USA > Pennsylvania > Luzerne County > Families of the Wyoming Valley: biographical, genealogical and historical. Sketches of the bench and bar of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, vol. III > Part 26
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
1328
HARRISON WRIGHT.
came to America with him. These were the parents of Mrs. Wright. The mother of Silas Crispin, the elder, was a sister of Margaret Jas- per, the mother of William Penn, which made him the first cousin of the founder. Samuel Wright, son of John Wright, was born at Wrightstown in 1719 and died in 1781. His wife was Elizabeth Haines, daughter of Caleb Haines, of Eveshanı. Caleb Wright, son of Samuel Wright, was born at Wrightstown, January 14, 1754. He married Catharine, daughter of John Gardner, in 1779, and removed with his family to the "Susquehanna country" in 1795. He purchased and settled upon a farm in Union township, Luzerne county, Pa., two miles above Shickshinny, where he remained till 1811 and then returned to New Jersey. Mr. and Mrs. Wright lived to a good old age after their removal to New Jersey, and their remains are interred at the Friends' burial- ground at East Branch, Upper Freehold, Monmouth county, N. J. Joseph Wright, son of Caleb Wright, was but a boy of ten years when his father removed from Wrightstown to the Susque- hanna country. Previous to the return of his father to New Jer- sey he had married, and established a small retail store in Plymouth, and he alone of the family remained in our county. He was a resident of the town of Plymouth for more than half a century, and during that long period was intimately connected with its municipal government and was one of its representative men. He was the second person in the mercantile business in Old Plymouth. He, however, continued but a short time in this occupation, afterwards devoting his attention to the interests of his farm. His ancestors for two hundred years had belonged to the Society of Friends; he steadily adhered to the faith of this religious order of people to the hour of his death. Notwith- standing he had been expelled from the society, because he had married outside of the church limits and in direct violation of its discipline, he ever considered himself as one of the order, however, and bound by its formulas and creed. It is, however, somewhat difficult to reconcile his professed religious obligations in view of his conduct in entering the service in the war of 1812. We find him in Captain Halleck's company of Pennsylvania militia on the march for the defense of Baltimore. Patriotism had tri- umphed over sectarian fealty, the tri-colored cockade usurped
1329
HARRISON WRIGHT.
the broad-brim. The regiment, however, never saw active ser- vice. Mr. Wright married, June 15, 1807, Ellen Hendrick, widow of Moses Wadhams, deceased. She was the daughter of John Hendrick, who was a descendant in the fourth generation of Dan- iel Hendrick (who was of Haverhill in 1645, and had been of Hampton in 1639) and Dorothy Pike, daughter of John Pike, of Newbury, in 1635. Joseph Wright had three sons. Hendrick Bradley Wright, his eldest, was a very prominent lawyer at the Luzerne bar. He represented Luzerne county in the lower house of the state legislature in the years 1841, 1842, 1843, and the lat- ter year was speaker of that body. In 1844 he was president of the democratic national convention which nominated James K. Polk for the presidency. In 1852, 1853, 1861, 1862, 1863, 1876, 1877, 1878 and 1879, he represented Luzerne county in the na- tional congress. He was the author of "A Practical Treatise on Labor," and "Historical Sketches of Plymouth," his native town. He died in Wilkes-Barre September 2, 1881. Caleb Earl Wright, the second .son of Joseph Wright, is still living and resides at Doylestown, Pa. He is also a prominent lawyer. He was pres- ident of the first borough council of Doylestown, district attorney of Bucks county, and while a resident of Luzerne county held the office of collector of internal revenue under President John- son, and was a member of the Pennsylvania constitutional con- vention of 1874. He is also an ordained minister of the Metho- dist Episcopal church, and is the author of a novel under the title of "Wyoming," from the press of Harper Brothers, and a. romance under the title of "Marcus Blair," published by J. B. Lippincott & Co. The third and youngest son of Joseph Wright was Harrison Wright, the father of the subject of our sketch. He was born at Plymouth January 24, 1815. Perhaps no better estimate of his character can be given than that found in the pro- ceedings of a meeting of the bar of this county held immediately after his death. At this meeting the late John N. Conyngham was president, E. L. Dana secretary, and Warren J. Woodward chair- man of the committee on resolutions, which reported as follows : "We are summoned to this meeting under circumstances of most painful interest. We are met to render our professional tribute to the memory of Harrison Wright. Death within a few years past
1330
HARRISON WRIGHT.
