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
“Annual Reports of the Massachusetts Bureau of
Statistics of Labor” (15 vols., Boston, 1873-'88);
“Census of Massachusetts” (3 vols., 1876-7); “The
Statistics of Boston” (1882); “The Factory
System of the United States” (Washington 1882);
“The Census of Massachusetts” (4 vols., Boston,
l887-'8); “Reports of U. S. Commissioner of
Labor,” including “Industrial Depressions”
(Washington, 1886); “Convict Labor” (1886); and
“Strikes and Lockouts” (1887); also numerous
pamphlets, including “The Relation of Political
Economy to the Labor Question” (Boston, 1882);
“The Factory System as an Element in Civilization”
(1882); “Scientific Basis of Tariff Legislation”
(1884); “The Present Actual Condition of
the Workingman” (1887); “The Study of Statistics
in Colleges” (1887); “Problems of the Census”
(1887); “Hand Labor in Prisons” (1887);
“Historical Sketch of the Knights of Labor” (1887);
and “The Growth and Purposes of Bureaus of
Statistics of Labor” (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 “American Ephemeris
and Nautical Almanac” in Cambridge. His
occasional contributions to the “Mathematical
Monthly” 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 “North American
Review,” which continued until within a few
months before his death. These are regarded by
Charles Eliot Norton as “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.”
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
“Philosophical Discussions” (New York, 1877).
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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 “Emancipator.” He conducted the paper called “Human Rights” in 1834-'5, and the “Quarterly Anti-Slavery Maga-
