Ezekiel Samuel Candler

Ezekiel Samuel Candler Jr. (January 18, 1862 – December 18, 1944) was an American lawyer and Democratic politician who represented Mississippi’s 1st congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 1901 to 1921 and later served as mayor of Corinth, Mississippi, from 1933 to 1937. Over the course of ten consecutive terms in Congress, he participated actively in the legislative process during a significant period in American history, representing the interests of his constituents in northeastern Mississippi. He was the nephew of Milton A. Candler, a Confederate lawyer and politician from Georgia, and the cousin of Allen D. Candler, a United States Representative who also served as the 14th secretary of state of Georgia and the 56th governor of Georgia.

Candler was born in Belleville, Hamilton County, Florida, on January 18, 1862, the first of five children of Ezekiel Samuel Candler Sr. and Julia Beville. In 1870, when he was still a child, the family moved to Tishomingo County, Mississippi, where he was raised during the Reconstruction era. His upbringing in the post–Civil War South, within a family already connected to public life through his prominent Georgia relatives Milton A. Candler and Allen D. Candler, helped shape his later interest in law and politics.

Candler attended the common schools of Mississippi, including the Iuka Male Academy in Iuka, Mississippi. He pursued legal studies at the University of Mississippi, graduating from its law department in 1881. That same year he was admitted to the bar and commenced the practice of law in Iuka. His early legal career quickly intersected with party politics, and he became active in Democratic Party organization at the county level.

By the mid-1880s, Candler had emerged as a local party leader. In 1884 he served as chairman of the Democratic executive committee of Tishomingo County. After moving his residence and law practice to Corinth, Mississippi, in 1887, he continued his political work and later served for several years as chairman of the Democratic executive committee of Alcorn County. Through these roles he helped manage Democratic affairs in the region and built the political base that would support his eventual election to Congress, while maintaining a steady legal practice in Corinth.

Candler entered national politics with his election as a Democrat to the United States House of Representatives from Mississippi’s 1st congressional district, beginning service in the Fifty-seventh Congress on March 4, 1901. He was subsequently reelected to nine additional terms, serving continuously through the Sixty-sixth Congress, which ended on March 3, 1921. Over these two decades, he contributed to the legislative process during a transformative era that included the Progressive period and World War I. During the Sixty-second Congress he held a significant leadership role as chairman of the House Committee on Alcoholic Liquor Traffic, a position that placed him at the center of national debates over regulation of alcoholic beverages in the years leading up to Prohibition. His long tenure reflected sustained support from his district, though he ultimately was an unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1920, losing the Democratic primary to John E. Rankin, which brought his congressional service to a close after nearly twenty years.

After leaving Congress in 1921, Candler resumed the practice of law in Corinth, returning to the profession in which he had begun his public career. He remained a notable figure in local civic life and, during the Great Depression, was elected mayor of Corinth, serving from 1933 to 1937. In that municipal office he oversaw local governance and public affairs during a period of economic hardship, continuing his long record of public service at the community level.

Candler’s personal life included three marriages. He married Nannie Priscilla Hazlewood in Mississippi on April 26, 1883, and the couple had three children together. After her death, he married Effie Merrill Neuhardt on January 14, 1924. On June 21, 1933, he married Ottie Hardenstein in Madison, Alabama. Outside of politics and law, Candler was active in religious and fraternal circles. He was a Baptist and belonged to several fraternal organizations, including the Freemasons, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Knights of Pythias, and the Knights of Honor, reflecting a broad engagement in civic and social life.

Ezekiel Samuel Candler Jr. died in Corinth, Mississippi, at the age of 82 on December 18, 1944. He was interred at Henry Cemetery in Corinth. His long career as a lawyer, party leader, ten-term member of the House of Representatives, and mayor of Corinth marked him as a significant figure in the political history of Mississippi and the broader Democratic Party in the early twentieth century.