Reuben Webster Millsaps (May 30, 1833 - June 28, 1916) was an American businessman, financier and philanthropist.

Early years

Reuben Webster Millsaps was born on May 30, 1833 in Pleasant Valley,

Copiah County, Mississippi Copiah County is a county located in the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of the 2020 census, the population was 28,368. The county seat is Hazlehurst. With an eastern border formed by the Pearl River, Copiah County is part of the Jackson, MS Me ...

.Reuben Webster Millsaps

Ancestry.com Ancestry.com LLC is an American genealogy company based in Lehi, Utah. The largest for-profit genealogy company in the world, it operates a network of genealogical, historical records, and related genetic genealogy websites. In November 2018, ...

He was of

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

, Scots-Irish, and Welsh descent. His family were farmers. He had eight siblings including William Green Millsaps. He attended Indiana Asbury College, now known as

DePauw University DePauw University is a private liberal arts university in Greencastle, Indiana. It has an enrollment of 1,972 students. The school has a Methodist heritage and was originally known as Indiana Asbury University. DePauw is a member of both the ...

, and

Harvard University Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each class ...

, where he earned a law degree.

Civil War

He fought in the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...

as a soldier in the

Confederate States Army The Confederate States Army, also called the Confederate Army or the Southern Army, was the military land force of the Confederate States of America (commonly referred to as the Confederacy) during the American Civil War (1861–1865), fighting ...

and was wounded twice during the war. He attained the

military rank Military ranks are a system of hierarchical relationships, within armed forces, police, intelligence agencies or other institutions organized along military lines. The military rank system defines dominance, authority, and responsibility in a ...

of Major.

Postbellum career

After returning from the war he pursued a successful career in business and finance. He was President of Capital State Bank in

Jackson, Mississippi Jackson, officially the City of Jackson, is the capital of and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Mississippi. The city is also one of two county seats of Hinds County, along with Raymond. The city had a population of 153,701 at t ...

Philanthropy

In 1890, Millsaps donated US$550,000, which was matched by contributions from Mississippi's Methodist community, for the creation of "a Christian college within the borders of our state".Julie L. Kimborough
''Jackson''
Mount Pleasant, South Carolina: Arcadia Publishing, 1998, p. 89Mary Carol Miller
''Lost landmarks of Mississippi''
Oxford, Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi, 1999, p. 33 The college is now known as

Millsaps College Millsaps College is a private liberal arts college in Jackson, Mississippi. It was founded in 1890 and is affiliated with the United Methodist Church. History The college was founded in 1889–90 by a Confederate veteran, Major Reuben Webste ...

and is located in

. He devoted the rest of his life to the building and running of the college.

Death

He died at his home in Jackson on June 28, 1916, at the age of 83. He was buried on the campus of Millsaps College in Jackson.

References

External links

Millsaps College
{{DEFAULTSORT:Millsaps, Reuben Webster 1833 births 1916 deaths People from Copiah County, Mississippi Businesspeople from Jackson, Mississippi American bankers American educational theorists DePauw University alumni Harvard Law School alumni Millsaps College Philanthropists from Mississippi Lawyers from Jackson, Mississippi Confederate States Army officers 19th-century American businesspeople 19th-century American lawyers 19th-century American philanthropists