Ezekiel John ELLIS, Congress, LA (1840-1889)

ELLIS, Ezekiel John, a Representative from Louisiana; born in Covington, St. Tammany Parish, La., October 15, 1840; attended private schools in Covington and Clinton, La., and Centenary College, Jackson, La., 1855-1858; was graduated from the law department of the Louisiana State University at Pineville (now at Baton Rouge), La., in 1861; during the Civil War joined the Confederate Army and was commissioned a first lieutenant; was promoted to captain in the Sixteenth Regiment, Louisiana Infantry, and served two years, when he was captured and held as a prisoner of war on Johnsons Island in Lake Erie until the end of the war; was admitted to the bar of Louisiana in 1866 and commenced practice in Covington, La.; member of the State senate 1866-1870; elected as a Democrat to the Forty-fourth and to the four succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1875-March 3, 1885); chairman, Committee on Mississippi Levees (Forty-fourth Congress); declined to be a candidate for renomination in 1884; resumed the practice of his profession in Washington, D.C., where he died April 25, 1889; interment in the Ellis family cemetery at “Ingleside,” near Amite, Tangipahoa Parish, La.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present