John Graham Foote

As printed in 1915

HON. JOHN GRAHAM FOOTE.

Among the pioneers of the state of Iowa none is more worthy of mention than John Graham Foote, who in 1841 settled in Burlington, Iowa, and from that year until his death actively participated in the upbuilding of the state. Not only was he one of the foremost business men of Burlington, but he was connected with the early railroad building of this section and also represented his district in the upper house of the legislature. Mr. Foote continued a resident of Burlington until his death, which occurred March 4, 1896, when he was nearing his eighty-second birthday.

He was born in Middlebury, Vermont, April 21, 18 14, a son of Justus and Harriet S. (Graham) Foote. The founder of the family in America was Nathaniel Foote, who was born in England in 1593 and in that country married Elizabeth Denning about the year 1615. His name first appears in America in the records of the Massachusetts Bay colony in 1633, when he took the freeman's oath. He had land assigned to him at Watertown, Massachusetts, and later became a pioneer of Wethersfield, Connecticut. He died in 1664 and his wife passed away in 1683. His eldest son, Nathaniel, was born in England in 1620 and at Wethersfield, Connecticut, in 1648, married Miss Elizabeth Smith. He died in 1655, having spent the greater part of his life in Wethersfield. His second son, Samuel, was born in that town in 1649 and in 167 1 married Miss Mary Merrick, of Springfield, Massachusetts. He was a resident of Hatfield, Massachusetts, and died September 7, 1689, his wife soon following him.

October 3, 1690. His fifth son, Daniel, was born at Hatfield, in 1689, and in 1718 married Mary CoUyer, of Hartford, Connecticut. They resided at Simsbury, Connecticut. He died July 15, 1740, and his wife June 17, 1769. His eldest son, Samuel, was born in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1719 and married Lois Loomis, November 24, 1743. They made their home at Simsbury, Connecticut. Samuel Foote passed away September 18, 1775. His third son, Elijah, was born at Simsbury, Connecticut, March 14, 1755. He was twice married. On December 12, 1771, he married Mary Latimer, who passed away, leaving five sons and one daughter. His second wife was Zeniah Barton, of Norwich, Vermont, and by this union he had two sons and one daughter. He resided at Simsbury, New Haven and Middlebury, Connecticut, at Fairfield, Vermont, and at some place in New York state. He died in 1827. Justus, the fourth son of Elijah and Mary (Latimer) Foote, was born in Simsbury, Connecticut, June 24, 1782. On April 15, 18 10, he wedded Harriet S. Graham, a daughter of Rev. John Graham, of Suffield, Connecticut, and they resided in Middlebury, Vermont, where he died June 10, 1829. His wife survived him for many years, her death occurring on the 20th of April, 1865. Their second child was John Graham Foote, of this review.

On the material side Mr. Foote was descended from James Graham, Marquis of Montrose, who was born in Scotland in 161 2 and died in 165 1. An intermediate descendant was Andrew Graham, whose son, Rev. John Graham, was born in Scotland in 1694 and came to America when young. In this country he entered upon a career as a minister of the gospel. He settled in Stafford, Connecticut, in 1723 and died at Southbury, that state, December 11, 1774. His son, also Rev. John Graham, was born in 1722 and died at Suffield, Connecticut, in 1796. He was an early graduate of Yale University, taking his degrees in 1740. Harriet Swan Graham, the daughter of Rev. John Graham, was the mother of our subject. She was born at West Sufiield, Connecticut, March 9, 1789, and her last days were spent in the home of her son at Burlington. On the it;th of April, 1810, she married Captain Justus Foote at Middlebury, Vermont.

