The Bishop's Boys (85 page)

10. Sanford C. Cox,
Recollections of the Early Settlement of the Wabash Valley
(Freeport, N.Y.: Books for Libraries Press, 1970), pp. 16, 25.

11.
Indiana: A Guide to the Hoosier State
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1941), p. 107.

12. “Ancestors.”

13. “My Grand Parents and Parents,” p. 6.

14. Ibid., p. 7; “My Father’s Life”; see other descriptions in manuscript and printed sources cited in note 5.

15. “My Grand Parents and Parents,” p. 7; see also Thompson,
Our Bishops
, p. 527; Koontz and Roush,
The Bishops
.

16. “My Grand Parents and Parents.”

17. Thompson,
Our Bishops
, p. 532.

18. “Ancestors.”

19. Ibid.

20. Ibid.; see also Thompson,
Our Bishops;
Koontz and Roush,
The Bishops
.

21. “Ancestors.”

22. Ibid.

23. Ibid.

24. Ibid.

25. Ibid.

26. On the history of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ, see Daniel Berger,
History of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ
(Dayton, Ohio: United Brethren Publishing House, 1906); A. W. Drury,
History of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ
(Dayton, Ohio: United Brethren Publishing House, 1924); Paul H. Fetters,
Trials and Triumphs
(Hunting-ton, Ind.: Department of Church Services, 1984); Frank S. Mead,
Handbook of Denomination in the U.S
. (New York: Abingdon-Cokesbury, 1950); Robert T. Handy,
A History of the Churches in the United States and Canada
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1977); various issues of
The United Brethren Yearbook
also contain useful historical information. For Milton Wright’s White River Conference, see Augustus Cleland Wilmore,
History of the White River Conference of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ
(Dayton, Ohio: United Brethren Publishing House, 1925).

27. Milton Wright Teaching Certificates, box 8, file 8, WSU.

28. Milton Wright manuscript letter, January 7, 1916, box 8, file 8, WSU.

29. Ibid.

30. Milton Wright to William Wright, December 24, 1855, and March 17, 1853; box 8, file 9, WSU.

31. Milton Wright manuscript letter, January 16, 1916, box 8, file 8, WSU.

1. The details of the Koerner-Fry (or Fryer) families fascinated Orville Wright, who shared his father’s enthusiasm for genealogy. His correspondence with W. E. Martin, a Leesburg, Va., lawyer, about his mother’s background and birthplace provide the basis for this section; box 12, file 11. See also Koerner Letters, box 12, files 8–10, Wright State University Archives (cited hereafter as WSU).

2. Orville Wright quoted in Fred C. Kelly,
The Wright Brothers: A Biography Authorized by Orville Wright
(New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1943), p. 10.

3. H. A. Thompson,
Our Bishops
(Dayton, Ohio: United Brethren Publishing House, 1903), p. 529.

4. Jess B. Gilbert, “A Tribute,” in Ivonette Wright Miller, ed.,
Wright Reminiscences
(Dayton, Ohio: Privately printed, 1978), pp. 183–184.

5. Milton Wright Diary, May 28, 1857, box 8, file 11, WSU (cited hereafter as Diary). The author has made use of a complete typed transcript of Milton Wright’s diary prepared for the Wright family by the Wright State University Archives.

6. Diary, June 19, 1857.

7. Milton Wright to William Wright, July 4, 1857, box 8, file 9, WSU; see also Diary, July 4, 1857.

8. Milton Wright to William Wright, July 4, 1857, box 8, file 9, WSU.

9. Diary, July 6–18, 1857; Milton Wright to Dan and Catherine Wright, August 11, 1857, box 8, file 9, WSU.

10. Diary, July 20, 1857.

11. Diary, August 2, 1857.

12. Ibid.

13. Diary, November 1859.

14. Diary, November 14, 1859.

15. Milton Wright to Wilbur Wright, July 4, 1908, box 6, The Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress (cited hereafter as Wright Papers, LC).

