My Genealogy Hound

Lee Webster, one of the most extensive merchants and farmers of Lee County, is a native of Mississippi, and a son of James and Jane (Bankhead) Webster, who came primarily from Tennessee and North Carolina, respectively. Mr. Webster was a mechanic by occupation, and was reared in Mississippi, to which State his father had removed when he was a small boy. He was a man of some education, and was highly thought of by all who knew him. He died near Mount Pleasant, Miss., at the age of sixty-five. He was a son of Walter Webster, a native of Tennessee, also a farmer by occupation, who, at the time of his death, at the age of ninety, was possessed of considerable property. Mrs. Webster was born in 1820 and died in 1871. She was the daughter of Thomas Bankhead, of Ireland originally, who came over to this country when seventeen years of age, and engaged in farming in South Carolina, where he died at the age of eighty years. The subject of this sketch was born in Marshall County, Miss., in 1849. He started in life as deputy sheriff of his native county, in 1868, which office he filled for several years. Then removing to De Soto County, he was occupied in trading on the Mississippi River until 1879, at which time he came to Lee County, and embarked in the mercantile business, and also in farming, both of which he still carries on. He is now the owner of four half sections of land, and has 800 acres under cultivation, devoted to the raising of cotton, of which he produces from 1,000 to 1,200 bales per annum. He opened up his store of general merchandise in 1879, with a capital of $1,400. The stock now averages over $6,000, and his annual sales have aggregated $35,000, though a more correct estimate would be $50,000 for the past year. He also owns and operates a steam grist-mill and cotton-gin, of fifteen bales capacity per day. Mr. Webster was married, in 1871, to Miss Alice Gruffe, who was born in Kentucky, in 1855. They had one son which died in infancy, and they have since taken several orphan children to rear, for whom he has made provisions in his will as though they were his own. The subject of this sketch being quite a young boy at the breaking out of the war never enlisted, but took part in several skirmishes near his home. He is a stanch Democrat in politics, and takes an active part in political work of his county. He has been a member of the board of supervisors for some time.