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��HON. JOSEPH D. WEEKS.
��year. He also represented the town of Canaan in the Constitutional Convention of 1850. Mr. Weeks' principal competi- tor in the legal profession was the late Judge Jonathan Kittredge, who went from Lyme to Canaan a few years after Mr. Weeks located there, and remained there in practice until his appointment as a Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, when he removed to Concord. Opponents in politics as well as rivals in the profession, the contests between the two were numerous and at times most exciting, enlisting the sympathies of their personal and political friends and adherents. Among those who were stu- dents-at-law in the office of Mr. Weeks may be mentioned Ex-Chief Justice Jon- athan E. Sargent of Concord, as well as his present partner, William M. Chase, Esq., also, William T. Norris of Danbury, and Caleb and Isaac N. Blodgett, the former now a lawyer of Boston and the latter of Franklin. Judge Sargent com- menced practice in Canaan as a partner of Mr. Weeks, remaining some three years, until 1847, when he removed to Wentworth. Isaac N. Blodgett also en- tered professional life as Mr. Weeks' partner, shortly before his retirement from practice.
Mr. Weeks married, in 1833, Mary Eliz- abeth Doe, only daughter and eldest child of Joseph Doe, Esq., of Somers- worth, now Rollinsford, and a sister of Hon. Charles Doe, present Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New Hamp- shire. Joseph Doe was a well-known merchant of Salmon Falls, but a native and former resident of Newmarket, who married Mary Elizabeth Ricker, daugh- ter of Capt. Ebenezer Ricker of Somers- worth, from whose family also came the wife of John P. Hale. By this union he had five children, three sons and two daughters, The eldest being Joseph Doe Weeks, the subject of this sketch, the second William B. Weeks, Esq., a lawyer of Lebanon, and the third Marshall H. Weeks, now residing at Fairbury, Neb., where he is extensively engaged in ag- riculture and the lnmber trade. The daughters, Mary Elizabeth and Susan H. Weeks, the youngest of the children, ac-
��complished young ladies, still remain at home in Canaan, though usually spend- ing the winter abroad, either at the South or West.
Joseph Doe Weeks was born October 23, 1837, being now in the forty-first year of his age. In early life he attended the district school and Canaan Academy. Subsequently he spent some time at the Academies at Meriden and South Ber- wick, Me., but returned home and com- pleted his preparation for college at Ca- naan Academy, the principal at that time being Burrill Porter, Jr., of Langdon, an accomplished teacher, whose life has since been devoted to that occupation, and who is now principal of the High School at North Attleboro, Mass. Mr. Porter, by the way, graduated at Dart- mouth in the class of 1856, Gov. B. F. Prescott, and Caleb Blodgett, before- mentioned, being members of the same class. Mr. Blodgett, who was a Canaan boy, was a brilliant scholar and the lead- er of his class. In this connection it may properly be remarked that Canaan Acad- emy, which was incorporated in 1839, was, for many years a popular institution of learning, with a large attendance of students from that and neighboring towns, and from abroad. Ex-Chief Jus- tice Sargent was one of the early prin- cipals of this institution. Subsequently Hon. Levi W. Barton of Newport, then pursuing the study of law in the office of Judge Kittredge, became its princi- pal. Mr. Barton was recently heard to remark, in speaking of this school, that while he was principal there were seven promising young men in attendance who afterward became members of the legal profession. These were Caleb and I. N. Blodgett, and William M. Chase, before mentioned, Joseph D. Weeks, the sub- ject of this sketch, and his brother, Wil- liam B., Delavan Kittredge, a son of Judge Kittredge, now a lawyer in New York city, and W. A. Flanders, now of Wentworth. In these days there were from 150 to 200 students in attendance at the Academy. Latterly the school has declined in numbers and prestige, and there are now but two terms a year — &pring and autumn — with an average at-
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