Page:Autobiographies and portraits of the President, cabinet, Supreme court, and Fifty-fifth Congress (IA autobiographiesp02neal).pdf/125

 JAMES Z. GEORGE

, of Carrollton, was born in Monroe County, Ga., October 20, 1826; his father having died in his infancy, he removed, when eight years of age, with his mother, to Noxubee County, Miss., where he resided two years; he then removed to Carroll County, where he was educated in the common schools then existing; he volunteered as a private in the First Regiment of Mississippi Volunteers in the Mexican War, commanded by Col. Jefferson Davis, and was at the battle of Monterey; on his return he studied law. and was admitted to the bar in Carroll County; he was elected reporter of the high court of errors and appeals in 1854, reëlected in 1860; and prepared and published ten volumes of the reports of the decisions of that court, and afterwards prepared and published a digest of all the decisions of the supreme court and high court of errors and appeals of that State from the admission of the State into the Union to and including the year 1870; he was a member of the convention in Mississippi in 1861 which passed the ordinance of secession, and he voted for and signed that instrument; he was a captain in the Twentieth Regiment of Mississippi Volunteers in the Confederate States army, afterwards a brigadier-general of State troops, and later colonel of the Fifth Regiment of Mississippi Cavalry in the Confederate States army; was chairman of the Democratic State executive committee of Mississippi in 1875–76; in 1879 was appointed one of the judges of the supreme court of Mississippi and elected chief justice; resigned his seat on the supreme bench in February, 1881, to take his seat in the Senate on the 4th of March of that year, and was reëlected in 1886 and again in January, 1892; was a member of the constitutional convention of the State of Mississippi which was held in 1890 and framed the present constitution of the State. On August 14, 1897, the long and honorable career of Mr. George was closed by death.