has made sad havoc in our ranks. Recently, and at brief intervals, we have been required to record the successive loss of Chester Butler, Luther Kidder and Horatio W. Nicholson. They were stricken down in the very prime of their usefulness and in the very summer of their years. The grasp of the common destiny of us "all was unrelentingly and unrelaxingly fastened upon them in the midst of the strongest ties to life-in the enjoyment of high social and professional position-of the public confidence and regard-of the reputation that results from high office and great wealth. But in no instance has the blow fallen so severely upon us as it has fallen now. Mr. Wright has been con- stantly among us-with the exception of a few months passed in the legislature during the year 1855, he had devoted himself dur- ing almost twenty years to the practice of the law. Almost every man who is gathered here, from the very day of his admission into the profession, has been habituated to his presence in our courts. We have all been under obligations to him for assist- ance and advice, most readily and most gratefully rendered. We have felt deep obligations to him for the kindly spirit which has characterized the intercourse of the members of the bar, and which in a great measure was created by his counsel and exam- 'ple. It is due to his reputation, as well as to ourselves, that regret for his early death and respect for his memory and sympa- thy for his surviving family should be expressed by the members of that profession which he loved and honored and illustrated and adorned throughout his life. Mr. Wright was a thorough law- yer; deeply imbued with the profound principles which form the fountains of our legal system, he kept himself constantly familiar with the current exposition of those principles by the court. His acquaintance with the details and forms of business was most accurate and minute. In his whole heavy and long- continued practice he was, in every case, untiring, indubitable and indefatigable. In the preparation and trial of causes he was laborious, wary, methodical, accurate and prompt. And he was a most accomplished advocate. In all the long history of our old court house its walls have resounded to no eloquence more attract- ive or more effective than his. An entire generation of the people of our whole county must pass away before the memory of his fine
I331
HARRISON WRIGHT.
person, his impressive manners and his prompt tones shall be forgotten. In the varied and growing business interests of the community the premature death of Mr. Wright will be severely felt. Born and bred in the Wyoming valley, his sympathies and his heart were here. To promote the prosperity of the county of Luzerne his time and his purse were always given. In the very best and most enlarged sense of the phrase, he was a man o public spirit. In the improvements made and progress around us the mark of his hand and intellect is everywhere visible. To the erection of our churches; to the schemes for the develop- ment of our mineral resources ; to the organization of our gas company ; to the measures requisite to secure the completion of the North Branch canal; to the efforts to extend to this county the general mining law, productive as this has been of such won- derful results ; to the establishment of our law library ; to every feasible scheme for the advancement of the material interests of our community, his influence and liberality have been ungrudg- ingly and effectively extended. He was a peculiarly unselfish man. And he threw into every effort for the public good, as he threw into every professional struggle in which his sympathies were aroused, all the astonishing vigor, energy and enthusiasm of his character, regardless of individual results for himself. It wasa peculiarity of Mr. Wright's position that he numbered among the members of the profession an unusually large proportion of personal friends. His relations with many members of the bar were of the most intimate and confidential kind. With almost all of them these relations were marked by uniform courtesy and cordiality. He was a true, faithful, reliable and active friend, and no considerations of personal interest or personal ease ever induced him to abandon the man whom he had promised to serve or who held a claim for his service. In every relation of life Mr. Wright had upright and single aims. He was a resolute man. He pursued boldly and unflinchingly the path of duty open before him. And with his extraordinary abilities, his attractive and impressive man- ners, his clear, quick, sound judgment, the unbounded confidence of the community in his honor, integrity and faith, his steadiness of nerve and his strength of purpose, he wielded an influence upon systems and events around him almost without parallel or exam-
1332
HARRISON WRIGHT.