John G. Foote was graduated from the Middlebury (Vt.) College in 1835 and the same year went to St. Louis, Missouri, where he became a clerk in the hardware store of Bridge, Beech & Company. He came to Burlington in 1838 and in 1841 made permanent location in Burlington, Iowa. Here he established a branch store for the St. Louis firm and continued as manager of this establishment for a number of years. At the end of that period he engaged in the same line independently and later his brother-in-law, Mosley Ewing, became his partner. He soon rose to a place of prominence in the business life of Burlington and his concern grew as the years passed, becoming one of the foremost business houses in his part of the state. He was successfully engaged a a hardware dealer for a period of thirty-three years, when he retired with a comfortable fortune. During this time Mr. Foote had a number of other interests which connected him with the growth and development of the region. He participated financially in the building of the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad and for a time served as treasurer of this company. Later he was a member of the board of directors of the Peoria & Oquawka Railroad Company and also was a director of the Carthage & Burlington Railroad Company. He was always progressive and aggressive and was a promoter and a director of the first company to run a telegraph wire into Burlington. He became recognized within the state as a man of powerful financial influence, taking a leading part in the organization of the First National Bank of Burlington,. of which he became a director and vice president. To his ready co-operation must be ascribed much of the prestige which the bank enjoys today. Mr. Foote was a foremost factor in all matters that affected the public welfare and could ever be found in the ranks of those men who considered it their duty to work in the interests of advancement, growth and development.

In politics Mr. Foote was equally active. He was originally a whig, but later turned to the republican party. In 1861 he was elected state senator and served from 1862 until 1865. During the troublous times of the Civil war he carefully watched over the destinies of his state in the upper chamber. He was active and forceful in committee work and often appealed from the floor of the house to fellow members in the interests of valuable legislation. He later was chairman of a board of three commissioners who were selected for the construction of the state capitol and discharged this great trust in a highly satisfactory manner. He personally disbursed two million eight hundred and seventy-six thousand three hundred dollars throughout a period of fourteen years and no voice was ever raised about the misapplication of even a penny of this vast sum. No breath of suspicion ever attached to his name, for he discharged his duties with a conscientiousness which is rarely found among politicians of the present era.

During the later years of his life Mr. Foote retired from business and public life. He largely devoted his efYorts to religious work.

In 1853 he had become a member of the Congregational church and always worked in the interests of that organization. He was for a long period a teacher of the Sunday school and for many years held the office of deacon. He was a member of the National Council of Congregational churches that met in Boston, Massachusetts, and, standing beside Plymouth Rock, where his ancestors had landed centuries before, he joined in the declaration of faith. In 1867 he was elected a corporate member of the American Board of Commissioners of Foreign Missions and continued to be a member of that board up to his eightieth year. He was one of the founders and original incorporators of the Chicago Theological Seminary and a member of its first board of directors. Throughout this life he remained a supporter of that institution. He was a thorough Christian gentleman whose noble spirit permeated all his actions. His home life was of the most ideal kind and wherever he went he carried with him the sunshine of life.

Mr. Foote was twice married. At Burlington, August 20, 1845, he wedded Eliza Jane Ewing, a native of Greenville, Kentucky. Onlv one of their four children reached adult age, Harriet, the widow of Frank R. Dunham, who was chief clerk of the Burlington postoffice and died June 30, 1891. Mrs. Dunham and her daughter Harriet reside with her stepmother, Mrs. Foote. Her two sons are John Graham, of Boise, Idaho; and George Foote, of Portland, Oregon. Mrs. Eliza Jane Foote passed away August 5, 1853, and in 1855 Mr. Foote married Miss Mary E. Merrill. She is descended from Nathaniel Merrill, of England, who landed in Ipswich, Massachusetts, in 1634. The family was originally located in France and emigrated from the Auvergne shortly before the massacre of St. Bartholomew. Being Huguenots, they fled to save their lives and after reaching England located in Worcester. They later made their domicile in Sussex, whence they emigrated to America. They were descended from the old Du Merle family, of the Auvergne, the ancestral seat being at Place de Dombes. In America the family name was changed to Merrill. They supplied many Congregational and Methodist ministers of ability as well as prominent men in other spheres of life. Peter Merrill, of this family and a member of the British army, was knighted in 1634 and became Sir Peter, while Samuel, a descendant of Nathaniel Merrill, was a member of the legislature of Massachusetts and captain of a military company in the Revolutionary war. He took part in the battles of Ticonderoga and was present at the surrender of Burgovne. His son Jesse was a boy of sixteen when he served as a private in his father's company. After the war Samuel

