Governor John Eliakim Weeks

JOHN ELIAKIM WEEKS was born in Salisbury, Vermont, where he was educated in the public schools. He farmed and settled estates for a living until 1892, when he became involved in the business of pressing and shipping hay. Several years later, he moved to Middlebury, Vermont, where he remained until his death. He was president of the Addison County Trust Company and director of Brandon National Bank and the National Bank of Middlebury. His public service began in 1884, when he became Assistant Judge of Addison County. Four years later, he became a member of the state legislature, serving in both the House and Senate over the next thirty years. Public appointments that he received included trustee of the State Industrial School (which was later named the Weeks School in his honor), chairman of the Vermont Penal Board, and Vermont’s first Commissioner of Welfare. Weeks became the first governor elected to a second two-year term. During his administration, Vermont suffered a serious flood, for which the state received more than $8 million for flood relief. Weeks also made good on his promise to surface forty-nine miles of road annually on a pay-as-you-go basis. After his second term ended, he was elected to Congress from Vermont’s First Congressional District, but lost his seat when the district was abolished through redistricting.