E. John Ellis

E. John Ellis

Ezekiel John Ellis (born October 15, 1840 in Covington , Louisiana , †  April 25, 1889 in Washington, DC ) was an American politician . Between 1875 and 1885 he represented the state of Louisiana in the US House of Representatives .

Career

John Ellis attended private schools in his native Covington and Clinton . Between 1855 and 1858 he studied at Centenary College in Jackson . He then studied law at Louisiana State University until 1861 . During the civil war that followed, Ellis was a lieutenant and later captain of an infantry unit from Louisiana that fought on the side of the Confederate States . After two years he was taken prisoner of war. For the remainder of the war, Ellis was imprisoned on Johnson's Island in Lake Erie . He then returned to Louisiana.

After his admission to the bar in 1866, Ellis began working in his hometown of Covington in his new profession. At the same time he began a political career as a member of the Democratic Party . Between 1866 and 1870 he was a member of the Louisiana Senate . In the congressional election of 1874 Ellis was elected to the US House of Representatives in Washington in the second constituency of Louisiana, where he succeeded Lionel Allen Sheldon on March 4, 1875 . After four re-elections, he was able to complete five legislative terms in Congress by March 3, 1885 . Between 1875 and 1877 he was chairman of the committee that dealt with the levees along the Mississippi .

In 1884, Ellis waived another congressional candidacy. But he stayed in the federal capital Washington, where he worked as a lawyer. He died there on April 25, 1889. He was then buried in the family cemetery in Tangipahoa Parish .

Web links

• E. John Ellis in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• E. John Ellis in the database of Find a Grave (English)