History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century/4/Silas M. Weaver
SILAS M. WEAVER was born in Chautauqua County, New York, on the 18th of December, 1846. He was reared on a farm and received bis education in the public schools of that county and at the Fredonia Academy. He taught school several winters, spending the summers in reading law until he was admitted to the bar at Buffalo, in 1868. The same year he came to Iowa, locating at Iowa Falls where he began practice. In 1883 he was elected on the Republican ticket Representative in the Twentieth General Assembly. He was chairman of the judiciary committee and at the close of the first term was reëlected to the Twenty-first General Assembly. It was in the Legislature of 1886 that an attempt was made to impeach and remove from office the Auditor of State, J. L. Brown. Mr. Weaver was chosen by the House, chairman of the board of managers to conduct the prosecution of the trial before the Senate. In 1886 he was elected judge of the Eleventh Judicial District and has been repeatedly reëlected, serving in that position for fifteen years. In 1891, he was nominated by the Republican State Convention for Judge of the Supreme Court but for the first time since the organization of the party, the entire Republican ticket was defeated. In 1891 Judge Weaver was again nominated for a seat on the Supreme bench and elected.