USA > Pennsylvania > Encyclopedia of contemporary biography of Pennsylvania, Vol. I > Part 18
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66
elected in 1887. Notwithstanding the demand upon
his time, which his connection with these institu-
tions has made imperative, lie has found opportunity to discharge other duties of a semi-public character,
to which he has been called by reason of the recog- nition of his excellent executive ability and other
good qualities. He was appointed a Commonwealth
Pattison in 1884, became a member of the State Director of the Orthopedic Hospital, by Governor
Board of Charities of Pennsylvania in 1885, and was elected a trustee of the Jefferson Medical Col-
lege of Philadelphia in 1887. Mr. Harrah has a strong desire to promote the welfare of his fellow- men, and in these positions, and through private channels he finds many opportunities of so doing.
88
CONTEMPORARY BIOGRAPHY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
He may truly be regarded as a model citizen, seek- ing the best and truest advancement of the city and State in which he lives, and of mankind generally, and doing it without flourish of trumpets or loud announcement, either of purpose or accomplish- ment. In politics he has always been a strong Republican, but uever a place-seeker, nor willing to accept purely political office, even when tendered. He has never permitted his general political convic- tions to swerve him from serving the best interests of his fellow citizens in matters relating to local affairs. He was a member of the Citizens' Com_ mittee of One Hundred, a non-partizan organization instituted by a spontaneous movement and with a regard to bringing about purity in politics and local administration. He gave largely of his time and means to further the work of this committee, which accomplished much good. During his residence in Brazil, Mr. Harrah was an active member of the Masonic fraternity, and passed through every degree of the Order, inclusive of the thirty-third. Mr. Harrah was married April 14, 1839, to Anna Mar- garet Reel, a daughter of Michael and Margaret Reel, of the old Kensington District, and of a family long established there. Of this union were born nine children : four sons and five daughters.
JAMES ANDERSON WRIGHT.
JAMES ANDERSON WRIGHT, son of Peter Wright and Mary Anderson, his wife, was born in Talbot County, Maryland, on the 3d day of Sep- tember, 1815. Peter Wright, his father, was born February 27, 1791, and was the son of John Wright (born July 3, 1763), the sixth son of William Wright, who, with his brother, James Wright, emi- grated in the seventeenth century from England, and settled on the eastern shore of Maryland. In 1817 Peter Wright came with his family from Mary- land to Philadelphia, and the following year estab- lished himself in business, founding the now widely- known house of Peter Wright & Sons, of which the subject of our sketch has been the head for forty years. James A. Wright attended the schools of I. Irvine Hitchcock, Benjamin Tucker and Jesse Stanley, and profited by the instruction imparted by those old time Philadelphia educators. When he reached the age of thirteen his studies were interrupted, and he was placed in the store of his father, who was engaged in the crockery business on Third street. Since that time, with the excep- tion of attendance for one term at the boarding- school of Samuel Smith, at Wilmington, Delaware,
he has been continuously identified, either as em- ploye or partner, with the firm established by his father, and has the satisfaction of seeing it recog- nized as a leading American mercantile house. Even as a lad our subject was remarkable for his fondness for work and his taste for mechanics. At that early period he manifested interest in the con- struction of firc-engines, electrical apparatus, and steam-power machinery. His industry and applica- tion to business found ample field for exercise in his father's store, which was conducted according to the strict precepts which ruled sixty years ago; the hours of work were from early in the morning until late in the evening, and during "busy seasons " until far into the night. The training thus received, added to his native energy and determination, fitted the youth for the larger duties which later on devolved upon him as a partner, and for the build- ing up of a firm notable for its integrity, influence and far-reaching relations. In 1836 he was admitted as a partner. The same year, the business having grown in importance, the store was removed to Market street, below Seventh, where it remained until 1850, when the firm built and occupied the commodious building No. 505 Market street. The character of the business of the firm gradually changed to a jobbing, and from that to a package aud importing trade. At this juncture, a branch house was established in the district of the Stafford- shire potteries in England, and competent represen- tatives were stationed there to place the orders of American importers with the manufacturers, a sys- tem attended with many advantages to the Ameri- can trade, and acting as a