the business was incorporated under the present title of the George M. Foote Company, with a capital stock of $20,000 and with the following official corps: George M. Foote, president; William H. Wainwright, vice-president; and Hugo L. Foote, secretary and treasurer, the last named being a cousin of the president of the company. The business of the concern extends throughout the entire southern part of the State, and an efficient corps of traveling salesmen is retained in representing the house to the trade. The aggregate annual business already approximates a half-million dollars, and the same is showing a constantly increasing tendency. The establishment of the company is well equipped in every particular and the unexcelled service has had much to do in the building up of so 'arge a trade within a comparatively brief interval of time. The interested principals are men of reliability, honor and marked business acumen, so that their success lies firmly based on merited confidence and esteem. In March, 1904, Mr. Foote organized the Hattiesburg Eight Wheel Wagon Company, which effected the purchase of the Strickland patents and which was incorporated with a capital stock of $30,000. These wagons are used principally in connection with lumbering and logging operations and their superiority for the purpose is unmistakable, the ease of loading, elimination of friction and the large amount of material handled effectively and quickly, constituting the points of superiority which have gained to the wagons most appreciative reception wherever they have been introduced. The trade of the company extends throughout the lumbering districts of the United States and Central and South America, while Walter A. Zelincer & Company, of St. Louis, Mo., are sales agents for the company. Mr. Foote is also president of the firm of Foote & Patrick, of Laurel; Foote & Mohler, of Gulfport; and Foote & Drummon, of Columbia, all of which are engaged in the wholesale grocery business in Mississippi. In a fraternal way Mr. Foote is an appreciative and popular member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. On Nov. 17, 1897, he was united in marriage to Miss Bessie Campbell, daughter of Charles H. and Fannie (Morton) Campbell, of Winona, Miss. They have no children.3 |
