Craig Laselle Wright 1846–1915 – Genealogical Records

Sources

Genealogy Event 1
Event Type: Birth
Event Date: 5 Dec 1846
Event Place: Keosauqua, Van Buren Co., IA, USA
Record Source: Descendents of William Seaman of Washington County, Pennsylvania and Allied Families: HUNT, BRASHER, McCAMMANT, WRIGHT; Compilied and Edited by: Helen Elizabeth Vogt - March 1981, pg. 332

Genealogy Event 2
Event Type: Custom Event
Event Date: 1904
Event Place: , Woodbury Co., Iowa, USA
Record Source:
[1] Woodbury Co, IA Biographies
[2] CRAIG L. WRIGHT.
Craig L. Wright, lawyer and a counselor of the Republican party of Iowa, has been an influential factor in his profession and in public life, especially in political circles, since he took up his abode in early manhood in Sioux City to find in the growing west the coveted opportunities for business advancement and success. Much greater credit is commonly awarded to those who have risen from the depths of poverty through stern adversity to the highest place of honor among men, than to those to whom fortune has been kinder, who were born of honorable ancestry and reared in the lap of luxury. The rare example of sons of great men rising as high or higher than their fathers seems to support the notion that there is in this country a sort of hereditary bar to such distinction. This class of young men are not rated by their associates, but in comparison with their distinguished ancestors, and often to bear an illustrious name is to invite the shafts of jealousy and envy. As a western editor has expressed it: "If any section of a house still honored rises to greatness he will have achieved it. He will not be born to It Or Find It Thrust Upon Him, And He Must Be Very Great Indeed To Overcome The Disadvantage Of Standing In The Shadow Of The Colossal Dead." And yet, an honorable ancestry is a precious heritage, a supreme help to the aspiring young man. Of this Craig L Wright can boast and yet his position of eminence at the bar and in the public life of Iowa is due to his own inherent force of character, his strong purpose, his unwearied industry and the exercise of his native talents, for he has won his prominence in a calling and along lines where distinction must be gained by individual merit and close personal application.
The family of which he is a representative was established in Pennsylvania in 1720 by an emigrant from Wales, whose descendants lived in the Keystone state for several generations. John Wright, the grandfather of Craig L Wright, was born in Pennsylvania and was a mason by trade. In early life he married Miss Rachel Seaman And His Death Occurred In Bloomington, Indiana, In 1825. His widow survived him for many years and lived in Iowa in its territorial days, her last years being spent in Keosauqua, where her death occurred in 1850. Hon. George G. Wright, the father of Craig L. Wright, was born in Bloomington, Monroe county, Indiana, March 4, 1820, and died at the age of seventy-six years. His preliminary education was supplemented by a course of study in the University of Indiana, in which he was graduated when in his twentieth year. He read law with his brother Joseph Wright, who afterward became governor of Indiana. He resided in his native state until the early '40s, when he came to Iowa, settling in Keosauqua, where he resided until the early '60s. He then became a resident of Des Moines, but prior to this time he had attained prominence in connection with public affairs in his adopted state. A lawyer by profession,