16. Milton Wright to Wilbur Wright, October 11, 1907, box 5, Wright Papers, LC.

17. Milton Wright, untitled notes inserted in Diary for 1859, WSU.

18. Ibid.

19. Milton Wright to William Wright, November 27, 1862, box 5, WSU.

20. Ibid.; Milton Wright, untitled notes inserted in Diary for 1859, WSU; Milton Wright to William Wright, October 22, 1863, box 5, WSU.

21. Assorted deeds and titles, box 97, Wright Papers, LC; Milton Wright, untitled notes inserted in Diary for 1859, WSU.

22. Ibid.

23. Thompson,
Our Bishops
, p. 532; Diary, special notes on 1861, added later to 1858 Diary.

24. Interview with Milton Wright entitled “Wilbur Wright Born in Henry County,” undated newspaper clipping, Wright Scrapbooks, 1909, Wright Papers, LC.

25.
The Reform Leaflet
(October 1881), vol. 1, no. 1, 2; see also April 1882; July 1882, WSU.

26. Thompson,
Our Bishops
, p. 549.

1. A. W. Drury,
History of the City of Dayton and Montgomery County, Ohio
(Dayton, Ohio: S. J. Clarke Co., 1909), vol. 1, p. 574; Sam Bass Warner,
Streetcar Suburbs: The Process of Growth in Boston, 1870–1900
(New York: Atheneum, 1970), and John W. Repps,
The Making of Urban America: A History of City Planning in the United States
(Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1968), are the best studies of the development of streetcar suburbs like West Dayton. Other details rest in part on the work of Allan Fletcher,
The Wright Brothers’ Home and Cycle Shop in Greenfield Village
, a thesis in the University of Michigan Program in Museum Practice, June 30, 1972, and on discussions with curators of Greenfield Village, Dearborn, Mich.

2. Montgomery County Recorder’s Office, Deed Record J-4; Fletcher,
Wright Brothers’ Home
.

3. U.S. Census, 1890 and 1900, Ward 5, Enumeration District 54, National Archives.

4. The figures are the author’s estimates based on loose notes in M. Wright Diaries and assorted biographical materials, deeds, and legal documents; Wright Papers, boxes 96–98, LC.

5. For games and childhood life in West Dayton, see “Fox and Townball Were Early Sports,” Dayton
Journal
(June 16, 1909), and John R. McMahon,
The Wright Brothers: Fathers of Flight
(Boston: Little, Brown, 1930), p. 22.

6. Milton Wright to Reuchlin Wright, November 9, 1899, box 5, Wright Papers, LC.

7. Ibid.; McMahon,
Wright Brothers
, p. 24.

8. McMahon,
Wright Brothers
, p. 32.

9. Ivonette Wright Miller, “Ivonette Wright Miller’s Reminiscences,” in Miller, ed.,
Wright Reminiscences
(Dayton, Ohio: Privately printed, 1978), pp. 3–4.

10. Wilbur Wright, Last Will and Testament, May 10, 1912, in Alfred Stokes Andrews,
The Andrews, Clapp, Stokes, Wright, Van Cleve Genealogies
(Fort Lauderdale, Fla.: Privately printed, 1984), p. 502.

11. Wilbur Wright, April 3, 1912, in Marvin W. McFarland, ed.,
The Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright
(New York: McGraw-Hill, 1953), vol. 1, p. v.

12. McMahon,
Wright Brothers
, p. 21.

13. H. A. Thompson,
Our Bishops
(Dayton, Ohio: United Brethren Publishing House, 1903), p. 543.

14. Ibid.

15. Ibid., pp. 545–546.

16. Ibid., pp. 542–543; see also Paul Rodes Koontz and Walter Edwin Roush,
The Bishops: Church of the United Brethren in Christ
(Dayton, Ohio: Otterbein Press, 1950), and Paul R. Fetters,
Trials and Triumphs: A History of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ
(Huntington, Ind.: Church of the United Brethren in Christ, Department of Church Services, 1984), pp. 237–238.

