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Elza Jeffords

Elza Jeffords (May 23, 1826 – March 19, 1885) was a U.S. Representative from Mississippi's 3rd congressional district.

Jeffords was born near IrontoninLawrence 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 WalkerofMizeinSmith 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.

• United States Congress. "Elza Jeffords (id: J000071)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
• Elza JeffordsatFind a Grave