Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1889, volume 6).djvu/662

626 remission in the treatment of malarial remittent fevers. This method of treatment is now admitted to be of great value. He contributed to medical literature, and published articles in the " Southern Medical Reports."

WRIGHT, Luther, educator, b. in Easthamp- ton, Mass., 24 Nov., 1796; d. there, 5 Sept., 1870. After graduation at Yale in 1822, he was principal of an academy in Maryland for two years, and then returned to Yale, where he served as a tutor, and studied theology. Subsequently he taught in Middletown and Ellington, Conn., and was princi- pal of the academy in Leicester, Mass., in 1833-'9. He was the first principal of Williston seminary, which he organized (see Williston, Samuel), serv- ing from 1841 till 1849, when he resigned, but for several years gave instruction to private pupils. Mr. Wright published an address at the dedication of the academy building in Leicester (1833), and a historical sketch of Easthampton (1851).

WRIGHT, Milton, bishop of the United Brethren in Christ, b. in Rush county, Ind., 17 Nov., 1828. He was graduated at Hartsville col- lege in 1853, and in 1855-6 was pastor of the Church of the United Brethren in Indianapolis. He was ordained in the latter year, and, after hold- ing a charge at Andersonville, Ind., in 1856-'7, he went as missionary to Oregon, where he was pas- tor at Sublimity, and president of Sublimity col- lege, a denominational institution, in 1857-9. From 1859 till 1869 he served in the itinerancy in the White river conference, during which he was presiding elder and pastor in Hartsville, Ind., and also professor of theology in Hartsville college in 1868-'9. In 1877 he became bishop, and until 1881 held that position in the western Mississippi district. In 1881-'5 he was presiding elder in the White river conference, and in the latter year he was re-elected bishop for a term of four years and sent to the Pacific coast district. Westfield col- lege, 111., gave him the degree of D. D. in 1878. He was editor of the " Religious Telescope," the organ of his church, in 1868-'9, and editor and fublisher of " The Richmond Star," Richmond, nd.. in 1883-'5, and has published several tracts.

WRIGHT, Rebecca McPherson, spy, b. near Winchester, Va., 31 Jan., 1838. She was a Quak- er, and her father, Amos Wright, died in a Con- federate prison early in the civil war. Her fam- ily was one of the few of Union sentiment that remained in Winchester, Va., during that period. On 16 Sept., 1864, she received a note from Gen. Philip H. Sheridan, which was conveved to her wrapped in a small wad of tin-foil, and carried in the mouth of a negro messenger. It read thus: " Can you inform me of the position of Early's forces, the number of divisions in his army, and the strength of all or any of them, and his proba- ble or reported intentions ? Have any more troops arrived from Richmond, or are any more coming, or reported to be coming f " Having been told of the position of the Confederate army by a wound- ed Confederate officer, who visited her two even- ings previously, she sent a reply to Gen. Sheridan, describing the number of troops and their situa- tion, and upon her information he directed the at- tack on Winchester. After the battle she was thanked in person by Gen. Sheridan, who always spoke of her as his "little Quaker girl," and in 1867 sent her a gold watch as a memento. In 1871 she married William C. Bonsai, and she has held a clerkship in the United States treasury depart- ment at Washington since 1868.

WRIGHT, Robert, governor of Maryland, b. in Kent county, Md., about 1765 ; d. in Queens- town, Md., 7 Sept., 1826. After receiving a public- school education he studied law, was admitted to the bar, and practised in Queenstown. Being elected to the U. S. senate as a Democrat, he served from 7 Dec, 1801, till 1806, when he re- signed. From 1806 till 1809 he was governor of the state. After being in congress from 3 Dec, 1810, till 3 March, 1817, and again from 3 Dec, 1821, till 3 March, 1823, he was appointed district judge of Kent county.

WRIGHT, Robert Emmet, lawyer, b. in Al- lentown. Pa., in 1810. He was educated at Allen- town academy, studied law and was admitted to the bar. and has practised in his native town. He is the author of many essays on constitutional re- form, and has published practical digest* of the laws of Pennsylvania on " Aldermen and Justices of the Peace" (Philadelphia, 1839); "The Office and Duties of Constable" (1840); the "Reported Cases determined in the Several Courts of Pennsyl- vania from Mav Term. 1836, till December, 1841 " (1842); and " Pennsvlvania State Reports" (14 vols., 1861-6). He has edited William Graydon's "Forms of Conveyancing" (1845); Samuel Rob- erts's "Digest of Select British Statutes" (1847) ; and F. Carroll Brewster's " Reports at Law and in Equitv"(1847).

WRIGHT, Robert William, author, b. in Ludlow, Vt., 22 Feb., 1816; d. in Cleveland. Ohio. 9 Jan., 1885. His grandfather, Stephen, was the fourth in descent from Capt. Edward Wright, of Concord, Mass., who came to this country from Bromwick, England, in 1645. After graduation at Harvard in 1842, he taught in the public grammar- schools in Boston, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1845. He then went to Wisconsin and practised his profession in Waukesha until 1856, and in 1852 declined the Whig nomination for congress fnyn that district. In 1856-'9 he re- sided in Waterbury, Conn., where he practised law, edited the Waterbury "Journal." and served one year as judge of probate. He edited the Hartford "Daily Post" in 1858, the New Haven "Daily News " from 1859, and afterward the Richmond, Va., " State Journal." Afterward he removed to Cheshire, Conn., which was his home until his death. He invented two successful newspaper ad- dressers, for which he obtained patents, and de- voted his leisure to astronomv and literature. He read papers before the New Haven colony histori- cal society, contributed to magazines, and printed numerous satirical poems. He published "The Church Knaviad, or Horace in West Haven, by Horatius Flaccus," a satirical mock-heroic poem (New Haven, 1864) ; " The Vision of Judgment, or the South Church, Ecclesiastical Councils viewed from Celestial and Satanic Standpoints by Que- vedo Redivivus " (1867) ; " The Pious Chi-Neh, or a Veritable History of the Great Election Fraud, done into Verse by U Bet," a humorous pasquinade on the election of 1871 in Connecticut (1872) ; and " Life : its True Genesis." a refutation of the Dar- winian theory (New York, 1880). Mr. Wright was also the author of "Practical Legal Forms" (Mil- waukee, 1852).

WRIGHT, Rufus, artist, b. in Cleveland. Ohio, in 1832. He was a pupil at the National academy, and studied also for a time under George A. Baker. His professional life has been spent in New York, Washington, and Brooklyn. In 1866 he was made a member of the Brooklyn academy of design. His portraits include those of Roger B. Taney, Edwin M. Stanton, and William H. Seward. About 1875 he turned his attention also to the painting of composition pictures, and has pro-