17. Fetters,
Trials and Triumphs
, pp. 237–238.

18. Information on the houses in Cedar Rapids and Adair is from Milton Wright’s Diary, passim, Wright State University Archives.

19. McMahon,
Wright Brothers
, p. 28.

20. Interview with Milton Wright, “Wilbur Wright Born in Henry County,” undated newspaper clipping, Wright Scrapbooks, 1909, Wright Papers, LC.

21. Fred C. Kelly, ed.,
Miracle at Kitty Hawk
(New York: Farrar, Straus & Young, 1951), p. 3. Original in Wright Papers, LC.

1. Milton Wright to Susan Wright, June 2, 1888, box 5, Wright Papers, Library of Congress.

2. Milton Wright to Katharine Wright, May 3, 1888, box 5, Wright Papers, LC.

3. Milton Wright to Katharine Wright, October 15, 1887, box 5, Wright Papers, LC.

4. Milton Wright to Susan Wright, September 11, 1888, box 5, Wright Papers, LC.

5. Fred C. Kelly,
The Wright Brothers
(New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1943), p. 15.

6. Octave Chanute,
Progress in Flying Machines
(New York: The American Engineer and Railroad Journal, 1894), pp. 55–56. See also “Remarks by Milton Wright,” Smithsonian Institution Press Release, December 17, 1948, 28; Ivonette Wright Miller, ed.,
Wright Reminiscences
(Dayton, Ohio: Privately printed, 1978), p. 4; Milton Wright to Reuchlin Wright, November 9, 1899, box 5, Wright Papers, LC; and C. H. Gibbs-Smith,
Aviation: An Historical Survey
(London: HMSO, 1970), pp. 46–47.

7. Orville Wright, Deposition, January 13, 1920, in Marvin W. McFarland, ed.,
The Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright
(New York: McGraw-Hill, 1953), vol. 1, p. 3.

8. Grace Boston, “Wright Boys Interested in Aviation When They Were School Boys in This City,” Cedar Rapids
Evening Gazette
(Sept. 19, 1928); “Remembering When Orville and Wilbur Wright Were Iowa Schoolboys,” undated article, Wright Scrapbooks, 1928, Wright Papers, LC.

9. “Remarks by Milton Wright.”

10. “Teacher Tells of Boys; They Caused No Trouble,” Dayton
Herald
, June 16, 1909.

11. Kelly,
Wright Brothers
, p. 1.

12. Ibid., p. 5.

13. Boston, “Wright Boys.”

14. “Teacher Tells of Boys.”

15. Milton Wright, Diaries, 1878, WSU.

16. Milton Wright to Wilbur Wright, October 3, 1907, box 6, Wright Papers, LC. Dr. Adrian J. Kinnane offers a similar interpretation of Reuchlin’s rebellion in “The Crucible of Flight.”

17. H. A. Thompson,
Our Bishops
(Dayton, Ohio: United Brethren Publishing House, 1903), p. 546. For an example of the bishop’s attitude toward politicians, see Milton Wright to Wilbur Wright, August 27, 1908, box 6, Wright Papers, LC.

18. Ibid.

19.
Reform Leaflet
, vol. 1, no. 1, box 8, file 4, WSU.

20. Thompson,
Our Bishops
, p. 544.

21. Lorin Wright to Susan Wright, October 31, 1882, box 5, Wright Papers, LC.

22. Ibid.; see also other letters, box 5.

23. Philomatheon Program, box 3, file 4, WSU.

24. Assorted report cards, box 3, file 3, WSU.

25. Interview with Milton Wright entitled “Wilbur Wright Born in Henry County,” undated newspaper clipping, Wright Scrapbooks, Wright Papers, LC.

26. Susan Wright to Milton Wright, June 20, 1884, box 8, file 10, WSU.

1. A. W. Drury,
History of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ
(Dayton, Ohio: United Brethren Publishing House, 1924), p. 475.

