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- Mississippi Biographical History
Robert Charles Lee
Robert Charles Lee, of Madison Station, Madison county, is incumbent of the office of United States attorney for the Southern district of Mississippi, is an ex-member of the State senate, is an extensive landholder in Mississippi and Arkansas, and is known as a lawyer of distinctive ability. Mr. Lee was born at Graysport, Grenada county, Miss., July 17, 1861, and is a son of Dr. Lewis C. and Laura Willie (Hunter) Lee, the former of whom was born in Murfreesboro, Tenn., in 1834, and the latter in Baltimore, Md., in 1840. Both the paternal and maternal grandfathers of the subject of this sketch were officers in the War of the Revolution. The Lee family was early founded in the State of North Carolina, whence representatives of the name removed to Tennessee. Dr. Lee became one of the leading physicians and surgeons of Mississippi and continued in the practice of his profession until his death. He was graduated in Jefferson medical college, in the city of Philadelphia, and when about twenty-one years of age he came to Mississippi and located in that portion of Yalobusha county which is now included in Grenada county, where he continued in the active practice of his profession until his death, which occurred Oct. 8, 1883. When the War between the State was instituted, Dr. Lee entered the Confederate service as a surgeon, but he resigned this office to become major of the Forty-eighth Mississippi infantry, which he served until the close of the war. He was a most gallant officer and made a splendid military record; he was wounded five time while in action. He was a man of noble character and ever commanded the respect and esteem of his fellow men. His wife, who survived him by several, was a daughter of John L. and Sophia (Green) Hunter, both representatives of prominent families of the Old Dominion State. Robert Charles Lee was reared in Grenada county, where he secured his early educational training and prepared himself for college. In 1881 he was graduated in Vanderbilt university, Nashville, Tenn., with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and in the following year he was graduated in the law department of the University of Mississippi, from which he received the degree of Bachelor of Laws. He pursued his legal studies under the preceptorship of Gen. E.C. Walthall, of Grenada, and in 1881 he engaged in the practice of his profession oat Canton, Madison county, where he entered into partnership with Judge John Handy. In 1888 he removed to Madison Station where he has since maintained his home and given his supervision to his extensive plantation interests. He is stalwart supporter of the cause of the Democratic party and in 1886 he represented Madison county in the lower house of the State legislature. He was a delegate to the constitutional convention of 1890 and was the youngest member of that body. In 1898 he was elected to the State senate, from the Eighteenth senatorial district. In 1893 President Cleveland appointed him United States district attorney for the Southern district of Mississippi, and he served four years in this office. In 1902 he was appointed to the same office by President Roosevelt, resigning his seat in the State senate to accept the position, and he was re-appointed in 1906 for a second term of four years. At the time of his resignation from the senate, that body passed special resolutions of an appreciative order, as shown in the following excerpt from Mississippi correspondence appearing in the New Orleans Picayune of Feb. 12, 1903: ?No member of the State senate was more popular than Hon. R.C. Lee, of Madison, who resigned to accept the position of United States district attorney for the Southern district of Mississippi. The senate, by rising vote, testified its splendid appreciation of this able, manly and popular Mississippian by the passage of the subjoined resolution by rising vote, to which Mr. Lee made fitting and eloquent response: ?Whereas, the Hon. R.C. Lee has, be reason of his appointment to the office of Federal district attorney, severed his connection, as senator from the Eighteenth senatorial district, with his honorably body; Therefore be it resolved, That the senate of Mississippi recognizes the splendid service rendered the State by our brother, Senator Lee, and also desires to express its perfect confidence in him as a high-toned, honorable gentleman and friend, and regrets exceedingly that it has become necessary for him to vacate his seat and leave us, and with the fondest benedictions of this honorable body our brother will enter his new field of duty. And that a copy of this resolution be spread upon the journal of the senate.? Mr. Lee has a beautiful modern home in Madison Station and is the owner of a large landed estate in Madison county and in the State of Arkansas. he has attained to the thirty-third degree in Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite Masonry and is identified with the Knights of Pythias and Knights of Honor; both he and wife are communicants of the Protestant Episcopal church. On. Nov. 16, 1882, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Lee to Miss Ella J. Bass, daughter of Rev. Isaac R. and Martha J. (Jones) Bass, of Madison Station. Mr. and Mrs. Lee became the parents of six children, of whom two are deceased, namely: Laura Eugenia and Robert Charles, Jr. The living children are: Robert Charles, Jr. (2d) , Walthall Bennett, Ella Bass, and Martha Bennett.
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Bassett Family Association Database
1861 - 1915 (53 years)