THE WRIGHTS

Mr. Hubbard Wright, though a native of Lyman, N. H., was a distinguished citizen of Bradford, Vt., and will long be retained in kind and respectful remembrance by at least the present generation of its people. His father, Dr. Lockhart Wright, when a young man came, near the close of the last century, from Northfield, Mass., and studied medicine with Dr. Arad Stebbins, who was then the principal practicing physician in this place.  Dr. Wright, when prepared to engage in the business of his profession, married Abigail, the daughter of Ellis Bliss and Abigail Taylor, his wife. She was a sister of Captain Ellis Bliss, and also of Miss Lydia Bliss, who married Captain Absalom Baldwin. She was married in the seventeenth year of her age, the Doctor being about ten years her senior. They directly removed to Lyman, N. H., where he practiced medicine for more than twenty years; when the parents returned, with their son Hubbard and only daughter, to this place, in the year 1824, and spent the remainder of their days. They lived for a short while a little out of the village.   Mr. Wright afterwards purchased the Dr. Stebbins place, at the north end of the village, and the family resided there, first in the old Stebbins mansion, which Mr. Wright rendered more spacious and commodious, to be used, as indeed it had before been, as a hotel. It was styled the Vermont House, and so continued till accidentally consumed by fire, in the summer of 1871. It had passed through the hands of several proprietors, and was then owned by R. W. Chamberlin.

In the year 1849, Mr. Hubbard Wright built a fine brick house, a little north of the hotel, and soon after took his parents there, where in the course of a few years they both died. Dr. Lockhart Wright died January 31, 1851, in the eightieth year of his age; his wife died July 3,1855, at the age of seventy-four years and twenty-six days. Mr.  Hubbard Wright had the supervision of his good farm, but was not much accustomed to hard work. He was for years one of the directors of the first Bradford bank, and there he used to spend a great deal of time. At the call of his fellow townsmen, he represented them in the State Legislature during its sessions of the years 1848, '49, '50, '55, '62, '63, '64, '65 and '68. He was also, from Bradford, a member of the State Convention for the amendment of the Constitution of Vermont in the year 1870. In the prosperity of the town generally he manifested an interest. Though he had not been a regular attendant on public worship, when the subject of building a new meeting house, a year or two previous to his decease, for the use of the Congregational church and society, was under discussion, he subscribed liberally in furtherance of the design, though he did not live to see anything effectual accomplished.

Mr. Wright never married. He had in care, as friends and helpers, a young girl, Sarah, who remained until she married; and a young man who had been brought up in his brother's family in New York, by the name of Philip Tully, who gradually became in fact, though not nominally, steward of his household, attending faithfully to its domestic affairs, and to the management of the farm. Mr.  Wright was an honest and kind neighbor. A very quiet man, he was ; and, having a competency, he did not wish to be much disturbed by either the affairs of other people or his own.

Feeling, probably, rather lonely when about home, and being able to do so, he had long been accustomed to walk, both forenoon and afternoon, six days in the week, to the central part of the village, and sit for a while, not in any saloon or bar-room, but in the bank or some store, to see and hear what was going on, and to have a little conversation with any friends whom he should chance to meet.  The time at length came when he could go no more.

He then remained quietly in his own pleasant dwelling.  Appetite and strength, and all his physical energies were failing. He had become prematurely old. Doctors did the best they could for him, but his infirmities steadily progressed. His friend and helper, Philip, attended to his wants faithfully and tenderly, both day and night; his sister from New York, and Mrs. Gaffield, (the same who formerly lived in his family,) of Northampton, Mass., with hearts full of loving kindness, came to sympathize with and minister unto him. On the 22d day of July, 1873. at the time appointed by infinite wisdom, he quietly passed away, at the age of sixty-four years, ten months and seventeen days.

Mr. Wright is understood to have possessed a considerable estate, and to have just left it to the disposal of his surviving brother and sister, without expressing any wish in regard to it.

His funeral was attended at his late residence, on Thursday, July 24th, by a large company of his relatives and neighbors, and the fellow townsmen whom he had so often represented in a legislative capacity, and otherwise served. The religious services were conducted by Rev.  Dr. McKeen, who had long before attended the funerals of the parents of the deceased; in this case assisted by Rev. Mr. Elliot, acting pastor of the Congregational church in the place; when the remains, enclosed in a beautiful casket, were conveyed to the cemetery, and laid down with those of his parents, close by the well proportioned and substantial granite obelisk which he had, years before, caused to be erected, with his name and the date of his birth engraved upon it.

Mr. Wright left one brother, about four years older than himself, in the city of New York, the celebrated engraver, and a prominent member of the American Bank Note Company, Neziah Wright; a man well-known and highly esteemed in financial and commercial circles; who is said to possess a sufficiency of wealth, acquired by fair and honorable means. The amiable and excellent wife of Mr. N. Wright, deceased some years since, leaving no child but a virtually adopted daughter, Jane; a worthy young lady, who married Mr. Phineas Lowndesbury, of Ridgefield, Ct., a gentleman worthy of such a wife.  There was another brother, next to Neziah, Ellis by name, who went many years ago into the Western country, and was lost sight of.

The only sister of these brothers, Miss Abigail Wright, born at Lyman, N. H., Sept. 6, 1813, a lady possessing a liberal share of good nature, cheerfulness, and energy, has remained single; devoting her kindly attentions to her parents while living; and subsequently to her brothers, in their respective homes; especially when so greatly needing her sisterly assiduities.

Some years since she visited London, and other places of note in Europe; but her home since the death of her parents has been with her brother in New York. She was present at the funeral of her brother at Bradford, and followed his remains to their final resting place.  Biographie Index

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