he was elected judge of the supreme court of Iowa in 1855, and served upon the bench for fifteen years or until 1870, and at different times served as chief justice of the state. On his retirement from the bench he was chosen to the office of United States senator, where he served for a term of six years and then declined a second nomination. On the bench he won marked distinction. A man of unimpeachable character, of unusual intellectual endowment, with a thorough knowledge of the law, patience, urbanity and industry, he took to the bench the very highest qualifications for this responsible office in the state government, and his record as a judge was in harmony with his record as a man and lawyer, distinguished by unswerving integrity and a masterful grasp of every problem which presented itself for solution. He was the best known of the older statesmen of Iowa and his influence was a potent element in shaping the policy of the commonwealth, in promoting its substantial development and in upholding its intellectual and legal status. He took a deep and commendable interest in Iowa's progress along other lines outside the strict path of the law and was president of the State Agricultural Society for several terms, laboring earnestly in its behalf in early days. His early political allegiance was given to the Whig party, and he was the Whig candidate for congress when his district comprised the whole southern half of the state. His election as chief justice of Iowa occurred in January, 1855, when he was not yet thirty-five years of age.
Judge Wright was married In Van Buren County, Iowa, October 10, 1843, To Miss Hannah M. Dibble, daughter of Thomas and Ruth (Gates) Dibble. Mrs. Wright was born in Saratoga county, New York, near the celebrated springs, and came to Iowa with her parents in 1839. She was a representative of an old New England family that was established in Connecticut during the colonial epoch of our country's history and from the Charter Oak state representatives of the name removed to New York early in the eighteenth century. Her death occurred in June, 1898, when she was seventy-four years of age. Judge and Mrs. Wright have five children: Carroll, who is an attorney for the Rock Island Railroad Company at Des Moines; Craig L.; Mrs. Frank H. Peavey, who died in Minneapolis in August, 1903; Mrs. E. H. Stone, of Sioux City, and George G., who is a broker in Des Moines, Iowa.
Craig L. Wright was born in Keosauqua, Iowa, December 5, 1846, and attended the public schools there until his fifteenth year, when he entered the college department of the State University, in which he was graduated four years later. The following year he received his diploma from the law department of the same institution at Des Moines and he was a law student in the office of Withrow & Wright at Des Moines until his admission to the bar in 1868. Immediately afterward he came to Sioux City, believing that this new but rapidly developing town afforded a good field for professional success. He entered into partnership with William L. Joy, under the firm style of Joy & Wright, a relation that was maintained until 1884. During the succeeding three years A. L. Hudson was connected with them and at the end of that time Mr. Wright withdrew and practiced alone until 1800, when the law firm of Wright & Hubbard was formed, his partner being Senator E. H. Hubbard. Between the years 1890 and 1896 George A. Yeoman and T. W. Bevington were also associated with Mr. Wright in law practice. In 1806 A. F. Call was associated with them under the firm style of Wright, Call & Hubbard, and since the withdrawal of Mr. Hubbard from the firm in 1902 the business style has been Wright & Call. In the early history of the bar of Sioux City its attorneys attended court at Vermilion, Elk Point, Yankton, Cherokee and in Monona, Harrison, O'Brien, Osceola and Sioux counties, Mr. Wright having considerable law business at all these points. He has never engaged to

any great extent in the practice of criminal law, but has devoted his energies to other departments of jurisprudence and has gained fame as a counselor. He has given much of his time to the preparation of law briefs for the appellate court and his been regarded as a deep and thorough student of the law and one who has comprehensive and accurate knowledge of many of its branches. His practice has been of a varied character in civil law, sometimes acting as the counselor and advocate of corporations and again as their opponent. During the days of Sioux City's rapid growth, when it was undergoing what is known in modern parlance as a "boom," Mr. Wright was the counselor who assisted in organizing the corporations which did business here, probably doing more of such legal work than any other lawyer. Among the many which, as attorney, Mr. Wright organized were the old Sioux City Cable Railroad Company that built its line on Jackson street, the elevated road operated under the name of the Sioux City Rapid Transit Company, the Union Stockyards Company, the Sioux City & Northern Railroad Company, the Terminal Railroad & Warehouse Company, the Pacific Short Line, and the Northern Land Company. He has ever had a distinctively representative clientage. He is felicitous and clear in argument, thoroughly in earnest, full of the vigor of conviction, never abusive of adversaries, imbued with highest courtesy and yet one of the most able practitioners at the Iowa bar, an opponent whom the weaker lawyer dreads to meet and whom the stronger representative of the profession regards as a foe far whom he must put forth his best preparation.
In politics Mr. Wright has held much the same position that he has held in the law. He has been the manager and adviser and while his plans have shaped many campaigns and he has always been closely identified with politics, laboring earnestly and unceasingly far the interests of his friends, he has never sought or desired political honors or emoluments for himself. The only political position he has ever filled was that of city attorney, in which office he served in 1870 and 1871.
In 1873 Mr. Wright was married To Miss Kate P. Van Dyke, the wedding being celebrated at Keokuk. Two children have been born unto them: Wilfred L., who is now manager of the New York office of the Bethlehem Steel Works of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania; and Mary L., who is now a student in an eastern college. In business circles and in public life Mr. Wright is rather austere in manner, there being about him a dignity which forbids familiar approach. In private life, however, he is described as a most companionable gentleman, genial, society-laving and a prince of story tellers. His attention from early manhood, however, has been directed to his profession and he is at home in all departments of the law, from the minutiae in practice to the greater topic wherein are involved the consideration of the ethics and philosophy of jurisprudence and the higher concern of public pal icy, but he is not learned in the law alone, for he has studied long and carefully the subjects that are to the statesman and the man of affairs of the greatest import -- the questions of finance, political economy, sociology -- and has kept abreast of the best thinking men of the age.

Genealogy Event 3
Event Type: Death
Event Date: 6 Aug 1915
Event Place: Losangeles, Losangeles Co., CA, USA
Record Source: Descendents of William Seaman of Washington County, Pennsylvania and Allied Families: HUNT, BRASHER, McCAMMANT, WRIGHT; Compilied and Edited by: Helen Elizabeth Vogt - March 1981, pg. 332