mighty stimulus to the crockery business between the two countries. In 1848 Peter Wright retired from business, his sons James A. and Edward N. continuing under the old firm name. The carrying trade, prior to the Civil War, was largely done by sailing vessels; the crock- ery imports were brought exclusively by this class of craft. Vessel after vessel was loaded at Liver- pool for Philadelphia, with the wares for Peter Wright & Sons as a nucleus of their cargo. In time some of these vessels were consigned to the firm. Thus begau the shipping business, which has played so conspicuous a part in the operations of Mr. Wright's firm. Contemporaneously consignments of various kinds of merchandise were made by English parties to the firm, whose reputation for promptness, safety and fidelity had by this time reached the commercial centre of Great Britain. As a necessary consequence, an export trade fol- lowed, breadstuffs and petroleum being the leading articles shipped. The business of the vigorous, pushing, growing house now embraced the impor-
James A. Wright,
89
CONTEMPORARY BIOGRAPHY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
tation of the products of the Staffordshire potteries, the exportation of American merchandise and a general freighting and commission business. This brings us to the outbreak of the Rebellion. The year 1861 was signalized by a transaction by the firm which was the forerunner of a trade which has since become a powerful factor in the commerce of the world, and has had concentrated upon it the anxious thought of the possessors of many millions of capital. This notable event was the shipment of the first cargo of refined petroleum from the United States to a foreign port. This initial shipment was made in the American brig "Elizabeth Watts," owned in Camden, N. J., and registering 224 tons, which sailed from Philadelphia for London, Eng., November 19, 1861, with a cargo consisting of 1,329 barrels of oil. Thus was inaugurated by Mr. Wright's firm a trade which grew directly to tre- mendous dimensions and continues as such to the present time. In the first six months of 1888 over a million and a quarter barrels of petroleum were exported from the port of Philadelphia alone. From handling vessels as freight agents and com- mission merchants, it was but a step for the firm to become the owners of ships. They acquired, by purchase and building, a small fleet of vessels of various rig and capacity, and brought them into their general business. The " Chieftain," a wooden vessel of 1,312 tons, was built in 1864, at Charles- town, Mass., for the firm, and was a magnificent specimen of the sea-going craft of her day. About the year 1870 the firm of Peter Wright & Sons took another step forward. This was the utilization of steamships for their carrying trade. In 1871 the International Navigation Co. was incorporated, and James A. Wright was chosen its President. This company immediately began the construction of steamers for a mail line to ply between Antwerp and Philadelphia and New York, and chartered steamers to run between Liverpool and Philadel- phia, the name adopted for both services being the Red Star Line, now universally known to the com- mercial and traveling public. Mr. Wright's firm became the general agents in the United States of the enterprise. The Antwerp branch has all this time been under contract with the Belgian government as carrier of the royal mail, and has enjoyed a valuable subsidy from the kingdom. In 1874 the firm were also appointed general agents of the American Steamship Company, which maintained weekly communication between Liverpool and Philadel- phia, by means of four steamships built in Phila- delphia, and a number of chartered English boats. In 1887 the Inman Steamship Company came under the control of the International Navigation Com-
pany. The combined fleet now operated by the one management, and for which Peter Wright & Sons are general agents, with offices at Philadelphia, New York and Chicago, aggregates twenty-five steamers, with a total tonnage of over 112,500 tons. In 1887 Mr. Wright retired from the Presidency of the Steamship Company. In 1872 Peter Wright & Sons erected the five-story iron front fire-proof building at 307 Walnut street, Philadelphia. This was the first structure in the business centre of the city equipped with all modern improvements, and de- signed especially for offices. Since then, however, many for the same general purposes have been erected. We have thus far outlined the history of the firm of Peter Wright & Sons, deeming it the most fitting biography of its senior partner. With the great expansion of the firm's affairs, consequent upon the acquisition of the transportation interests, a large portion of the labors and responsibilities of conducting the complex business of the concern devolved upon his junior partners, who, having had the invaluable benefit of his energetic, honorable and accomplished business training, were amply quali- fied to relieve their chief. Despite his close appli- cation to the details of his firm's business, Mr. Wright has always found time to perform