Broughton D., son of Wilder Harris, born August 16, 1822, married Sarah Buel Hollister, March 24, 1851. He graduated from Dartmouth college in 1845, studied law in the office of Hon. Asa- Keyes, of Brattleboro, and then engaged in the newspaper business, being editor of the Vermont Phoenix for a while, and, for several years, of the Semi-Weekly Eagle. In the spring Of 1851 he went to Utah as the first secretary of that territory, Brigham Young being at that time governor of the same. After he left Utah he was appointed secretary and acting governor of New Mexico, but this appointment he declined. In 1847, ’48 and’49, he was register of probate for Windham county, Vt., and a member of the Vermont senate in 1860 and 1861, being also chairman of the senate committee on military affairs. He was a member of the “Peace Congress,” which assembled at Washington in 1860 and ’61. For a number of years he has been extensively engaged in the construction of railways. Mr. B. D. Harris was one of the incorporators of the Brattleboro Savings bank, has been a trustee from the beginning, and for several years has been, and now is, its president. He was delegate at large from Vermont to the Republican National Convention in 1884. Mr. Harris is of positive, energetic, and self-reliant type, quick to see and prompt to do, punctual in the discharge of all his obligations, straightforward and fairminded, and inspires implicit confidence in those with whom he comes in contact. Liberal and public spirited, he is always ready to promote social order and morality. Concise and fluent of style, he wields a vigorous and pungent pen, and has contributed largely to the public press for the past thirty years. His articles have aided in the right settlement of many controversies, and have powerfully assisted many valuable public enterprises. As a public speaker, he is direct, earnest, forcible; endowed with the power of tone and graceful utterance; and of such characteristics as would have raised him to high rank among legal advocates had he associated himself with them. He is now in the prime of mature manhood, and in the full vigor of mental and physical power. Education and experience have made him emphatically a man of affairs, of correct personal habits, and of sound moral and political principles his influence is uniformly enlisted on the right side.
