A FAITHFUL EMPLOYEE.
As a Railroad Employee, Mr. Ezra G. Wight has Won the Esteem of His Associates; and in Social Life the Friendship and Admiration of Our Most Worth Citizens.
It gives us much pleasure to this week present our readers with an excellent portrait, of one of our most respected citizens, Mr. Ezra G. Wight. It took considerable persuasion (and we thought at one time a club would be needed) to secure Mr. Wight’s permission to use his picture and print a brief sketch of his career. People kept asking us when Mr. Wight’s picture would appear—and we believe, under the circumstances, a jury would have acquitted us if we had been obliged to resort to force in the matter. But Mr. Wight says, “Make the sketch part short,” and as diligent “pumping” of him for material for the sketch has failed to bring forth more than meager facts, we are compelled to follow his instructions.
Although Mr. Wight was born in the town of Danby, October 10, 1850, he is best known to our people during the past quarter of a century, while he has been in charge of the railroad station in this village. He is the son of Gilbert and Almira Wight, and the fifth son of their nine children, all of whom are living with the exception of two. When about eight years old Mr. Wight’s parents removed from Danby to North Dorset, and from that time until he reached his seventeenth year, the young man was busily employed upon the farm and in lumber mills at East Clarendon, Wells and Dorset.
In the fall of 1867 Mr. Wight commenced his railroading career as brakeman, and for the succeeding three years he was employed in that capacity and as baggageman and fireman. In 1870 his faithful and industrious services found recognition in his promotion to a conductorship, and for six years he filled that position to the eminent satisfaction of the officials of the road and the traveling public.
In December, 1873, Mr. Wight was married to Miss Jennie H. Wager of Brainard, N. Y., and in March, 1876, returned to Danby to reside, having received the appointment as agent of the railroad company, the National Express Co. and the Western Union Telegraph Co. The position was always a hard and confining one, and of late years the duties have become mere and more laborious each year, till on March 4 of this year, after twenty-six years of continuous service in the same capacity, he was compelled to ask the company for a furlough, in which to regain his lost health, if possible. Being naturally diligent and conscientious in the performance of his duties, he undoubtedly neglected his health rather than relax his efforts for his employees. We are pleased to be able to state, however, that Mr. Wight is now greatly improved in health—so much so, in fact, that he has about given up a contemplated trip to California, with a view of locating there as a health-giving measure.
During Mr. Wight’s residence here he has built himself a nice home, which is possessed with all the modern conveniences, and it is the wish of his neighbors and friends that he and his estimable wife be able to live here many years more to enjoy it. Mr. and Mrs. Wight take active interest in church and educational work, as well as all other things that tend toward the welfare of the community, and their removal from here would be a loss that would occasion many regrets.
Mr. Wight was chosen by the people of Danby as their representative in the state legislature Of 1894-95, and he was twice elected a member of the town school board, serving four years in that capacity. Altogether his career has been a most commendable one—and all the more so when it is know that his success has been entirely earned by his own individual effort. He is self-reliant and independent, and has virtually “hewed his own way”—which has ever been an upward one.