Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1889, volume 6).djvu/657

Rh ducing steam as a motive power for canal-boats, building several experimental engines, which were operated successfully.

WRIGHT, Carroll Davidson, statistician, b. in Dunbarton, N. H., 25 July, 1840. He was educated in New Hampshire and Vermont, and began the study of law. At the beginning of the civil war he enlisted in the 14th New Hampshire regiment, of which he became colonel in December, 1864. After serving as acting assistant adjutant-general under Gen. Philip H. Sheridan, he resigned in March, 1865, and was admitted to the New Hampshire bar in October. His health led to his removal to Massachusetts, where he was in the state senate in 1871-'2, during which time he secured the passage of a bill to provide for the establishment of workingmen's trains to Boston from the suburban districts. He was chief of the state bureau of statistics of labor in 1873-'88, and in 1880 was appointed supervisor of the U. S. census in Massachusetts, being also special agent of the census on the factory system. In 1885 he was commissioned by the governor to investigate the public records of the towns, parishes, counties, and courts of that state, and in January, 1885, he was made first commissioner of the bureau of labor in the interior department in Washington, which office had been created in June, 1884. Col. Wright was a Republican presidential elector in 1876. In 1875 and again in 1885 he had charge of the decennial census of Massachusetts. He was lecturer during 1879 on phases of the labor question, ethically considered, at the Lowell institute in Boston, Mass., and during 1881 university lecturer on the factory system at Harvard. He is a member of various scientific societies and has been recording secretary of the American statistical association and president of the American social science association. The degree of A. M. was given him by Tufts college in 1883. Col. Wright has published &ldquo;Annual Reports of the Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor&rdquo; (15 vols., Boston, 1873-'88); &ldquo;Census of Massachusetts&rdquo; (3 vols., 1876-7); &ldquo;The Statistics of Boston&rdquo; (1882); &ldquo;The Factory System of the United States&rdquo; (Washington 1882); &ldquo;The Census of Massachusetts&rdquo; (4 vols., Boston, l887-'8); &ldquo;Reports of U. S. Commissioner of Labor,&rdquo; including &ldquo;Industrial Depressions&rdquo; (Washington, 1886); &ldquo;Convict Labor&rdquo; (1886); and &ldquo;Strikes and Lockouts&rdquo; (1887); also numerous pamphlets, including &ldquo;The Relation of Political Economy to the Labor Question&rdquo; (Boston, 1882); &ldquo;The Factory System as an Element in Civilization&rdquo; (1882); &ldquo;Scientific Basis of Tariff Legislation&rdquo; (1884); &ldquo;The Present Actual Condition of the Workingman&rdquo; (1887); &ldquo;The Study of Statistics in Colleges&rdquo; (1887); &ldquo;Problems of the Census&rdquo; (1887); &ldquo;Hand Labor in Prisons&rdquo; (1887); &ldquo;Historical Sketch of the Knights of Labor&rdquo; (1887); and &ldquo;The Growth and Purposes of Bureaus of Statistics of Labor&rdquo; (1888).

WRIGHT, Charles Barstow, financier, b. in Bradford county, Pa., 8 Jan., 1822. He embarked in business at fifteen, and at nineteen was taken as a partner by his employer. In 1843 he received from the Towanda bank a trust of landed interests in the then small town of Chicago, and in two years he not only fulfilled this mission successfully, but realized handsome profits in Chicago real estate for himself. In 1863 he engaged actively in developing the petroleum interests of Pennsylvania. In 1870, as director and afterward as president, he undertook the work of pushing the Northern Pacific railroad to completion. After the road had been built to Missouri river, and eastward from

the Pacific about 100 miles, Jay Cooke and Co., the fiscal agents, failed, during the panic of 1873 that took place, and the completed parts were not paying expenses. Mr. Wright afterward assisted in the reorganization by which the road was completed to Puget sound. In 1873 he took an active part in founding the city of Tacoma, which now has a population of 15,000. He endowed the Annie Wright seminary for girls, and Washington college for boys, at Tacoma, and has been noted for his generosity to young men.

WRIGHT, Chauncey, mathematician, b. in Northampton, Mass., 20 Sept., 1830; d. in Cambridge, Mass., 12 Sept., 1875. He was graduated at Harvard in 1852, and at once became a computer for the recently established &ldquo;American Ephemeris and Nautical Almanac&rdquo; in Cambridge. His occasional contributions to the &ldquo;Mathematical Monthly&rdquo; and similar journals soon gained for him reputation as a mathematician and physicist. Gradually his attention became fixed upon the questions in metaphysics and philosophy that are presented in their latest form in the works of John Stuart Mill, Charles Darwin, Alexander Bain, Herbert Spencer, and others, and he prepared a series of philosophical essays for the &ldquo;North American Review,&rdquo; which continued until within a few months before his death. These are regarded by Charles Eliot Norton as &ldquo;the most important contribution made in America to the discussion and investigation of the questions which now chiefly engage the attention of the students of philosophy.&rdquo; In 1870 he delivered a course of university lectures at Harvard on the principles of psychology, and in 1874-'5 he was instructor there in mathematical physics. He was appointed recording secretary of the American academy of arts and sciences in 1863, and held that office for seven years. His writings were collected by Charles Eliot Norton and published, with a biographical sketch, as &ldquo;Philosophical Discussions&rdquo; (New York, 1877).

WRIGHT, Elizur, reformer, b. in South Canaan, Conn., 12 Feb., 1804; d. in Medford, Mass., 21 Nov., 1885. His father, Elizur (1762-1845), was graduated at Yale in 1781, and became known for his mathematical learning and devotion to the Presbyterian faith. In 1810 the family removed to Tallmadge, Ohio, and the son worked on the farm and attended an academy that was conducted by his father. His home was often the refuge for fugitive slaves, and he early acquired anti-slavery opinions. He was graduated at Yale in 1826, and taught in Groton, Mass. In 1829-'33 he was professor of mathematics and natural philosophy in Western Reserve college, Hudson, Ohio. Mr. Wright attended the convention in Philadelphia in December, 1833, that formed the American anti-slavery society, of which he was chosen secretary, and, removing to New York, he took part in editing the &ldquo;Emancipator.&rdquo; He conducted the paper called &ldquo;Human Rights&rdquo; in 1834-'5, and the &ldquo;Quarterly Anti-Slavery