a share of the work required for the development of such financial or commercial enterprises as have been from time to time projected in the interest of Phila- delphia's progress. A simple list of the names of the undertakings in which his zeal and public spirit have been enlisted, must suffice. He has been a Director of the First National Bank of Philadelphia (the first bank established under the National Bank- ing Act) from its inception. He was prominently interested in the organization of the Atlantic Petro- leum Storage Company (and its President in 1864-65) which was the initial movement resulting in the great storing, refining, barrel manufacturing and shipping interests at Point Breeze on the Schuylkill River, now conducted on a scale of unequalled magnitude and with consummate system by the Standard Oil Company. During the first year of its existence, the International Navigation Company built a large grain elevator and a system of wharves and railroad tracks, to which Mr. Wright, then President of the company, gave his personal atten- tion, supervising the purchase of materials, and the piling and the erection of the large structure. Upon the organization of the Philadelphia and
Southern Mail Steamship Company, in 1865, he was chosen its Treasurer, and he exerted his influence and contributed of his means, to put on foot the undertaking which was regarded as essential to the maintenance of Philadelphia's
90
CONTEMPORARY BIOGRAPHY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
position in the rivalry for the Southern trade. He is Treasurer and large owner of stock of the Winifrede Coal and Railroad Company, a valuable property in West Virginia, supplying bituminous coal to the Cincinnati and other Ohio River markets. He is a Director of the United Gas Improvement Co., a corporation with a capital of four million dollars, exercising a commanding influcnee, and carrying on its operations far beyond the confines of the city of Philadelphia. An enterprise, unique in its way, is the erection jointly by James A. Wright and Wil- liam G. Warden, the wealthy and well-known mer- chant of Philadelphia, of sixty-five dwelling-houses adapted to the circumstances of the humblest class of our population, and located in the 26th Ward of Philadelphia. It is popularly known as Wrights- ville. It may be proper to add in this connection, that Miss Edith Wright, the daughter of our subject, is working out an interesting problem of practical benevolence among the tenants of the dwellers in these homes, many of them foreigners of the poorest and least-tutored class, caring for their sanitary, educational and moral needs, and inculcating habits of thrift and providence, using, withal, strictly busi- ness-like methods. Turning from these strictly business concerns, we find Mr. Wright giving his time, and support, also, to the promotion of philan- thropic and scientific objects. He is a member of the Art Club of Philadelphia, the Pennsylvania Hospi- tal, of the Academy of Fine Arts, of the Academy of Natural Sciences, of the Board of Trade and of its Committee on Foreign and Coastwise Com- merce, of the Civil Service Reform Association, and of the Citizens' Municipal Association, and Director of the Brooks Underground Telegraph Company, and one of the corporators of the Wo- man's Medical College of Pennsylvania. We have portrayed James A. Wright as an earnest, success- ful merchant, and a zealous promoter of charitable enterprises. His energies have been exerted in still broader fields. He has always taken an active part in civil affairs, observing with watchful eye, as is becoming in the patriotic citizen, the course of events in National and municipal politics, although never an aspirant for office himself. From his father he imbibed an abhorrence of the institution of sla- very. Peter Wright, although a native, and, for a time, a resident of the slave State of Maryland, was a fearless and enthusiastic advocate of the abolition of slavery. In the early manhood of the son oc- curred several incidents which fixed in his mind an unconquerable and abiding hatred of the institution. In 1838, Pennsylvania Hall, a building dedicated to liberty and free speech, on Sixth street above Arch, in which anti-slavery meetings were held, was attacked,
and after a feeble and perfunctory resistance by the sheriff of the city, was stormed by a mob and burned to the ground. James A. Wright was a spectator of this act of violence and lawlessness, noted and made a graphic report of all that was done, to his father, Danicl Neall, Sr., and the other trustees of the destroyed building. The same year he married, and during his wedding trip experienced a taste of the hostility of the slavery advocates to his father and himself. The bridal party was composed of Mr. Wright and wife, Daniel Neall, Jr., the best man, and a bridesmaid. A journey had been made to Harper's Ferry, and the party had on their return reached Camden, Delaware. Here they stopped with a friend, intending to take the mail stage (railroads being then unknown) early next morning for home, by the way of Dover, three miles