Rufus E. Lester



Rufus Ezekiel Lester (December 12, 1837 – June 16, 1906) was a U.S. Representative from Georgia.

Born near Waynesboro, Georgia, Lester was graduated from Mercer University, Macon, Georgia, in 1857. He studied law. He was admitted to the bar in Savannah, Georgia, and commenced practice in 1859. He entered the military service of the Confederate States Army in 1861 and served throughout the Civil War. He resumed the practice of law in Savannah. He served as member of the State senate in 1870–1879 and served as president of that body during the last three years. He served as mayor of Savannah in 1883–1889.

Lester was elected as a Democrat to the Fifty-first and to the eight succeeding Congresses and served from March 4, 1889, until his death in Washington, D.C., on June 16, 1906. He served as chairman of the Committee on Expenditures in the Department of State (Fifty-second and Fifty-third Congresses).

He died after a fall through a skylight by falling from the roof of the Cairo apartment house to the eleventh floor of that building, where he had apartments. Lester had gone to the roof of the building to look for his two young grandchildren and apparently missed his footing, falling through the skylight, about 30 feet, to the eleventh floor. He sustained internal injuries and both legs were broken.

He was interred in Bonaventure Cemetery, Savannah, Georgia.