.
ple. For reasons thus hastily and imperfectly sketched, we do
"Resolve, That we have learned the fact of the death of Harrison Wright, Esq., on August 25, 1856, with feelings of deep and abiding regret. His loss .will be felt as an individual grief by each one of us, connected as we have been with him in relations of intimate social and professional intercourse, but we bow in sub- mission to that Power that 'doeth all things well.' That we most cordially recognize the varied claims which Mr. Wright in his lifetime established upon our esteem, respect and gratitude ; for his courtesy and kindness of heart ; for his strict honor and man- liness of character ; for his great abilities, his learning and his eloquence ; for his abiding love of his profession ; for his labori- ous performance of every duty of an active and useful life, and for his unselfish devotion to the public good, we will cherish his memory while our own lives shall last."
Thus was the character of Mr. Wright portrayed by those who had the most intimate relations with him and who knew him best. [Harrison Wright left the following children to survive him : Har- rison Wright, the subject of this sketch ; Josephine Wright, who intermarried with Arthur W. Hillman; Augusta Mcclintock Wright, now deceased; Jessie L. Wright, now deceased, inter- married with W. J. Harvey, who left to survive her one son, Rob- ert R. Harvey ; Sarah H. Wright, who intermarried with G. W. Guthrie, M. D .; and Jacob Ridgway Wright.]
The wife of Harrison Wright, sr., and the mother of the subject of our sketch, was Emily Cist, daughter of Jacob Cist, and a descendant of Charles Cist, who was the son of a well-to-do German merchant, who had been attracted to St. Petersburg, Russia, at the beginning of the eighteenth century by the liberal inducements offered to foreigners by Peter the Great, and who there met and married Anna Maria Thomassen. Their second child, Charles Cist, was born in St. Petersburg, on August 15, 1738, and was baptized on the 21st of the same month in the Evangelical Lutheran church of St. Peter, in that city. At a very early age he showed such a fondness for and application to his studies that his father gave him every advantage which the schools of St. Petersburg at that period afforded, and already on April 23, 1755, at the age of sixteen, we find him matriculated as
I333
HARRISON WRIGHT.
studiosus medicine at the University of Halle, on the Saale, one of the leading universities of Germany. Owing to the incomplete- ness of the records of the medical faculty of the university at that time, it is impossible to state now how long he remained there or whether or not he took a degree, though it is likely he did take the latter, as he was later a practicing physician in St. Petersburg and had there a large apothecary and drug business. The liberal policy adopted by the far-seeing Peter towards professional and scientific men, as well as to the foreign merchants located in Rus- sia, insured protection to Charles Cist in the early days of Cath- arine ; and the income of his business enabled him to amass con- siderable property and to collect the finest cabinet of minerals in the city of St. Petersburg, and one whose rarities the highest dignitary of the church thought worthy of a Sunday visit to ex- amine. But when his success was at its highest a change came. Filled with liberal ideas too far advanced to be tolerated in des- potic Russia, he joined with others in a proposed revolution, which, being discovered by the authorities, was suppressed, his property confiscated, and he, in 1767, an exile at Omsk, in Sibe- ria, from whence he escaped and fled, a political refugee, to the hospitable shores of America, arriving in Philadelphia, in the ship Crawford, on October 25, 1773. Directly after his arrival he met Henry Miller, who was at that time publishing a German paper in Philadelphia, entitled Pennsylvanischer Staatsbote, and who, desiring some competent person to translate articles from English exchanges into German for the Staatsbote, offered the position to Charles Cist until he should become acquainted in Philadelphia and acquire enough money to start in his regular business. The offer was accepted, and the printing business pleased him so well that he remained for two years with Miller, and in December, 1775, entered into copartnership with Melchior Styner, who had been Miller's foreman, and they established a printing office of their own. At the beginning of our revolutionary troubles this firm published a newspaper in the German language, but not receiving the necessary support and encouragement it was discontinued in April, 1776. Many pamphlets on the critical questions of those disturbed times were issued from the press of Styner & Cist, among others Thomas Paine's "American Crisis." During the
1
1334
HARRISON WRIGHT.