north. Peter Wright and Daniel Neall, Sr., were formerly residents of Camden, and were known there as enemies of slavery. The presence of their sons in the village was noised about, and rumors came to the ear of the host of our travelers of an intention to attack and insult his guests, upon the departure of the stage at six o'clock next morn- ing. Satisfied that some indignity would be offered the party if they remained, arrangements were made to take them at midnight by private convey- ance from Camden to Dover. In the morning the mob was on hand to carry out their threats, but the objects of their displeasure had slipped away and disappointed them. An incident may here be stated, going to show the intense feeling of hatred which existed among Southern merchants and their North- ern sympathizers against Northern people who were thought to be opposed to slavery, or who were known to hold anti-slavery opinions. This feeling was fostered and encouraged by many business firms in the city, who desired to stand well with Southern merchants. In the fall of 1838, just after the burning of Pennsylvania Hall, the merchants from Suffolk and Norfolk, and some other eastern Virginia towns, came North as usual in a body, to make their purchases. Sailing vessels were at this time the only means of transportation, railroads not having been established. Schooners loaded with staves and other lumber for the North, brought their cargoes to Philadelphia and other cities, and the merchants from those places would club together and give these vessels their return cargoes of store goods. Out of fifteen or twenty of these mer- chants who were in the habit of buying their crock- ery and glassware from Mr. Wright's firm, only two or three left their orders at this time; the others bought elsewhere, giving as a reason that they would not buy of "Abolitionists," and in the spring
91
CONTEMPORARY BIOGRAPHY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
of the following year these others were also reluc- tantly obliged to desist from buying " Abolition goods," as they were termed. The gentlemen last named eame to pay their respeets to Mr. Wright and his father, saying that the feeling was so strong against them, both at home and in Philadelphia among their friends, that they feared if they bought their goods of Mr. Wright's firm that they would run the risk of losing their eustomers at home, and perhaps of having their stores burned down. They expressed themselves greatly mortified at thus being compelled to leave " good and tried friends," adding that they fully realized how completely they were enslaved, and that their condition in this respect was little better than that of the blaek slave to his master. The loss of their trade, however, to the Messrs. Wright, was only temporary. The news of this "persecution," as it was called, soon spread, and drew from many other quarters (particularly from Washington County, Pa.), a large and substan- tlal trade to compensate for the loss. The above county was the home of Dr. Julius Lemoyne, the Free Soil eandidate for Governor of Pennsylvania, and many of the merehants from that seetion, hold- ing anti-slavery views, came at once and madc their purehases, and ever afterwards became regu- lar customers and warm friends of the Messrs. Wright. It may also be said here, that after a lapse of several years, and when the bitter feelings against Northern people had beeome modified, the Southern merchants eame back again, and eontin- ued regular eustomers. It was about this time also that a eolored man, by the name of Durham Whit- tington, ealled on Mr. Wright's father, to say that he had been told that inasmuch as his master had brought him from a slave State into Pennsylvania, and had kept him here over a year, that he eould claim his freedom, and wanted Mr. Wright to con- firm it. Mr. Wright told him it was true; that the law did not permit a slaveholder to bring his slave into a free State and keep him over a year, and that his master had no elaim to him, therefore, as a slave. Shortly after this, the master met Mr. Wright and his father as they were going from their home to their store. The master shook his fist in the face of the senior, and demanded to know by what right he had been "putting notions" into his " Nigger's head." Mr. Wright replied that he felt free to give such advice and information as he had done, to any one who would eall on him; that he was not afraid of him (the master), saying to him that if he were not eareful he might fiud himself flat on the pave- ment or in the gutter, and that he would live to be sorry for his eonduet, ete. This gentleman made many apologies several years later, and remained a
