American politician (1826–1885)
Elza Jeffords (May 23, 1826 – March 19, 1885) was a U.S. Representative from Mississippi's 3rd congressional district .
Jeffords was born near Ironton in Lawrence County, Ohio , on May 23, 1826.[ 1] He grew up in Portsmouth, Ohio , where he attended public schools before apprenticing as a clerk in a law office. Jeffords read law during his apprenticeship and was admitted to the bar in 1847. After his admission to the legal profession he practiced in Portsmouth.[ 2]
During the American Civil War , Jeffords served as a clerk in the Quartermaster's Department of the Army of the Tennessee from June 1862 to December 1863.[ 2] Following the war he moved to Mayersville , Issaquena County, Mississippi .[ 1] On February 25, 1868, General Alvan Cullem Gillem , who had been given post-Civil War command over a region including Mississippi, named Jeffords to the state supreme court, along with Thomas Shackelford and Ephraim G. Peyton .[ 3] [ 4] [ 1] [ 5] He was a delegate to the 1872 Republican National Convention , which renominated U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant .
Jeffords was elected as a Republican to the 48th United States Congress , carrying nearly 70% of the vote.[ 2] He served a single term and was unsuccessful during his 1884 reelection campaign. Jeffords died on March 19, 1885, in Vicksburg, Mississippi .[ 6] He was interred at Cedar Hill Cemetery near Vicksburg.
Eighty years passed before another Republican represented Mississippi in the U.S. House, Prentiss Walker of Mize in Smith County , represented the 4th district for a single term from 1965 to 1967. He forfeited the seat to make an unsuccessful race against U.S. Senator James O. Eastland .
References
^ a b c "Obituary" . Arizona Weekly Citizen . Tucson, Arizona Territory. March 28, 1885. p. 4.
^ a b c United States Congress (1885). Congressional Edition . Vol. 2265. U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 48. OCLC 191710879 .
^ "Latest by Telegraph", Natchez Democrat (February 27, 1868), p. 2.
^ Thomas H. Somerville, "A Sketch of the Supreme Court of Mississippi", in Horace W. Fuller, ed., The Green Bag , Vol. XI (1899), p. 511.
^ Leslie Southwick , Mississippi Supreme Court Elections: A Historical Perspective 1916-1996 , 18 Miss. C. L. Rev. 115 (1997-1998).
^ "Elza Jeffords" . New-York Tribune . March 20, 1885. p. 5.
External links
International National People