war Styner and Cist were both enrolled as members of the Third Battalion of Pennsylvania militia, and on June 20, 1777, Charles Cist took the voluntary oath of allegiance and fidelity. Upon returning to Philadelphia after the evacuation of the British, the firm continued the printing business, and in the year 1779, besides publishing "Regulations for the Order and Discipline of the Troops of the United States" and a number of other pamphlets, they again commenced the publication of a German newspaper. In 1781 the copartnership, after existing for nearly six years-years most eventful in the history of this country-was by consent dissolved. Henry Miller, instead of discouraging the formation of this firm, seems to have aided and assisted in every way ; and in after years when Cist had gained a competency and Styner was still strug- gling along, Henry Miller died and left the fortune, or a large part of it, which he had accumulated during a busy life, to Styner. In 1784 Charles Cist, together with Seddon, John O'Connor, and others, started an English newspaper entitled The American Her- ald and General Advertiser, but for want of encouragement it was discontinued ; and at a meeting of the proprietors, held July 3, 1784, it was resolved that the publication of the paper should cease and the subscription money be refunded to the subscribers. On October 1, 1789, Charles Cist, together with Seddon, William Spottswood, James Trenchard, and the well-known Matthew Ca- rey, started the Columbian Magasine, a monthly miscellany. With- in the year 1789 Trenchard became the sole proprietor, and the subsequent numbers were published by him alone. Mr. Cist published between the years 1781-1805 a large number of reli- gious, political and educational works, in at least four languages, among which, in German, in the year 1783, was "Wahrheit und guter Rath an die Einwohner Deutschlands, besonders in Hes- sen," and in 1789, "Der Amerikanische Stadt und Land Kalender;" and continued in the threefold capacity of printer, publisher and bookseller until his death in 1805. In this latter year he pub- lished, among other works, a reprint of Rev. Andrew Fuller's "The Gospel its own Witness." Mr. Cist was a member of the German Society of Pennsylvania; in 1782 was a member of the school committee, and in 1795 secretary of the association. He was also the secretary of the - - - Fire Insurance Company
I335
HARRISON WRIGHT.
of Philadelphia, and announces in May, 1793, that this company had procured an apparatus to save people from burning houses ; it consisted of an elevated basket. Under the administration of the elder Adams he received the contract for printing official documents. In the year 1800 he went to Washington and ar- ranged at great expense a printing office and book bindery, pur- chased real estate, built several houses, and believed he had a good, remunerative position, but it was not long after the victory of the democratic party in ISoi that he lost his privileges and returned to Philadelphia poorer than when he left. In writing to his son Jacob in regard to his losses in Washington, under date of February 7, 1803, he says : " Misfortunes follow one upon an- other and bear the more severely upon me at my time of life when I, in a manner, must begin the world anew. But I trust in Providence, and the conscience of the rectitude of my actions supports me under the complicated evils that the loss of my place has brought upon me. Heaven forgive my enemies ; they have done me more harm than they intended." In a back room of his printing office he had arranged a small laboratory to which it was his delight to withdraw, when business permitted, to experi- ment with chemicals. Here he discovered and patented colors for dyeing from the quercitron bark ; he manufactured on a small scale cakes of water-color paints, and prepared, by grinding, paints for oil painters. It was here, too, that he tested the "black stone" discovered on the Lehigh by Philip Ginter and taken to Philadelphia by Colonel Weiss, and which he pronounced to be anthracite coal. He was one of the founders and largest stock- holders of the "Lehigh Coal Mine Company," which was founded in 1792. He died of apoplexy while on a visit to his brother-in- law, Colonel Weiss, at Fort Allen, on December 1, 1805, and lies buried in the Moravian burial-ground at Bethlehem. He was sanguine in his disposition, punctual and of most rigid integrity in his business relations, courtly in his manners, and yet of most modest demeanor, which recommended him to all classes with whom he came in contact. He was unassuming and unpreten- tious, and yet his university education and his knowledge of the literature of several languages rendered him welcome among the savants of the then metropolis of the new world. The purity and
1336
HARRISON WRIGHT.
simplicity of his character was at all times a source of admiration with those who knew him, and when his trials and losses came he had the sympathy of every one. Even some of those who were the cause of them afterwards repented of the action which they had taken and tried to retrieve it by kindness to his son while he was in Washington. A brother and two sisters residing in Russia survived him, all of whom were married, and their descendants are to-day scattered throughout the length and breadth of Russia. He married, June 7, 1781, Mary, daughter of John Jacob and Re- becca Weiss, who was born in Philadelphia June 22, 1762, and had eight children, all of who were living at the time of his death.
