Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 2.djvu/44

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36
HON. JOSEPH D. WEEKS.

profession, having also an office at the "Street," where he remained a portion of the time, and making his home with his parents. His office and library at East Canaan were burned in the disastrous conflagration in that place, in 1872, since which time he has kept an office only at the "Street."

Mr. Weeks is an active and earnest Democrat, and has for several years been accorded the leadership of his party in the town. He was elected a member of the Legislature from Canaan in 1869 and again in 1870, serving the first year as a member of the Committee on Agricultural College, and the next on the Railroad Committee. The first year Mr. Weeks' Committee was an important one, as it was at that time that the friends of Dartmouth College made their strenuous and (as it resulted) successful effort to secure the location of the Agricultural College at Hanover, and several Dartmouth graduates, including Mr. Weeks, were made members of the Committee, unquestionably with a view to the promotion of that object, and for which they labored with due zeal. The Railroad Committee, of which he was a member during his second year's service, was busied with the consideration of important questions arising from the exciting controversy between the Concord and Northern Railroads. During his service in the House he established a reputation as an intelligent and industrious legislator, making no pretentions to display, but devoting himself faithfully to the promotion of the interests of his constituents and the State at large, as regarded from the stand-point of his own judgment.

In 1875 Mr. Weeks received the Democratic nomination for Senator in his District, then one of the so-called "close" districts of the State, and was elected. He served as a member of the Judiciary and Railroad Committees in that body, being chairman of the former. In 1876 he was again a candidate, but was defeated by James W. Johnson of Enfield, the Republican nominee, a man of great resources and tireless energy, who succeeded in carrying the district by a small majority. This year the Republicans again secured full control of the Legislature, and made such changes in the Senatorial Districts as to render a contest well nigh hopeless on the part of any Democratic candidate in Number Eleven, where Messrs. Johnson and Weeks were again the candidates of their respective parties the following year, and the former was re-elected, as a matter of course. In the last canvass, however, Mr. Johnson not being a candidate, the Democracy again insisted upon the renomination of Mr. Weeks, who after a vigorous campaign was elected over C. O. Barney, Esq., of the same town, the Republican nominee. At the opening of the late session of the Legislature he received the compliment of the Democratic nomination for President of the Senate, and served, during the session, upon the committees on the Judiciary and Education. In the Senate, as in the House, Mr. Weeks rendered efficient service as a practical legislator, and his judgment was seldom questioned on matters involving general public interests.

Mr. Weeks is unmarried, and his mother, sisters and himself have their home together. The large farm and extensive outlands of which his father died possessed, are still held, but in 1874 the family residence was changed to the Downing place, so called, a fine location on the "Street," which Mr. Weeks had purchased the previous year, and re-fitted and repaired in a thorough manner, building a first class stable, where he keeps about a half a dozen of the finest horses to be found in Grafton county. The love for good horses is, in fact, almost a passion with Mr. Weeks, and whoever of his friends and acquaintances is permitted to enjoy the hospitalities of his home is sure to be favored with a delightful drive behind some of his favorites, through that romantic region.

Canaan "Street," as the old village of Canaan has always been called, is one of the most charming localities, in summer, to be found in New Hampshire. The village is built upon the two sides of a single, broad street, extending a mile, north and south, in a straight line. The street