My Genealogy Hound

REUBEN G. WRIGHT, of Westfield, is one of the representative self-made men of Chautauqua county, a man of good judgment, of remarkable energy and strong will, but generous and kind withal, and ever ready to assist in whatever would benefit his town or county, He is a son of Reuben and Betsey M. (Seymour) Wright, and was born at Westfield, Chautauqua county, New York, July 1, 1824. One of those who left the peace and quiet of his Connecticut home to risk his life in the Revolutionary struggle for American independence was Reuben Wright, Sr., the paternal grandfather of Reuben G. Wright. When peace and independence came to the Thirteen Colonies, Reuben Wright returned to his family and the tillage of his farm. One of his sons was Reuben Wright (father) who removed to Redfield, Oswego county, this State, and thence to Ohio. After a short residence there, he returned to New York in 1817, and settled at Westfield, where he was engaged in the weaving and cloth dressing business and where he built a carding machine which he operated for fourteen years. About 1829 he bought a farm about one mile east of the village and gave some attention to farming until his death, which occurred in October, 1847, when he was in the sixty-third year of his age, and at the time of his death left an estate worth in the neighborhood of twenty-thousand dollars. He married Betsey M. Seymour, of Scotch descent, who was a first cousin of Gov. Horatio Seymour and died in 1874, at the advanced age of ninety-three years. They were the parents of seven children, of whom six lived to maturity: Allen, Mrs. Betsey Knight, Mrs. Charlotte Bradley, Reuben G., Franklin M. and Mrs. Martin Warren.

Reuben G. Wright grew to manhood at Westfield where he attended the public schools and Westfield academy. At eighteen years of age he entered the mercantile establishment of Hungerford & Knight where he remained for five years as a clerk. In 1849 he left the store and went to California whose then newly discovered gold-fields were the wonder of the world and attracted throngs of treasure seekers from every part of the United States as well as from various countries of Europe. On arriving on the Pacific slope, Mr. Wright followed gold prospecting and mining for two years and then was engaged for four years in supplying the city of Sacramento with water. He was very successful both in the gold fields and at Sacramento city which he left in 1855 to return to New York, where he became a permanent resident of Westfield although conducting and personally supervising important business enterprises in adjoining and distant states. He purchased four thousand acres of timber land in Clarion county, Pa., and large tracts of timber land in Wisconsin, the former of which required his supervision for eleven years, while the latter demanded his attention for fourteen years. He also engaged extensively in grape culture in the town of Westfield where he now has one hundred acres of vineyards. At the present time he owns over fifteen thousand acres of heavy pine timberland along the borders of Lake Pontchartrain, east of Baton Rouge, in Washington parish, Louisiana.

In 1870 he was married to Cora E. Pierce, and has three sons: Paul D., Ralph G., and Pier R. He has one of the finest residences in Chautauqua county and in their beautiful and pleasant home he and his excellent wife delight to welcome and entertain their friends whose number include many who are prominent in social and political life in the Empire State.