Lockett, Samuel H. (Samuel Henry), 1837-1891

Samuel Henry Lockett (1837-1891) was an engineering officer in the United States, Confederate, and Egyptian armies, and a professor at Louisiana State University and University of Tennessee at Knoxville. He married Cornelia C. Clark in 1859 and with her had six children.

From the description of Samuel Henry Lockett papers, 1820-1972. WorldCat record id: 43927313

Samuel H. Lockett graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in 1859. He resigned from the army when Alabama seceded and spent the war planning and constructing defenses at sites on the Gulf Coast and along the Mississippi River. While professor of mechanics and engineering at Louisiana State University (1867-1873), Lockett conducted a geographical and topographical survey of Louisiana and published the first topographical map of the state. He later served as colonel of engineers in the Egyptian army and as professor of engineering and mechanics at the University of Tennessee. Lockett constructed water and gas works in various cities in the United States and died in Columbia while employed as chief engineer to construct water works.

From the description of Samuel H. Lockett topographical survey, 1872. (Louisiana State University). WorldCat record id: 184985644

From the description of Samuel H. Lockett manuscript, 1873, 1884. (Louisiana State University). WorldCat record id: 184985642

Samuel Henry Lockett was born 6 July 1837 in Mecklenburg County, Va., to Napoleon Bonaparte Lockett (1813-1867) and Mary Clay Lockett (1814-1885). Soon after his birth his family moved to Marion, Ala. He graduated from Howard College in Alabama and in 1854 was appointed to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, where he graduated in 1859 as a second lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers. He then served briefly as an assistant professor at the Academy. On 21 December 1859 he and Cornelia C. Clark (1841-1912), daughter of William H. Clark and Jane Emslie Clark of West Point, N.Y., were married in the Academy Chapel.

In 1860 Lockett became assistant to Colonel W. H. C. Whiting and returned south to do engineering work in the Eighth Lighthouse District. He was in charge of constructing a fort near Pensacola, Fla., when the South seceded. He then joined the Confederate Army and eventually became colonel and chief engineer for the Department of Alabama, Mississippi, and East Louisiana.

After the war, Lockett taught mathematics, engineering, and related subjects first at Judson Institute in Marion, Ala., and then at Louisiana State Seminary (later Louisiana State University). He went to Louisiana State in 1867, when the campus was still located at Alexandria. In 1869, when the Alexandria campus burned and the University moved to Baton Rouge, he moved also, remaining on the faculty until 1873. During the summers of 1869, 1870, and 1872 he traveled throughout Louisiana gathering data for a topographical survey of the state. Later he was in charge of two private schools, Calhoun College in Jacksonville, Ala. (1873-1874) and Hamner Hall in Montgomery, Ala. (1874-1875). He left Montgomery in mid 1875 to accept a post as colonel of engineers in the Egyptian Army. He served in Egypt and Abyssinia until mid 1877, when he returned to the United States to teach at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville.

Lockett left the University of Tennessee in 1883 to work with various engineering contractors constructing waterworks in various cities, including Belleville, Ill.; Shelbyville, Ill.; Circleville, Ohio; Paducah, Ky.; and Lawrence, Kan. By 1885 he was chief engineer for the firm of Comegys and Lewis, Contractors, New York City, N.Y. From 1888 until his death he was involved with other firms and businessmen in work on engineering projects in Chile and Colombia. In 1888 he and two associates went to Santiago, Chile, to negotiate details of a contract for building a railroad. The following year he went to Cartagena, Colombia, to advance another railroad project and also to assist in improvements on the Dique Canal. In 1890 he returned to Colombia to examine coal deposits near Rio Hacha. In 1891 he went to Bogota, Colombia, to construct waterworks. He died there on 12 October 1891.

Lockett had six children: Cornelia Lockett, who died young; Jean (1862-1951), who married Eugene F. Fuller; Edith (fl. 1865-1940), who married Joseph E. Lopez; Henry Watkins (fl. 1868-1950), who married May Keeler; Samuel Hobart (1870-1915), who married Addie McMichael; and Ettie Boyd (1873-1920), who married George Morgan.

From the guide to the Samuel Henry Lockett Papers, 1820-1972, (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection.)