WRIGHT, JUDGE WM. SILAS, was born in Weybridge, Vt., Jan. 6, 1819, and at the age of sixteen took a preparatory course at the Vergennes Classical Institute; in 1838 entered college at Middlebury, Vt., where he studied nearly two years, after which he returned to his father’s homestead in New Haven, Vt., where he remained (except an interval of four years spent in his native town) until the death of his father, in 1866. In 1867 he removed to Waltham, Vt., where he has since resided. He has taken an active part in public affairs, and has held many of the local offices of the towns of New Haven and Waltham, representing the latter in the General Assembly of Vermont in 1874 and 1875, serving on the committee of education therein. He has held the offices of superintendent of schools and town clerk since 1872. In the month of November, 1885, he was appointed by his excellency, Governor Pingree, associate judge of Addison County Court in place of Hon. E. A. Doud resigned. In the Republican County Convention, held in June, 1886, he was nominated unanimously for the position he holds by appointment. He united with the Congregational Church at Vergennes in 1836, and his relation thereto has never changed. In 1840 he married Lucy C. Phillips, only daughter of Jacob and Lucy (Weller) Phillips, of Pittsford, Vt., by whom he had two children, Emma C., wife of H. S. Jackman, of Waltham, Vt., and John J., who was a successful merchant in Vergennes for sixteen years, but now in business at Rochester, N. Y. The maternal grandfather of Mrs. Wright (Amos Weller) was a personal friend of Ethan Allen, of Revolutionary fame, and was by his side when he entered the fortress, surprised and took the garrison at Ticonderoga, on the 10th day of May, 1775. He served during the war and received a pension from the government. Subsequently to his military experience he was for many years a deacon in the Baptist Church at Rutland, Vt. He died about the year 1836.
The parents of William S. were Daniel and Bathsheba (Frost) Wright, of whom mention is made in the history of New Haven. They were born in Massachusetts in the year 1780, and came to reside in Weybridge in childhood. His grandfather, Ebenezer Wright, was born in Massachusetts, settled in Weybridge in 1784, on the farm now owned by E. S. Wright, esq., and died there at the age of eighty years.
Judge Wright has been one of Addison county’s successful farmers. Honorable and upright in all his business transactions, the steadfast friend of all institutions which have for their object the building up and conserving the highest interests of society, faithful and trustworthy in the discharge of all public trusts committed to him, he has fairly earned the high esteem in which he is held in the community where he has spent his whole life.
