Bishop Milton WRIGHT

1828 - 1917  (88 years)

• Name	Milton WRIGHT
  Prefix	Bishop
  Born	17 Nov 1828	Rushville, Rush, Indiana
  Gender	Male
  Died	3 Apr 1917	Dayton, Montgomery, Ohio
  Person ID	I46319	Main
  Last Modified	12 Jun 2020

  
  

  Father	Daniel WRIGHT,   b. 3 Sep 1790, Thetford, Orange, Vermont ,   d. 6 Oct 1861, Fayette County, Indiana  (Age 71 years)
  Mother	Catherine REEDER,   b. 17 Mar 1800, Cincinnati, Hamilton, Ohio ,   d. 24 Sep 1866, Orange, Fayette, Indiana  (Age 66 years)
  Family ID	F32158	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Susan Catharine KOERNER,   b. 1831, Hillsboro, Loudoun, Virginia ,   d. 1889, Dayton, Montgomery, Ohio  (Age 58 years)
  Married	1859
  Children	+ 1. Benoni WRIGHT,   b. 26 Feb 1719, Lebanon, New London, Connecticut ,   d. 3 Jan 1761, Lebanon, New London, Connecticut  (Age 41 years)   2. Otis WRIGHT,   b. 24 Feb 1870, Dayton, Montgomery, Ohio ,   d. 9 Mar 1870, Dayton, Montgomery, Ohio  (Age 0 years)   3. Reuchlin WRIGHT,   b. 17 Mar 1861, Indiana, USA ,   d. 23 May 1920, Kansas City, Jackson, Missouri  (Age 59 years)   4. Ida WRIGHT,   b. 24 Feb 1870, Dayton, Montgomery, Ohio ,   d. 14 Mar 1870, Dayton, Montgomery, Ohio  (Age 0 years)   5. Lorin WRIGHT,   b. 18 Nov 1862, Indiana, USA ,   d. 1 Dec 1939, Dayton, Montgomery, Ohio  (Age 77 years)   6. Wilbur WRIGHT,   b. 16 Apr 1867, Henry County, Indiana ,   d. 30 May 1912, Dayton, Montgomery, Ohio  (Age 45 years) + 7. Orville WRIGHT,   b. 19 Aug 1871, Dayton, Montgomery, Ohio ,   d. 30 Jan 1948, Dayton, Montgomery, Ohio  (Age 76 years)   8. Katharine WRIGHT,   b. 19 Aug 1874,   d. 3 Mar 1929  (Age 54 years)
  Last Modified	12 Jun 2020
  Family ID	F32159	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Notes

  Milton Wright was born in 1828 on his father’s farm in Rush County, Indiana. He was a studious youngster, and was encouraged in his studies by his two older brothers, Samuel Smith and Harvey. Like his father, he was influenced by the tail end of Second Great Awakening and determined to lead a religious life in 1843. However, he did not formally join a church until 1847 when he became a United Brethren. The Church of the United Brethren was the first completely American religious sect and as such embodied many of the equalitarian principles of the new nation. It was especially popular in the Midwest and its unofficial headquarters were in Dayton, Ohio. Milton moved quickly up the ranks. He took a supervisory position at Hartsville College (a United Brethren institution), was ordained a minister, served time as a missionary in the gold fields of Oregon, and then returned to Indiana to become a circuit preacher. The Civil War loomed large in Milton’s early life, but he did not fight even though he was unequivocally an abolitionist. He was also a pacifist, so much so that he would not preach to the troops. Strong opinions like these made Milton both an influential and controversial figure in the Church of the United Brethren. His career required that he move his family often. They lived in three different locations in Indiana before Milton was appointed the editor of the church newspaper in 1869 and moved to Dayton, Ohio where the United Brethren maintained their printing house. In 1877, he was appointed Bishop of the United Brethren churches between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains, and moved his family to Cedar Rapids, Iowa. In 1881, he was called back east to become a circuit preacher once more and he deposited his family in Richmond, Indiana. In 1884 he moved the family for the last time, taking them back to Dayton where he could be closer to and more involved in church politics. In 1889, the Church of the United Brethren spilt along conservative and liberal lines and Milton became a Bishop of the conservatives, the Church of the United Brethren, Old Constitution. That same year, his wife Susan died of tuberculosis. Reuchlin and Lorin had already left home – Reuchlin to start his own family and Lorin to see if he could make a go of it on the Kansas frontier. Wilbur, Orville, and Katharine remained. While Milton was building a new church, his two younger sons started a printing business, a newspaper, and a bicycle shop. Katharine attended Oberlin College, and then taught at Steele High School in Dayton. About the time that Orville and Wilbur began demonstrating their airplanes, Bishop Milton Wright was forcibly retired from his church over a disagreement on whether or not to prosecute a Brethren who had misappropriated church funds. Milton lived to see his younger sons achieve international fame for the invention of the first practical airplane, and then died in 1917. For Wilbur, Orville, and Katharine, this was the end of their genealogical line. Nether brother married or fathered any children. Katharine married late in her life, but she had no offspring. Older brothers Reuchlin and Lorin, however, married and had sons and daughters. The ancient Wryta lineage continues through their progeny and many others. http://www.wright-brothers.org/Information_Desk/Just_the_Facts/Wright_Family/Wright_Genealogy/On%20to%20Ohio.htm [1]

  
  

• Sources

  [S151] WikiTree, https:&|;&|;www.wikitree.com&|;wiki&|;Calthorpe-8.