The father of Mrs. Charles Cist, John Jacob Weiss, was born in the village of Wahlheim, near Bietigheim, in the kingdom of Wurtemberg, Germany, on July 20, 1721. His parents were John Jacob and Mary Elizabeth Weiss. He was confirmed in the Lutheran church of his native village in 1736, and in 1740 emigrated to America, landing in Philadelphia in September of that year. On October 24, 1746, he married Rebecca Cox, of Swedish descent. She was born November 23, 1725, in Passa- yunk township, now in Philadelphia, and reared in the Lutheran religion. Her father, Peter Cox, who died in January, 175 1, aged sixty-three years, was the grandson of Peter Lawson Koch, who came from Sweden in 164i with the third Swedish colony, and settled upon the Delaware. On January 8, 1749, when the United Brethren were favored with a particularly blessed day, the occa- sion being a visit of Brother John (Bishop Spangenberg) and others, John Jacob Weiss and his wife Rebecca were received into the Brethren's association and admitted to the holy com- munion. In the month of June, 1750, he purchased a hundred acres of land in Long valley, in the present county of Monroe, He took the oath of allegiance to partly on Head's creek.
George II April 12, 1750, before Chief Justice Allen, and to the United States July 2, 1778. Mr. Weiss was a surgeon, and had his place of business for many years on Second street, Philadel- phia. He died September 22, 1788, and was buried next day in the Moravian burial ground, in Philadelphia. His wife, Rebecca, died July 3, 1808. The old Moravian record says: "She was a communicant of our church and a simple, genuine follower of
---- ---
-
-
1337
HARRISON WRIGHT.
the Lord." " Mr. and Mrs. Weiss had eleven children, of whom Mary, the tenth child, became the wife of Charles Cist. She was born in Philadelphia June 22, 1762, and was baptized the 25th of the same month by Rev. George Neisser.
It may not be out of place in this sketch of our late associate to portray the character of Colonel Jacob Weiss, the brother of Mary Cist. He was born in Philadelphia September 1, 1750, and after the commencement of hostilities between the mother country and the colonies he entered the continental service in the first company of Philadelphia Volunteers, commanded by Cap- tain Cadwalader, and after having performed a tour of duty, he was, at the earnest recommendation of General Mifflin, then act- ing quartermaster general, to whom he had served an appren- ticeship in the mercantile line, and who knew him to be a trusty and proficient accountant, appointed a deputy quartermaster gen- eral under him, and subsequently under General Greene, in which station he remained until General Greene took command of the southern army, October 30, 1780; the admirable arrangement of the quartermaster general's department and the able manage- ment of General Greene, enabled the army to move with facility and dispatch. The means possessed by the commissary's depart- ment were inadequate to supply the army's wants and frequently caused great distress, and often rendered its condition deplorable. The financial embarrassment which followed upon the rapid depreciation of the continental money was a greater bane to the cause of the patriots and a more insidious enemy than the power- ful foe which confronted them. Prices rose as money sunk in value. The commissaries found it extremely difficult to pur- chase supplies for the army, for the people refused to exchange their articles for the almost worthless paper. At the close of the year 1779 thirty dollars in paper was only equal in purchasing value to one of specie. After the defeat of the American army in the battle of Brandywine, September 11, 1777, the road to Philadelphia was open to the enemy. There was great conster- nation among the people when they heard of the approach of the British army. Mrs. Weiss frequently spoke of the excite- ment that followed ; every one tried to get away ; fabulous prices were paid for all kinds of conveyances. Her husband was with
.
1338
HARRISON WRIGHT.
the army, and she was left to her own resources. She was for- tunate in procuring a conveyance, and taking with her the wear- ing apparel of the family and a few household articles, started with her family for Bristol. Upon her arrival there she found the hotel used as a hospital for the wounded soldiers. The sight of these greatly distressed her, as she said it was the most sick- ening sight she ever beheld. In the following month Colonel Weiss sent his family to Easton. During those perilous times he was almost constantly attached to and followed the various and often sudden movements of the main army, which proved a very harassing and arduous service. By the advice of General Greene, who, in his farewell letter to him, highly and affection- ately commended him for the faithful performance of the various duties imposed upon him, he accepted the appointment of assist-
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.