Tulare County Biographies

ISAAC N. WRIGHT

Transcribed by: Craig A Hahn

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm


     One of the oldest residents of Tulare county, reckoning from the days of 
his pioneering, was the venerable and respected Isaac N. Wright, a man of 
industry, thrift and sound judgment, who succeeded for himself and was active in 
every movement for the advancement of the industrial and agricultural 
advancement of the county, his death occurring at his home at Tulare, Cal., 
February 17, 1910. Of English stock, he was born near Mount Vernon, Knox county, 
Ohio, October 13, 1823, son of William Wright, who was born, reared and educated 
in England; he was a pioneer in Knox county, and began his life there in a log 
cabin which he erected in a small opening in the forest, improving a farm and 
prospering there until he removed to Iowa, where he passed away. His mother, 
Elizabeth Newton, also a native of England, died in Omaha, Nebr. Mr. and Mrs. 
Wright had eleven children, four of who survived. One of the children, George, 
who came to California in 1850, died in Tuolumne county; James came with Isaac 
N. in 1851 and died in San Diego; a daughter, Mrs. Elizabeth Smith, resides at 
Long Beach, Cal.; and another daughter, Mary, resides in Montana. 
 
Under the tutelage of his mother, a woman of refinement and education, Isaac N. 
Wright gained his elementary knowledge of contents of school books. Brought up 
on a woodland farm he became an expert chopper, and when he was sixteen years 
old helped to build a log schoolhouse near his home and was chosen to cut the 
saddles and notches for one corner of the building, and in that crude structure 
he attended school five years. Soon after he was twenty-one years old he entered 
upon an apprenticeship to the miller�s trade and later he was the lessee and 
operator of a grist and sawmill on Owl creek, at Mount Vernon, for two years. In 
November, 1851, he sailed from New York on the steamer Georgia for Aspinwall, 
and from there he went by rail to Gorgona, whence he was taken by steamer to the 
head of navigation. The remainder of the trip across the isthmus of Panama, 
about twenty-five miles, he made on foot. From Panama he came to San Francisco 
on the steamer Northerner, arriving in December, 1851, and for two years he and 
his brother did placer mining at Jamestown, Tuolumne county, and met with some 
success. In 1854 he and his brother, George, leased a sawmill which was operated 
four years. Then he went back to Ohio for his family, arriving at his home 
February, 1856, and in April that year he left for California with his wife and 
child, by the Isthmus route, and was in Panama April 15, the date of the 
historic riots there. His wife and child were safe in the American hotel near 
the Plaza, but he armed himself with an old American flint-lock musket and 
participated in the affair. They made a good passage to San Francisco on the 
steamer John L. Stevens and he located at Sonora and was successful several 
years as a quartz miner and as a miller. In 1869 he moved his family to San Jose 
and prospected through the coast counties into the San Joaquin valley and might 
have embarked in stock-raising if the season had not been too dry. In 1870 he 
pre-empted one hundred and sixty acres of land now within the municipal limits 
of Tulare which in 1872 he traded to the railroad company for his present 
homestead on which he located that year. He set about improving his property and 
placing it under irrigation, and almost immediately he was achieving success as 
a farmer and stockman; much of his land was in alfalfa. He has raised many 
high-grade cattle and hogs and has a large dairy. His public spirit prompted him 
in actively promoting the growth and development of the city of Tulare; he was 
one of promoters of Kaweah Canal & Irrigating Co., was one of its directors from 
the first and later was elected its president. During his ten years� service as 
school trustee, he had charge of the erection of the brick school house in 
Tulare. A Republican in national politics, in local affairs he always advocated 
the election of the best man for the place without regard to party affiliations.
 
     At Mount Vernon, Ohio, January 14, 1851, Mr. Wright married Charlotte A. 
Phillips and they had four children, as follows: Victoria is Mrs. A. D. Neff of 
Oakland, Cal.; George W., born in Tuolumne county and now living in Tuolumne, is 
a locomotive engineer, and in that capacity ran the first passenger train into 
Sonora; Alice L.; Hattie M. is Mrs. W. J. Higdon of Tulare. The mother was born 
November 1830, fourth of six children of Charles and Addie (Foster) Phillips, 
her mother having been a native of England. She is the only survivor of the 
family and is still living on the Wright home at Tulare, California.  
 
SOURCE:  History of Tulare and Kings Counties, California with Biographical 
Sketches - Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company, 1913 Pp 351, 352