good friend of Mr. Wright ever afterwards. During the War of the Rebellion, Mr. Wright took hold of the work of affording relief to the emancipated slaves with all the enthusiasm of his nature, supple- menting his labors with generous eontributions from his purse. He was Treasurer of the Port Royal Relief Committee, which held its meetings at the offiee of Peter Wright & Sons, and in which partiei- pated the well-known humanitarians, Stephen Col- well, Benjamin P. Hunt, Philip P. Randolph, Ben- jamin Coates, Franeis R. Cope, Edward W. Clark, Ellis Yarnall and others. Benjamin Coates and James A. Wright were appointed a committee to purehase the supplies required to earry out the objects to be accomplished. Johu Hunn was sent as storekeeper, and Miss Laura M. Towne and Miss Ellen Murray were sent as teachers of the helpless and ignorant colored people at Port Royal and Beaufort, and Miss Arianna S. Foshay was also sent as a teacher, to Washington, D. C., Mr. Wright ac- companying and establishing her there with one of the prominent Baptist Churches, over which the Rev. Mr. Dyson presided. The history of the work of the Philadelphia Port Royal Relief Committee remains to be written. It will form one of the brightest pages of the record of that era of self- denying patriotism. As early as April, 1862, the committee began to forward to Beaufort, S. C., clothing, bacon, fish, molasses, salt, sugar and dry goods for distribution by Miss Towne, to the colored people on the Sea Island plantations, abandoned by their owners upon the approach of the Union forees. Sehools were also established and books sent. In the fall of the same year, at the earnest solieitation of Gen. Rufus Saxton, the committee started a store at Beaufort, designed to supply the people with all kinds of merchandise at cost and expenses ; at a later date a similar store was started at Port Royal. Shipments were attended with the risks of war, and were thereby irregular and difficult to make; in many cases the vessels earrying coal out of Phila- delphia to the stations on the South Carolina eoast took the merehandise of the committee. The work of the Society's agents was novel, eomplieated, and ever varying, but it was conscientiously performed, and much good was done. Of Miss Towne, while she was overwhelmed with the pressing elaims of great numbers of help-needing eolored people, who looked to her as instruetor, almoner, and adviser, Mr. Wright wrote : "She is indeed a noble woman, entirely unselfish, all devotion to the eause of hu- manity, rare eapaeities for usefulness, and remark- able endurance." The Philadelphia Port Royal Society was suceeeded by the Pennsylvania Freed- men's Relief Association, which took in a larger
92
CONTEMPORARY BIOGRAPHY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
field of operation, ministering more especially to the educational and industrial needs of the people in all parts of the South. Mr. Wright was a mem- ber of the last-named organization. The Hampton Institute, of Virginia, established for the education of colored and Indian children, has found in Mr. Wright a warm friend. He supports a scholarship in the institution and has otherwise befriended it. In the more recent past, Mr. Wright has performed the responsible duties of Treasurer of the Commit- tee of One Hundred, an association of influential citizens, whose successful work for the purification of the municipal government of the city of Phila- delphia is fresh in the minds of the people, who are still in the enjoyment of the reforms and economies instituted by that remarkable movement. Mr.
Wright has been twice married. He was first married on June 6, 1838, to Martha Tatum, of Wil- mington, Del., daughter of David and Hephzibah Tatum; she had one son, Theodore; she died January 19, 1844. On May 7, 1850, he married (second) Mary L. Cook, daughter of Edward and Catharine Cook, of New York City, and grand- daughter of George Ireland. Of this union were born eight children-four sons and four daughters; Mrs. Wright died October 4, 1866. The children are : First, Theodore, married Mary Blackler, of New York City ; he is President of the Winifrede Coal and Winifrede Railroad Company of West Virginia ; he resides at Philadelphia. Second, Edith, resides with her father, and is prominently identified with charitable enterprises in Philadelphia and Germantown. Third, George J., drowned at Norway, August 1, 1870, in his eighteenth year. Fourth, Mary C., died in infancy. Fifth, James A., Jr., married Miss Catharine Davis, daughter of Rear-Admiral J. L. Davis, U. S. N. ; is resident partner at New York of the firm of Peter Wright and Sons. Sixth, Frances P., married H. B. Davis ; resides at Philadelphia. Seventh, Ernest N., married Miss Kathleen Robin- son; resides at East Orange, N. J. Eighth, Walter C., resides with his father. Ninth, Marian A., re- sides with her father. Mr. Wright resides at Hazel- brook, in a most charming, restful mansion, set down among primitive forest trees in Germantown, the fashionable and attractive suburb of Philadelphia. The grounds, apart from the woodlands surround- ing the house, are undulating, and have been im- proved with the skill known to the landscape gard- ener's art. Edith, the daughter, presides as mis- tress of the household. Here a generous hospital- ity prevails, and here, are all the accessories which culture, opulence, refinement and extensive travel can supply to make home life everything it should be in comfort and attractiveness.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.