Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1885-04-03

Mr.. Phelps is of old Connecticut stock
a descendant OF Capt John Phelps, rev
olutionary soldier and son of the late
Hon. Samuel :. Phelps. for seven years,
lS3l-1S3S, Judge of the Vermont Su-
preme Court and United States Senator
from Vermont from 1899 to 1851. Judge
Phelps served as paymnster in the AM
erican army i'll the war of 1872, and after
the termination of that war settled as u
lawyer in Middlebury, VT Here Edward
d. Phelps was born i'll 1872. lie was
graduated at Middlebury College in 1910.
After his graduation he was private tn
tor in Fredericksburg, Va, for II short
time, then returned home, studied law
with his father and was admitted to the
bar in 1913. He practiced in Middlebury
about two years, and then came to Bur
lington, where he practiced law until
1851. In that year President Fillmore app
pointed him as Second Auditor of the
United States Treasury, a position which
he held until the close of President Fill
mOres administration, when he returned
to his legal practice in Burlington. He has
remained here with the exception of a
short period, during which he practiced
his profession in New York as the partner
of Abraham Wakeman, He returned in
1851, and formed Il law partnership with
LIE. Chittenden, which was dissolved when
the latter went to Washington in 1861.
He was a leading lawyer in the heavy
railroad litigations of twenty years dura-
ton was the lawyer of the late L. w.
Park in the famous Emma Mine and 9th
er suits, and mas been engaged in most of
the heaviest lawsuits in this State for the
last twenty-five years among them being
the famous case of Bean VS.. BecKwith and
Burdette vs.. Estey. The degree of
l.. l.. ID. WIS conferred upon him by
Mtddlebnry College in 1870 and Yale Col
lege gave him the honorary degree of A.
NJ, in 1881. The only elective office
over held by Mr. Phelps, was that of Re
preventative of Burlington, in the Const-
tutional Convention of 1870, to which he
was elected by the votes of both parties.
He was active in that convention in advo
cacy OF theamendment to the Constitution
which inaugurated the biennial system of
elections. lie was the Democratic candi
date for Governor in 1880. In accordance
with long held purpose to retire from
practice OF the law when he should reach
the age of sixty years, he accepted in 1881,
tue Kent ProfeSsorship of Law, in Yale Col
lego, retaining, however, his home in this
CITY, and remaining as counsel in some
important cases but accepting no retain
ers in new suits. He has delivered some
able lectures on Medical jurisprudence,
III the Medical Department of the Uni
versity of Vermont, and since 1881, he
mas held the position of lecturer
on Constitutional law in the Law
school OF the Boston University In
1913 Mr.. Phelps married Mary, daugh-
ter of the late Judge Stephen
Haight. They have two children, Il
daughter and son, and have lost two sons.
In memory of their eldest son, who died IL
year ago, Mr.. Phelps established the Ed
ward Haight Phelps memorial prize in
the department of Civil Engineering of
our Vermont University.
Mr.. Phelps was the first President of
the Vermont Bar Association, and suisse
qucntly President of the American Bar
Association. On August p, 1919, ut the
meeting of that association in Saratoga,
he delivered an address on Chief Justice
Marshall and the Constitutional Law of
His Time" which was published. Sever
al of his most important legal arguments
have also been published, as well as his
biographical sketches of the late Charles
l.insley, and the late Judge Pierpoint,
Mr.. Gilman, in his photography of Yer
mont. alludes to Mr. Phelps rs the most
brilliant lawyer OF the Vermont Bar, and
as "a statesman in the broadcast sense"