Henry R. Start (December 28, 1845 – November 7, 1905) was a

Vermont Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to ...

lawyer A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solic ...

, judge, and politician who served as

Speaker Speaker may refer to: Society and politics * Speaker (politics), the presiding officer in a legislative assembly * Public speaker, one who gives a speech or lecture * A person producing speech: the producer of a given utterance, especially: ** In ...

of the

Vermont House of Representatives The Vermont House of Representatives is the lower house of the Vermont General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Vermont. The House comprises 150 members, with each member representing around 4,100 citizens. Representatives ar ...

and an associate justice of the

Vermont Supreme Court The Vermont Supreme Court is the highest judicial authority of the U.S. state of Vermont. Unlike most other states, the Vermont Supreme Court hears appeals directly from the trial courts, as Vermont has no intermediate appeals court. The Court ...

Biography

Start was born in

Bakersfield, Vermont Bakersfield is a town in Franklin County, Vermont, United States. The population was 1,273 at the 2020 census. Geography Bakersfield is located in southeastern Franklin County, bordered by Lamoille County to the southeast. Vermont Route 108 pass ...

, on December 28, 1845, the son of Simeon Gould and Mary Sophia (Barnes) Start. He attended Bakersfield and Barre Academies. His older brother Charles M. Start served as chief justice of the

Minnesota Supreme Court The Minnesota Supreme Court is the Supreme court, highest court in the U.S. state of Minnesota. The court hears cases in the Supreme Court chamber in the Minnesota State Capitol or in the nearby Minnesota Judicial Center. History The court wa ...

. He joined the

Union Army During the American Civil War, the Union Army, also known as the Federal Army and the Northern Army, referring to the United States Army, was the land force that fought to preserve the Union (American Civil War), Union of the collective U.S. st ...

in 1865, near the end of the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

, and served in Company A, 3rd Vermont Volunteer Infantry. Discharged in July 1865, he returned to Franklin County and

read law Reading law was the method used in common law countries, particularly the United States, for people to prepare for and enter the legal profession before the advent of law schools. It consisted of an extended internship or apprenticeship under the ...

under M. R. Tyler. He was

admitted to the bar An admission to practice law is acquired when a lawyer receives a license to practice law. In jurisdictions with two types of lawyer, as with barristers and solicitors, barristers must gain admission to the bar whereas for solicitors there are dist ...

St. Albans St Albans () is a cathedral city in Hertfordshire, England, east of Hemel Hempstead and west of Hatfield, north-west of London, south-west of Welwyn Garden City and south-east of Luton. St Albans was the first major town on the old Roman r ...

in 1867. Start commenced practice in Bakersfield and formed a

partnership A partnership is an arrangement where parties, known as business partners, agree to cooperate to advance their mutual interests. The partners in a partnership may be individuals, businesses, interest-based organizations, schools, governments o ...

, Cross & Start, with A. P. Cross of St. Albans. A

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

, he served as

State's Attorney In the United States, a district attorney (DA), county attorney, state's attorney, prosecuting attorney, commonwealth's attorney, or state attorney is the chief prosecutor and/or chief law enforcement officer representing a U.S. state in a loc ...

for Franklin County from 1876 to 1878. Start served in the

Vermont Senate The Vermont Senate is the upper house of the Vermont General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Vermont. The senate consists of 30 members. Senate districting divides the 30 members into three single-member districts, six two-m ...

in 1880 and served on the Judiciary committee and as chairman of the joint standing committee on the reform school. He was a Trustee of the Vermont Reform School from December 1880 to December 1888. Start served as a

presidential elector The United States Electoral College is the group of presidential electors required by the Constitution to form every four years for the sole purpose of appointing the president and vice president. Each state and the District of Columbia appo ...

in the election of 1888, and cast his ballot for

Benjamin Harrison Benjamin Harrison (August 20, 1833March 13, 1901) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 23rd president of the United States from 1889 to 1893. He was a member of the Harrison family of Virginia–a grandson of the ninth pr ...

. In 1890 Start served in the

. He was elected

, but resigned after being elected an associate justice of the

. Start served on the court until his death. He died at his home in Bakersfield on November 7, 1905 and was buried in Bakersfield's Maple Grove Cemetery. He was succeeded on the Vermont Supreme Court by Willard W. Miles.

Family

He was a Congregationalist. He married Ellen S. Houghton on June 10, 1869. Their children included Simeon Gould (b. 1870), Guy H. (b. 1873), Mabel (b. 1878), and Burdette (b. 1885).William Augustus Start
A Genealogical Record of the Start Family in America
1894, page 22

References

External links

a
''Political Graveyard''Henry R. Start
a
''Vermont in the Civil War''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Start, Henry R. 1845 births 1905 deaths People from Bakersfield, Vermont American Congregationalists Republican Party members of the Vermont House of Representatives Vermont lawyers State's attorneys in Vermont Speakers of the Vermont House of Representatives Republican Party Vermont state senators Justices of the Vermont Supreme Court Union Army soldiers Burials in Vermont U.S. state supreme court judges admitted to the practice of law by reading law 19th-century American legislators 19th-century American judges