Mount Holly (Foote, Mississippi)

Mount Holly (a.k.a. Dudley Plantation) was a historic Southern plantation in Foote, Mississippi. Built in 1855, it was visited by many prominent guests, including Confederate President Jefferson Davis. It was later acquired by ancestors of famed Civil War novelist Shelby Foote, who wrote a novel about it. It burned down on June 17, 2015.

Mount Holly
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
The house in 1937
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Location	Foote, Mississippi
Coordinates	33°5′42″N 91°2′12″W
Area	7 acres (2.8 ha)
Built	1855
Architectural style	Italianate
NRHP reference No.	73001030[1]
Added to NRHP	August 14, 1973

Location

It is located in Foote, Washington County, Mississippi.[2][3][4][5][6] It is situated on the Eastern shore of Lake Washington.[4][6]

History

The land was patented by John C. Miller in 1831.[3] By 1833, he sold it to Henry Johnson and his wife, Elizabeth Julia Flournoy.[3]

In 1854, their widowed daughter, Margaret Johnson Erwin Dudley, acquired 1,699 acres of land known as the Mount Holly Plantation for US$100,000.[7] It came with outbuildings, livestock, and 100 African slaves.[7]

A year later, in 1855, she married Dr Charles Wilkins Dudley, the son of Kentucky surgeon Benjamin Winslow Dudley.[2] Margaret's husband, Charles, commissioned the construction of the mansion as a present for his wife.[2] Made of red bricks, it has two storeys and thirty-two rooms.[2] It was designed in the Italianate architectural style, either by architect Samuel Sloan or Calvert Vaux, after the Dudleys consulted with both architects.[7]

The Dudleys entertained guests such as Confederate President Jefferson Davis, Albert Sidney Johnston, John C. Pemberton, Ulysses S. Grant, and William T. Sherman.[2]

In the 1880s, it was purchased by Hezekiah William Foote, a wealthy planter, Confederate veteran, and member of the Mississippi House of Representatives and Mississippi Senate.[2][3] It was later inherited by his son, Huger Lee Foote, a planter and member of the Mississippi Senate.[2] His grandson was the author Shelby Foote, whose 1949 novel Tournament is based on his father's loss of the family home.[2][4][6][8]

From 1903 to 1956, the mansion belonged to Mrs Mary Griffin Lee.[3] In 1927, it was used as a relief shelter during the great flood.[3][5] It was later inherited by Mrs John Cox, Mrs Lee's granddaughter.[3] She turned into a bed and breakfast.[6] It remained a private residence, with an absentee owner.[4][5]

The plantation mansion burnt down on June 17, 2015.[9]

Heritage significance

It has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since August 14, 1973.[10] The house contains a historical marker commissioned by the National Society of Colonial Dames on an outside wall which reads, 'Mount Holly, Ca. 1856, Excellent example of Italianate style steeped in history of the Mississippi Delta, built for Margaret (Johnson) Erwin Dudley, an early settler's daughter, used as headquarters for relief committees in 1927 flood, marked by Mississippi State Society, National Society of Colonial Dames XVII century, October 10, 1998.'[11]

References

1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
2. Jim Fraiser, The Majesty of the Mississippi Delta, Pelican Publishing, 2002, p. 47
3. Woody Woods, Delta Plantations - The Beginning, 2010, pp. 40-41
4. City of Greenville: Mount Holly
5. 2011 Ten Most Endangered Historic Places Archived 2012-05-12 at the Wayback Machine, Mississippi Heritage Trust
6. David Horace Harwell, Walker Percy Remembered: A Portrait in the Words of Those who Knew Him, Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press, 2006, p. 118
7. Simon, John Y. (March 1983). "In Search of Margaret Johnson Erwin". The Journal of American History. 69 (4): 932–941. JSTOR 1901197.
8. Visit the Delta: Mount Holly
9. The Associated Press, Fire destroys Mount Holly Plantation near Greenville, The Sun Herald, June 17, 2015
10. Clinton I. Bagley (July 12, 1973). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Form: Mount Holly". National Park Service. Photos
11. Abandoned Mississippi: Mt. Holly, Lake Washington, Preservation in Mississippi, February 25, 2010