Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 10.djvu/489

 WRIGHT

WRIGHT

American Statistical association and member of many other scientific societies in America and Europe. He is the author of : Factory System of the United States (Vol. II., U.S. census report, 1880) ; The Relation of Political Economy to the Labor Question (1883); The Social, Commercial and Manufacturing Statistics of the City of Boston (1882) ; History of Wages and Prices in 3Iassaehusetts, 1753-1SS3 (ISSo); Tlie Industrial Evolution of the United States (1887) ; The Pub- lic Records of Parishes, Towns and Counties in Massachusetts (1S89); Outline of Practical Socio- ology (1899) ; History and Growth of the U.S. Census ; statistical reports of Massachusetts for 15 years, and for the United United States depart- ment of Labor for 19 years ; Some Ethical Phases of the Labor Question (1902).

WRIGHT, Elizur, abolitionist, was born in South Canaan, Conn., Feb. 12, 1804 ; son of Elizur Wright (1762-1845). His father, Yale, A.B., 1781, A.M., 1783, removed to Tallmadge, Ohio, in 1810, where he conducted an academy, which Elizur, Jr., attended until he entered Yale, from which he was graduated, A.B., 1826. He taught in Lawrence academy, Groton, Mass., 1826-28; was married in 1829, and was professor of mathe- matics and physics in Western Reserve college, Hudson, Ohio, 1829-33. He removed to New York city in 1833, where he edited the Emancipator, Human Rights, 1834-35, and the Quarterly Anti- Slavery Magazine, 1835-38, also serving as secre- tary and as a member of the executive committee of the American Anti-slaveiy society, of which he was a founder in 1833. As a result of his de- termined opposition to the institution of slavery, his house in Brooklyn, N.Y., was mobbed, and in 1838 betook refuge in Boston. Mass., where he edited the Massachusetts Abolitionist and Tlie Free American, 1841. and- in 1846. with Samuel G. Howe (q.v.) and Frank W. Bird, established the Chronotype, which materially aided the anti- slavery cause, and was succeeded by the Com- monwealth in 1850, with which Mr. Wright con- tinued as editor for a short time. He edited the Railroad Times, 1853-58 ; was insurance commis- sioner of Massachusetts, 1858-66, and was subse- quently actively interested in all important na- tional questions, economic, industrial and politi- cal. He was influential in founding the Liberty party in 1840, and in securing the passage of the Massachusetts non-forfeiture act of 1861, and its successor, 1880 ; an organizer of the National Liberal league in 1876, serving three times as its president ; a member of the Forestry associa- tion, the passage of the state forestry act being largely due to his efforts, and devoted much time to mechanical inventions, patenting a water- faucet and an improvement in pipe-coupling, and also an ' ' arithmeter " in 1869. He translated

La Fontaine's "Fables" (2 vols., 1841; 2d ed., 1859); and is the author of: A Curiosity of Law (1866); Savings Bank Life Lisurance, with Illus- trative Tables (1872); The Politics and Mysteries of Life Lisurances (1873), and Myron Holley (1882); also numerous pamphlets and reports. He died in Medford, Mass., Nov. 22, 1885.

WRIGHT, George Frederick, geologist, was born in Whiteliall, N.Y., Jan. 22, 1838; son of Walter and Mary Peabody (Colburn) AVright ; grandson of Enoch and Tryphena (West) Wright, and of Stephen and Ann (Wasson) Colburn. He was graduated from Oberlin, Ohio, A.B., 1859, A.M., 1862, and from Oberlin Theological semi- nar}- in 1862. He was a private in Companj- C, 7th Ohio volunteers, for five months in 1861, when he was discharged for physical incapacity. He was married, Aug. 28, 1862, to Huldah Maria, daughter of AVilliam and Augusta (Burrell) Day of Sheffield, Ohio. He was pastor at Bakers- field, Vt., 1862-72, and at Andover, Mass., 1873- 81. In 1881 he returned to Oberlin as professor of New Testament language and literature at the Theological seminary, and in 1892 changed to the chair of the harmony of science and religion. He also served as assistant geologist in the Penn- sylvania survey, 1881-82 ; in the employ of the Western Reserve Historical society in the survey of the glacial boundary across Ohio, Indiana and a part of Illinois, 1882-84 and in the United States survey, 1884-92. He was engaged during two vacations in tracing the terminal morain across the Western states to the Mississippi river, verifying his work of 1882-84 ; and spent a sum- mer in Alaska, camping beside the great Muir Glacier, one of the loftiest of the mountains being named Mt. Wright by a party of scientists four years after his visit. He also spent a sum- mer in Greeland, where another mountain was named after him. He delivered eight lectures before the Lowell institute, Boston, Mass., 1887, which he repeated in Baltimore, Md., and Brook- lyn, N.Y. ; visited the lava field of the west in 1890 ; went to Europe in 1891, where he met the principal glaciologists of England ; gave a second course of Lowell Institute lectures in 1892, on the " Origin and Antiquity of the Human Race," and a third on the " Scientific Aspects of Christian Evidences '" in 1896. In 1900-1901 he crossed Mon- golia, Manchuria, Siberia, Turkestan, Russia and Palestine to study the glacial phenomena of those regions. The honorary degree of D.D. was conferred upon him by Brown university in 1887, and that of LL.D. by Drury college in 1887. He was elected a fellow of the Boston Society of Natural History ; of the Geological Society of America, and of various other scientific societies. He became chief editor of the " Bibliotheca " in 1883, and is the author of : Logic of Christian