History of Salisbury Vermont 1860 John M Weeks SIGNED by Emily Goss Davenport Weeks co-inventor of electric motor ~Addison County ~Brandon

Title: History of Salisbury, Vermont. With a memoir of the author.

Author: John M. [Moseley] Weeks / [edited with a preface by George A. Weeks]

Description: Inscribed by Vermont native and co-inventor of the electric motor, the author's wife, Emily (Goss) Davenport Weeks. Rebound in brown buckram with gilt lettering on spine and new endpapers. Previous owner's bookplate on front pastedown. Pages foxed. Four engraved plates with tissue guards, including the frontispiece portrait of author. xii, (9)-362 pp.

The inscription appears on the flyleaf preceding the frontispiece: ''Franklin B. Goss, / Omro, Wis. / A token of love, to a / dear brother, from / your affectionate / sister. / Mrs. John M. Weeks''. The inscription was made by Emily (Goss) Davenport Weeks (1802-1862) of Brandon Vermont, who with her first husband, Thomas Davenport, invented the electric motor in 1834, patented in 1837. She was an educated woman and played in key role in the invention process, kept detailed notes, used strips of silk from her wedding dress to insulate the wire windings, and significantly, recommended the use of mercury as a conductor. Following the death of Thomas Davenport in 1851, she married John M. Weeks in 1856. Her inscription is made to her brother, Franklin B. Goss (1812-1883), who had moved from Brandon, Vermont to Wisconsin in the early 1850s.

The author, John Moseley Weeks (1788-1858), the son of Holland Weeks, was born in Litchfield, Connecticut and moved with his parents to Salisbury in 1789, where he lived until his death. He was personally acquainted with most of Salisbury's early settlers. He was an agriculturalist and beekeeper and constantly sought improvements through experiment, took an early role in the establishment of the Addison County Agricultural Society, was frequent contributor to the leading New England agriculture journals, and in 1836 invented the ''Vermont beehive''. In 1837, he published ''A Manual; or An easy method of managing bees''.

This copy also has notes on a flyleaf which give the dates on which the author and his son George were each raised, in Union Lodge No. 2, A.F. & A.M., Middlebury, Vermont.

Binding: Hardcover
Condition: Very Good

Publisher: Published by A. H. Copeland
Place: Middlebury, Vt.
Year: 1860

Keywords: Addison County, Vermont, Emily Goss Davenport,