My Genealogy Hound

BENJAMIN TOWNSEND WRIGHT. This gentleman, a representative and influential citizen of the village of Cortland, and well known throughout the Judicial District, in which he lives, as a lawyer of repute and sterling worth, enjoys a large, lucrative general practice. He comes from good American stock, that has well accomplished its part in the development of the country, and in obtaining its independence and in maintaining it. He was born in Carmel, Putnam County, N. Y., and is a son of Thomas S. Wright, grandson of Reuben Wright, great-grandson of Reuben Wright, Sr., and great-great-grandson of Thomas Wright, who lived at White Plains, Westchester County, N. Y., during the Revolutionary period, and was a direct descendant of the Wrights who came from England and settled on Long Island. This early pioneer and ancestor of our subject was a Quaker and a miller by trade. He followed that occupation all his life. During the Revolution he furnished flour for the soldiers of the patriot army, and so important was his mill considered that Gen. Israel Putnam was sent up from Peekskill with a brigade to guard it. He received his pay in Continental money, and when it was suggested to him that it would be safer to invest it in real estate he refused, thus showing his loyalty and his confidence in the cause he espoused. He believed the currency would be redeemed, but it was not, and his children’s children and grandchildren used thousands of dollars of it for book marks. He reared a large family and left the mills to his son Reuben, at his death, who, like his father before him, followed milling.

Reuben Wright, Jr., son of the Reuben named above, adopted the calling of an agriculturist and lived at Somers, Westchester County. He married Margaret Strang, daughter of Thomas Strange, whose father was an officer in the Continental Army during the Revolution. The Strangs were of French origin, their original name being La Strange, which being Anglicized is as above. Their ancestors were Huguenots, who left France to escape persecution. In America they identified themselves with the Presbyterians. Reuben Wright, Jr., was father of a family of thirteen children, of whom Thomas S. was the eldest.

The father of our subject, Thomas Strang Wright, was born in Somers, Westchester County, N. Y. He chose the trade of carpenter and joiner, making it his chief occupation. He was progressive, ambitious and soon became noted for his skill, ingenuity and integrity in his business as a builder and contractor. He built railroad and other bridges, and gave especial attention to the construction of church edifices. He married Mary E. Crane, who was born at Carmel, N. Y., and was a daughter of Nathaniel Crane of Putnam County, N. Y. Nathaniel Crane’s father was John Crane, who was a major in the Continental army, and was once judge of Dutchess County. This family of Cranes is of English ancestry; they are descended from Puritan stock and were Presbyterians. Interesting anecdotes illustrating the daring and skill of Major Crane as an officer are told, among which is the following: Receiving information that some fifty or sixty Tories, enlisted in the British army, were to be mustered into that service on a certain night, by British officers sent from New York for that purpose, he resolved to prevent the muster, and, if possible, to capture the whole party. He summoned to his aid two resolute men from the highlands, who, armed with muskets with bayonets, accompanied him after dark to the rendezvous of the Tories, a secluded log house, having only one door and a window. On arriving at the place, he became assured that the Tories and officers had assembled. He then quietly stationed his two men, one at the door and one at the window, and riding about furiously on his horse, in a stentorian voice began to order up his troops, and place them in position about the building. These troops, of course, were only imaginary ones, but they answered the purpose, for the Tories believed they were surrounded and their terror was increased when one attempted to peer out of the door and was met by a bayonet thrust from the guard there. After fully impressing those inside that they were surrounded by a superior force, he demanded their surrender. They wanted to parley, but he told them they must surrender at once, or take the consequences. They concluded to surrender, when it was arranged that he should send in two to bind them. He sent in his two aids with cords, already provided, who bound the whole crowd. When the prisoners found they had been captured by three men their chagrin and rage were uncontrollable, but they were bound and helpless.

Thomas S. Wright soon after his marriage moved to Carmel, Putnam County, N. Y., where he lived for a few years, and then removed to Brooklyn, from which city he returned to Somers, N. Y. In 1850 he moved to Richford, N. Y., and engaged in farming for ten years, after which he made his home in Lisle, Broome County, N. Y. He was a Whig in politics until the formation of the Republican party, when he joined this party and remained a member of it till his death. His wife died in January, 1897, at the residence of her son, Benjamin T., in Cortland, N. Y. There were born to them eight children. The eldest, Benjamin T., our subject, was named after his mother’s maternal grandfather, Benjamin Townsend, who, though of Quaker descent, early became a Methodist and was noted for his piety and religious zeal and work.

Benjamin T. Wright passed his minority on a farm and was educated in the common schools, except one year spent at the Cortland Academy in Homer, N. Y. He began the study of law with McDowell & Edwards of Lisle, N. Y., but left his legal studies and volunteered for service in the Union army soon after the breaking out of the Civil War. He enlisted in Co. F. 27th Reg. N. Y. Vol. Inf. for two years, but was transferred to Co. H. 168th N. Y. Vol. Inf., the regiment going into service as a part of the Army of the Potomac. He served until he was mustered out of the service at the expiration of his term. He was placed on the color-guard of that regiment and for a time acted as color-bearer. In 1863 the regiment was transferred from the Army of the Potomac and sent to Georgia with the troops ordered there as reinforcements after the battle of Chickamauga, and when Sherman’s army started on its grand march to the sea, his regiment was detailed to watch and guard the bridge across the Tennessee at Bridgeport, Alabama.

