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Senate Years of Service: 1881-1897 Party: Democrat
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GEORGE, James Zachariah, a Senator from Mississippi; born in Monroe County, Ga., October 20, 1826;
moved to Mississippi as a child; attended the old field schools; joined the Mississippi Rifles in 1846
and served in Mexico until discharged on account of ill health; studied law; admitted to the bar in
1847 and commenced practice in Carrollton, Miss.; reporter of the Mississippi Supreme Court in
1854; member of the Mississippi secession convention and signed the ordinance of secession; served
in the Confederate Army during the Civil War, attaining the rank of brigadier general of State troops;
resided in Jackson, Miss., 1872-1887, when he returned to Carrollton; appointed judge of the State
supreme court in 1879 and was elected chief justice; elected as a Democrat to the United States
Senate in 1880; reelected in 1886, and again in 1892, and served from March 4, 1881, until his death
on August 14, 1897; chairman, Committee on Agriculture and Forestry (Fifty-third Congress);
member of the constitutional convention of the State of Mississippi in 1890; died in Mississippi City,
Miss.; interment in Evergreen Cemetery, Carrollton, Miss.
BibliographyAmerican National Biography; Dictionary of American Biography; Peck, Lucy. The Life and Times of James Z. George.
Masters thesis, Mississippi State University, 1964; Ringold, May Spencer. Senator James Zachariah
George of Mississippi: Bourbon or Liberal? Journal of Mississippi History 16 (July
1954): 164-83.
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