Person:Milton Wright (3)

Conover, Frank. Centennial portrait and biographical record of the city of Dayton and of Montgomery County, Ohio, containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens, together with the biographies and portraits of the Presidents of the United States and biographies of the governors of Ohio. [Chicago] A.W. Bowen, 1897. Pages 861-863.

BISHOP MILTON WRIGHT, D. D., of the United Brethren church, and at present a resident of Dayton, Ohio, was born in Rush county, Ind., November 17, 1828.

He received his preliminary education in the common schools and later attended Hartsville (Ind.) college. In 1853 he was admitted into the White River conference of the United Brethren church and was ordained minister in 1856. Soon after this event he was sent by the board of missions to Oregon, where for a time he was principal of Sublimity college, Marion county, that state, and in 1859 returned to Indiana, and in the same year married Miss Susan Catherine Koerner, a resident of Union county. He passed several years as pastor and presiding elder in the White River conference, and in 1869 was elected by the general conference to the editorship of the Religious Telescope, which position he filled with marked ability for eight years. In 1877 he was elected bishop; the degree of doctor of divinity was conferred upon him in 1878, by Westfield college, and he continued to perform the functions of bishop until 1881. In that year he became the editor and publisher of the Richmond (Ind.) Star, but terminated his connection with that journal in 1885, when he was elected bishop of the Pacific coast. In 1889, with fourteen associate ministers, he refused to accept as being lawful the action of the general conference at York, Pa., in passing under a new confession of faith and constitution, and with them claimed to continue the true general conference of the church. This schism of the general conference resulted in two churches, both claiming precisely the same name. At this conference in 1889 he was elected bishop, and publisher of church literature. At the general conference at Hudson, Ind., in 1893, he was re-elected bishop, which position of honor and prominence he has now held for fifteen years. Dr. Wright has attended every general conference of his church since 1865, has been a member of the board of missions, of the board of education, and a trustee of the Union Biblical seminary, and, in fact, has been a zealous worker in the church ever since 1855.

The parents of Dr. Wright were Dan and Catherine (Reeder) Wright—the name Dan being that also of his grandfather, Dan Wright. His father was born in Orange county, Vt., September 3, 1791, and was reared a farmer. At the age of twenty-five years he moved to the state of New York, where he passed one year, and then, in 1816, came to Ohio, and resided in Montgomery county until 1821, when he moved to Indiana and cleared up a farm in the wilds of Rush county, and nineteen years later he removed to a farm in Fayette county, where he passed the remainder of his life. There were born to Dan Wright and wife six children, beside Milton, the subject of this sketch, of whom three sons and one daughter lived to raise families. Of these, the eldest, Samuel S., was a teacher, who died at the early age of twenty-three years; Rev. Harvey lives on his farm in Rush county, Ind., and has been a Baptist minister for over forty-five years; Rev. William was a minister, in the United Brethren church and died in 1868, at the age of thirty-six years, and the daughter, Mrs. Sarah Harris, was a resident of Franklin county, Ind., at the time of her death, which took place in 1868.

The Wright family are of English origin, but for several generations have lived in America, the family name having been established in Springfield, Mass., by Samuel Wright, about the year 1639, Dan Wright, paternal grandfather of the bishop, was a farmer and carpenter, and one of the heroes of the American Revolution, having taken part in the battle of Saratoga. His wife bore the maiden name of Sarah Freeman, and was a native of New Hampshire, having descended from one of the most eminent New England families.

The Reeder family, the maternal ancestors of Rev. Dr. Wright, were of German descent, but went to England previous to the year 1600. They came to America (Long Island) about the year 1650. George Reeder, the subject's maternal grandfather, was captain of militia and baggage-master in the early days of Ohio. George Reeder was born on the James river, Va., and about 1792 settled in Hamilton county, Ohio, at Columbia, now a suburb of Cincinnati. John Van Cleve, Bishop Wright's maternal great-grandfather, was descended from a Holland family that settled in New York eight generations back. He was also a soldier of the war of the Revolution, and while in the battle of Monmouth his dwelling was burned by the retreating British. During this battle, or just previous to it, Mrs. Van Cleve escaped from the house with her three children, but all else was left behind and carried off or destroyed by the British excepting a few minor articles that had been placed in concealment. One of the three children alluded to above as having been rescued by their mother, was Benjamin Van Cleve, for many years afterward county clerk of Montgomery county. Ohio. In the early part of 1790, John Van Cleve came to Ohio and located at Cincinnati (then Losantiville), but met with an untimely death at the hands of the Indians on June 1, 1791. His widow was married to Samuel Thompson two years later and left Cincinnati in a keel boat with her husband and her children, and settled in Dayton, arriving here April 1, 1796. and, with the Newcom family, erected a double log cabin—probably on the site of what is now known as Van Cleve park. Here her death occurred in 1837, but her descendants are still well known and prominent citizens of Dayton.

Mrs. Susan Catherine (Koerner) Wright was born in Loudoun county, Va., in 1831, but was reared from childhood in Indiana. Her father was a native of Saxony, and her mother a Virginian by birth. To the marriage of the bishop have been born seven children, of whom there are living four sons and one daughter: Reuchlin, now married, is a clerk in a general railroad office in Kansas City, Mo.; Lorin is bookkeeper in the office of the John Rouzer Manufacturing company; Wilbur and Orville, now engaged in job printing and in conducting a bicycle store, still make their home under the parental roof, and Katherine is in her fourth year's course of study, at Oberlin college. The mother of this family died July 4, 1889, and her loss was most keenly felt in the home circle and deeply mourned by her many acquaintances. She was a lady of education and refinement; of a quiet, unassuming disposition; ready of speech and an able counselor, whose advice »was always sought and heeded by her husband. She died in the faith of the United Brethren church, of which she had been a pious and consistent member since early childhood. In politics, Bishop Wright has always been allied with the republican party, and his church record, of which the salient facts have been given in this memoir, furnishes its own best commendation.

http://home.dayton.lib.oh.us/archives/wbcollection/wbtoc1.htm

Sample of photographs, postcards, and other materials available at the Dayton Metro Library

1.   Wright, Bishop Milton. Diaries 1857-1917
   829.

   Wright, Bishop Milton. Diaries 1857-1917. Wright State University: Dayton, Ohio. 1999.

2.   Centennial portrait and biographical record of the city of Dayton and of Montgomery County, Ohio: containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens, together with biographies and portraits of the presidents of the United States and biographies of the governors of Ohio. (A.W. Bowen, 1897)
   861-863.

   http://www.daytonhistorybooks.com/page/page/1693250.htm

3. ↑ ^3.0 3.1 Milton Wright, in Find A Grave.

   Tombstone lists year of death.

4. ↑ ^4.0 4.1 Woodland Cemetery Interment Database.

   http://www.woodlandcemetery.org/Search/list.asp

5.   Four Score and Ten: The Thirteenth Re-Union of the Relatives of Mrs. Mary Van Cleve Swaynie. article in the Dayton Journal
   ., page 4, column 2, 12 Feb 1877. .

   Microfilm of this article is at the Dayton Metro Library.

6.   Milton Wright, in Find A Grave.