While in the army he was on a gunboat during three naval fights in which the boat was engaged, and in one of which he was an active participant, — an unusual and strange experience for an infantryman.

Among the services performed by him in the army was one in which he took part in 1863 — a hazardous raid by infantry to within a few miles of Richmond for the purpose of destroying certain military and medical stores belonging to the Confederates. The raid was successful in accomplishing its object, but the command came near being cut off and captured. The raiding party was made up of detachments of volunteers from several regiments. The one belonging to his regiment, 140 in number, was left at an advantageous position at a cross roads a few miles from the objective point, with orders to hold the position at all hazards, and to keep open communication. An attack was made upon them by a greatly superior force of rebels, and a severe fight, considering the number engaged, ensued, lasting several hours. The Union troops held the position till the return of the other portion of the command, and were highly commended by the commanding officer for so doing.

After his discharge from the army, Mr. Wright returned to the study of law and was soon admitted to the bar, and shortly thereafter he was employed in the U. S. Provost Marshal’s office at Owego, N. Y., and continued in that service for several months.

At the close of his service in the Provost Marshal’s office, he settled down to the practice of his profession at Whitney Point, Broome County, N. Y., staying there something over a year. In May, 1866, he was married to Miss Mary A. Howland, daughter of Artemas Howland of Lisle, N. Y., and in the following July he moved his law office and residence to Marathon, Cortland County, N. Y. Here he soon obtained an extensive practice and entered with great spirit into all matters of public interest, and took a prominent part in politics, local, state and national. For several years, and until the time of his removal therefrom, he was attorney and counsel of the village of Marathon, N. Y., and rendered efficient service in that capacity in the preparation of its by-laws, and in procuring their adoption and enforcement. He helped to organize there a council of the Loyal League, and for several years was its efficient and zealous president. In the fall of 1873 he was elected district attorney of Cortland County, and in February, 1874, moved his office to Cortland village, the county seat, and settled there with his family in April of the same year. He obtained an enviable reputation as district attorney, and successfully prosecuted a large number of very important criminal cases, and paid into the county treasury from fines and penalties collected by him sums of money largely in excess of his salary for his entire term.

Since the expiration of his term as district attorney he has devoted his time and energies to the civil branch of his profession, and has acquired an excellent reputation for loyalty and earnest work for his clients, and has been correspondingly successful and built up a large practice, in which he is still engaged.

He has also been closely identified with Cortland and her interests, and taken a prominent part in politics. He is, and ever since the organization of that party has been, a prominent Republican, but has not hesitated to rebuke party action in local politics, when he believed such rebuke to be essential to the good of his party or to the welfare of the people. His motto in politics is: “Country before party,” and by that rule he fearlessly acts. He is a stalwart fighter for what he believes to be right; so much so that during a fierce political campaign some years ago his adversaries taking advantage of his middle initial, and as a term of reproach, nicknamed him “Tecumseh.” The name stuck, and he is still often called “Tecumseh,” but the term has lost its bitterness, and is now used only in kindliness or as a friendly salutation.

Mr. Wright has been a member of the Masonic fraternity over thirty years, and assisted to organize Western Light Lodge at Lisle, N. Y. He was the first junior warden of that lodge, and afterwards its senior warden. He is now a member of Cortlandville Lodge, No. 470, F. & A. M. He is a firm believer in the principles of this Order, and in his early years was an ardent worker in the Order, and frequently honored with office therein.

In religious matters he is a Congregationalist, being a member of the First Congregational Church and Society of Cortland, N. Y.; is a member of its board of trustees and for three years past chairman of the board; for many years he has been an active worker in the Sunday School connected with that church. He was its first librarian, and as such organized the library system now used there and contributed much towards bringing the library to its present efficient condition.

For the past twenty years he has been and still is a member of Grover Post, No. 98, Grand Army of the Republic, Department of New York. For two consecutive terms he was commander of the post, and has been frequently rewarded for his devotion and service in the cause of the Grand Army with positions on the staff of the Department Commander, being in 1880 Inspector General of the Department of New York on the staff of Hon. L. Coe Young, who was the Department Commander of the state. The Inspector’s Report of that year, submitted by him, received the hearty commendation of the annual encampment for being the most perfect and complete report ever submitted to the State Encampment. He was, also, a member of the staff of National Commander Gen. Russell A. Alger, and became and continues to be a member of the Russell A. Alger National Staff Association, and is a member of the Cortland County Veterans Association, and other veteran associations
also.

Mr. Wright is a lover of nature, and in his youth was an enthusiastic sportsman. He still enjoys his annual seasons of recreation in field or forest, on the lake or beside the stream with rod and gun.

Our subject is a good after-dinner speaker, and has an enviable reputation as an orator at the bar and on the political platform, and is much sought after as a speaker in political meetings and at social and Grand Army assemblies. But he always appears at his best when opposing public wrongs or in defending the weak and oppressed, when his sympathy is always sure to be aroused and all his energies and powers fully enlisted in the cause. Mr. Wright’s portrait* appears on a preceding page in connection with this sketch of his life.

*A portrait was included in the original printed volume.