Bio: Brackett, Herbert I. (History - 1859)

Contact: Janet Schwarze

Surnames: BRACKETT BROWN WHITNEY HOPKINS WILLIAMS

----Source: From the Biographical History of Clark and Jackson Counties, Wisconsin published by The Lewis Publishing Company in 1891 pages 203 - 204.

HERBERT I. BRACKETT, attorney and counselor at law of Black River Falls, is the present District Attorney of Jackson County, to which position he was elected November 4, 1890. He was born in the village of China, Kennebec County, Maine, December 18, 1859. In 1863, his father, James H. Brackett, emigrated with his family to Wisconsin and settled in Monroe County, where he still resides. James H. Brackett was born in the State of Maine in 1807, and belongs to an early New England family. His grandfather was born in the State of Massachusetts in 1717, and died in 1817 he was a soldier in the French and Indian war, but was too old for service in the war of the Revolution. James H. Brackett married Rose Brown, also a native of Kennebec County, and of an old New England family. She was born in Brooks, Maine, in 1830 her father, Seth Brown, was born in Stoddard, New Hampshire, in 1790, and died in 1846, in China, Maine. His father was a native of the north of Ireland and came to this country when a young man, serving several years in the Continental army of the war of the Revolution.

The maternal grandmother of Herbert I. Brackett was Hannah Whitney she was born at Gorham, Maine, in 1794, and became the wife of Seth Brown. Her mother was Phoebe Hopkins, who was born near Cape Cod, Massachusetts, in 1760, and married Asa Whitney. She was in Boston when that city was in possession of the British, and while it was besieged by General Washington, and at the surrender of the British forces. Asa Whitney, her husband, served as Major in a Massachusetts regiment in the Continental Army, and her father and two brothers were also soldiers in the same army. She was a niece of Stephen Hopkins, one of the immortal signers of the Declaration of Independence. She died at the advanced age of ninety-seven years, and for many years drew a pension from the Government in acknowledgment of the service rendered by her husband.

James H. Brackett followed the occupation of farming until the age of fifty-three years, when he went into the hotel business later he embarked in the mercantile trade, but is now practically retired from business. He and his wife had born to them tow sons and one daughter Myron, Mary (deceased) and Herbert I.

The last named, the subject of this sketch, was brought up in Monroe County, Wisconsin, where he attended the common-schools of Cataract until the age of seventeen years He then entered the Galesville University, where he pursued his studies for three years then a year was spent in the Normal School of Valporaiso, Indiana for three years after leaving school he was engaged in the profession of teaching in Monroe County, but in 1884 he entered the law office of Judge George M. Perry, of Black River Falls, and in March, 1887, he was admitted to the bar of Jackson County. He is now associated with Judge Perry, with whom a partnership was formed in 1889. He was elected Justice of the Peace in 1885, on the people's ticket, and re-elected in 1887. Politically he is a Democrat, his ancestors for several generations having been Democrats of the Jeffersonian school. He belongs to the Knights of Pythias, Banner Lodge, No. 34 his also a member of Shamrock Lodge, I.O.O.F. Although one of the younger members of the Jackson County bar, he has already attained an excellent reputation as a lawyer. He is a gentleman of much native ability, and is highly esteemed and respected as a citizen.
Mr. Brackett was united in Marriage June 14, 1886, in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, and a daughter of the Rev. David R. Williams. One daughter has been born to this marriage-Corrinne.