2. Paul Fetters,
Trials and Triumphs
(Huntington, Ind.: Department of Church Services, 1984), pp. 234–270, provides the clearest description of the crisis.

3. Ibid.

4. Dayton
Daily Journal
, May 25, 1885.

5.
Lutheran Standard
quoted in the
Christian Conservator
, July 15, 1885.

6. Dayton
Daily Journal
, May 27, 1885.

7. Susan Wright to Milton Wright, September 20, 1888, July 23, 1888, and September 20, 1888; all in file 10, box 8, Wright Collection, WSU.

8. Milton sent his son detailed advice on farming during these years. See, for example, Milton Wright to Reuchlin Wright, December 1901, box 5, Wright Papers, LC.

9. Katharine Wright to Milton Wright, September 25, 1902, box 5, Wright Papers, LC.

10. Reuchlin Wright to Milton Wright, September 17, 1901, box 6, Wright Papers, LC.

11. Wilbur Wright to Reuchlin Wright, May 20, 1902, box 7, Wright Papers, LC.

12. Reuchlin Wright to Milton Wright, April 2, 1911, box 6, Wright Papers, LC.

13. Reuchlin Wright to Milton Wright, October 6, 1912, box 6, Wright Papers, LC.

14. Lorin’s letters to Katharine offer a classic picture of life on the Kansas frontier in the roaring eighties. See, for example, Lorin Wright to Katharine Wright, November 29, 1887, box 5, Wright Papers, LC.

15. Lorin Wright to Katharine Wright, August 4, 1888, August 15, 1888, November 12, 1888, and May 30, 1888; all in box 5, Wright Papers, LC.

16. Lorin Wright to Katharine Wright, November 12, 1888, box 5, Wright Papers, LC.

17. Dayton
Daily News
, December 18, 1927, “Ed Ellis Tells of the Boys’ Characteristics,” undated article, Wright Scrapbooks, 1909, Wright Papers, LC; Wilbur Wright grade cards, Wright Collection, file 3, box 3, WSU.

18. Milton Wright, “Notes for Who’s Who,” October 26, 1907, in Ivonette Wright Miller, ed.,
Wright Reminiscences
(Dayton, Ohio: Privately printed, 1978), p. 170.

19. Wilbur Wright to Milton Wright, September 12, 1894, box 7, Wright Papers, LC; also in Fred C. Kelly, ed.,
Miracle at Kitty Hawk
(New York: Farrar, Straus & Young, 1951), pp. 8–10.

20. Wilbur Wright to George Spratt, January 23, 1902, in Marvin W. McFarland, ed.,
The Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright
(New York: McGraw-Hill, 1953). vol. 1, p. 205.

21. Wilbur Wright to George Spratt, December 2, 1903, in ibid., vol. 1, p. 390.

22. Interview with Milton Wright, “Wilbur Wright Born in Henry County,” undated newspaper clipping in Wright Scrapbooks, 1909, Wright Papers, LC.

23. Wilbur Wright,
Scenes in the Church Commission During the Last Day of Its Session
(Dayton, Ohio: Wright Brothers, Job Printers, 1888).

24. Ibid.

25. See Paul Fetters,
Trials and Triumphs
(Huntington, Ind.: Church of the United Brethren in Christ, 1984), pp. 267–270, for details of the crisis.

26. Wilbur Wright to Milton Wright, August 13, 1888, box 6, Wright Papers, LC.

27. Wilbur Wright to the Rev. Mr. McGee, April 13, 1888, box 41, Wright Papers, LC.

28. Wilbur Wright to Milton Wright, August 23, 1888, box 6, Wright Papers, LC.

29. Fetters,
Trials and Triumphs
, pp. 273–274.

30. Ibid., p. 275.

31. Walter E. Musgrave,
The Church of the United Brethren in Christ: Its Teachings and Progress
(Huntington, Ind.: Church of the United Brethren in Christ, 1945), p. 76; Drury,
History
, p. 475.

32. Milton Wright, Diary, July 4, 1889, file 4, box 9, Wright Collection, WSU.