Merrill removed to Vermont, where he became prominent in public affairs as a member of the state legislature. His son James, upon leaving college, located in Philadelphia, where he became associated with the famous Thaddeus Stevens and attained fame as a member of the Pennsylvania bar. The marriage of Nathaniel Merrill, the original American ancestor, probably took place in England. His wife's name was Susanna, but her family name has never been established with certainty, although it is supposed to have been Wilierton. They were the parents of seven children. During the later years of their lives they resided at Newburyport, Massachusetts, where Nathaniel Merrill died March i6, 1665. The subsequent generations were: Abel, born in 1654, ""'ho married Priscilla Chase; Abel, born in 1671, who married Abigail Stevens; Abel, born in 1698, who married Ruth Kelley; Stevens, born in 1731, who married Sarah Chase and whose second union was with Mary Noyes; Joseph, born in 1764, who married Sarah Copp; and Stevens, born in 1790. He married Mehitabel Worthy Wells and they became the parents of Mrs. Foote. Her mother was a member of the celebrated Wells family, long known in the affairs of New England, and her great-grandfather, Samuel Wells, of Plymouth, New Hampshire, was commander of the state militia there. Her father, Stevens Merrill, was sheriff of Grafton county, and Plymouth, New Hampshire. He later removed to Boston, where he engaged in the dry goods and brokerage business. In 1849 joined the California pioneers and there engaged in mining for several years, but in 1854 returned to the east and settled in Burlington, Iowa, where he died in 1863. His wife, who was born at Plymouth, New Hampshire, in 1797, died in Burlington, January 12, 1886.

Mrs. Foote was born at Plymouth, New Hampshire; March 19, 1832. She was educated in the public schools of Boston and came to Burlington with her parents in 1854. In the following year she married Mr. Foote. She is a member of the First Congregational church and is actively interested in carrying on the good work of her husband. She also holds membership in the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Young Women's Christian Association. She is a member of the Missionary Society of the Congregational church and the Ladies' Aid Society of the Burlington Hospital. Mrs. Foote is a lady of literary tastes, highly cultured and refined, and takes a deep and helpful interest in the uplift of humanity.

Mr. and Mrs. Foote became the parents of three sons, but Henry G. died at the age of eight months and Charles Russell at the age of two and a half years. Graham Merrill, the eldest, now of Long

Beach, California, was born in 1856 and in 1880 married Miss Anna Joy. They have one son, Graham Merrill Foote, Jr., who was born March 7, 1889, and is engaged in business in Long Beach, California. John Graham Foote was one of those hardy pioneers who carried civilization to the primitive wilds of the middle west when the white man had scarcely penetrated the vast prairies of the Mississippi valley. He lived in Burlington for fifty-five years and witnessed the entire development of the city and section during this time. More than that, he participated actively in making its history. As a business man he laid the foundation of commercial progress; as a promoter of railroads he made possible the marketing of produce and joined rich agricultural districts so that the products of the soil could be advantageously disposed of. In his church work he implanted the Christian faith among his fellowmen and he always did everything in his power for the moral and intellectual progress of the people. The history of the state of Iowa would be incomplete without prominent reference to him who so worthily carried on the honorable traditions of a long line of distinguished ancestors. His memory is revered by all who knew him and who honored in him a patriarch who in his younger years had actively participated in the building of this great commonwealth and who continued his interest in those things which make for the betterment of humanity until he was called to the great beyond from a life which had been rich in useful labors.

As printed in History of Des Moines County, Iowa (1915). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.