Chapter 2
The Wright Family
When the Wright family moved to Dayton in 1869, it was on the cusp of
becoming a full-fledged city, and it was in this climate that Susan and
Milton Wright raised their five children. The importance of their
Christian beliefs was evident in the Wrights' philosophy for raising
their children. Most critical to Susan and Milton was a Christian
upbringing that stressed strong beliefs and the importance of one's
family, both nuclear and extended. As future events illustrated, the
Wrights felt that with the support of the family, anything could be
overcome. Reflective of this belief, Milton, throughout his life,
remained in contact with his relatives and documented the Wright family
genealogy. As a result of these efforts, the Wright family ancestry was
well researched and preserved.
The first Wright ancestor to immigrate to the United States was
Samuel Wright who left his home in England and settled in Springfield
Township, Massachusetts around 1638. By 1647 Samuel owned over forty-one
acres of land, and in 1648 he became the owner of a toll bridge. Samuel,
a Puritan, served as deacon of the church, and later the church
appointed him to act in the place of an absent pastor. In later years,
Samuel moved to Northampton, Massachusetts, where he died in 1665. [1]
Dan Wright, born in Thetford Township, Orange County, Vermont, on
September 3, 1790, was Samuel's great-great-great grandson and Milton
Wright's father. Born to Dan and Sarah Freeman Wright, Dan was the
couple's third son. As described by Milton,
He was of excellent health and strength. He was five feet, nine
inches, in height, and straight as an arrow, and weighed about one
hundred and fifty pounds... He was grave in his countenance, collected
in his manners, hesitating in his speech, but very accurate. Unless much
excited there was little change in his countenance and manners. [2]
Educated in the local schools of Vermont, Dan taught one year of
school and then moved to Genesee Valley, New York, in 1813, to join his
brother Porter and his wife. The following year, the entire family-Dan,
his parents, and his three siblings-moved west. The family traveled via
flatboat on the Allegheny River and then the Ohio River to Cincinnati,
Ohio. Once arriving in Cincinnati, they went by wagon to Centerville.
[3]
Founded in 1796, Centerville was located south of Dayton in
Washington Township on the land between the Little and Great Miami
Rivers. The first settlers, Aaron Nutt, Benjamin Robbins, and Benjamin
Archer, surveyed the land in February 1796. The three men drew lots for
their land, and within several years all three moved their families to
the new town. Additional settlers soon moved to the area, and by 1798
the tax assessment identified fifteen households in the area. The town
was platted in 1805-1806, and in 1817 the first plat records were filed.
[4]
GEORGE REEDER
(Courtesy of Library of Congress)
|
Like his son Milton in later years, Dan remained in contact with his
family. He regularly corresponded with his older brother Asahel who
resided in Centerville until 1827 when he moved to a farm in West
Charleston, Bethel Township, Miami County, Ohio. Asahel's house in
Centerville, was located near the northeast corner of the intersection
of Main and Franklin Streets. Asahel purchased the property from E.
Williams on August 16, 1816 for $150 and sold it in 1826. Until 1817,
Asahel operated a stillhouse located near the present site of the
intersection of Alexandersville-Bellbrook Road and Dayton-Lebanon Pike.
Asahel rented the property from Aaron Nutt, and he used it to
manufacture liquor and peppermint oil. Common Pleas Court records also
documented that Asahel operated a store at the intersection of Main and
Franklin Streets from 1816 until 1824. [5]
Dan Wright also resided in the Centerville area and worked at a local
distillery. His residence was further documented in his marriage on
February 12, 1818, to a local Centerville girl named Catherine Reeder.
Catherine's parents were George and Margaret Van Cleve Reeder.
Margaret's mother was Catharine Van Cleve Thompson, reputed the first
white woman to set foot in Dayton when the first settlers arrived in
1796. Born on March 17, 1800, Catherine lived in Duck Creek, east of
Cincinnati, until 1811 when the family moved to a farm in Centerville.
In later years, Milton Wright wrote of his mother Catherine: "From early
childhood she was of delicate health, but all her life full of energy
and activity. Industry, affection, and conscientiousness were three of
her chief characteristics. Home was her sphere, and her children her
jewels." In February 1821, Dan quit working at the distillery and
focused on farming. Subsequently, Dan, Catherine, and their two young
sons, Samuel and Harvey, moved west to an eighty-acre farm in what
became Rush County, Indiana. [6]
Finding their promised cabin unfinished, the Wright family moved into
half of the proprietor's cabin, and the following spring Dan constructed
a cabin for his family. In the first year, Dan cleared five acres on
which he grew corn. While on this farm, Catherine gave birth to another
son, George, who died in infancy. [7]
In 1823, Dan sold the farm and the family moved to a new tract of one
hundred twenty acres about a mile and a half to the southeast of the
previous farm. Four new members of the family were born on this farm:
Sarah on November 21, 1824; Milton on November 17, 1828; William on
February 29, 1832; and Kate, who died at birth probably sometime in
1834. [8]
Many of the ideals that Milton passed on to his children he obtained
from his father. High morals and defined beliefs were dominant features
of Dan's personality. A confirmed Christian who converted in 1830, Dan,
an abolitionist, did not join a specific church, for he could not find a
denomination that adequately opposed slavery. Following his religious
conversion later in life, Dan believed in temperance and refused to sell
any of his corn crop to distilleries for production although this often
meant accepting a lower price for his crop. Dan also opposed secret or
fraternal societies. Milton followed his father's lead and supported
these main ideals, and passed them on to his children. [9]
When Milton was twelve, the family moved to a new farm in Orange
Township, Fayette County, Indiana. A child who pursued self improvement,
Milton often practiced public speaking while he worked in the farm
fields. In later years, Milton remembered he filled "the fields with
speeches, which often attracted the ears of the family and sometimes the
neighbors." While laboring in the fields, Milton also worked on
improving his mind. As a result of his efforts, Milton found "hard
thinking was so much of a habit, that I had to regulate this tendency."
[10]
Following a conversation about Christianity with his mother when he
was eight, Milton constantly pursued and questioned religion. In June
1843, when he was fifteen, Milton's quest ended when he experienced a
conversion while working alone in his father's corn field. Unlike the
typical conversions where an individual experienced the presence of God
with a jolt, Milton felt an "impression that spoke to the soul
powerfully and abidingly." Like his father, Milton did not immediately
join a church, for he did not wholly agree with any church's religious
philosophy and teachings. Four years later, though, Milton and his
brother William were baptized by the Reverend Joseph Ball of the White
River Conference of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ. [11]
SUSAN KOERNER WRIGHT
(Courtesy of Wright State University, Special Collections and Archives)
|
Two years after his baptism, on April 27, 1850, the White River
Conference licensed Milton to preach and exhort, and he gave his first
sermon on November 17, 1850. At this time, it was common for men to
begin their ministry soon after they expressed their belief that God had
called them to be a preacher. Local congregations recommended candidates
for licensing to the quarterly conference. A year later, the quarterly
conference could then recommend the candidate for approval at the annual
conference. On August 26, 1853, Milton was approved as a preacher and
became a member of the White River Conference. He was ordained by the
Bishop and Elders of the White River Conference as a United Brethren
minister on August 9, 1856. Milton's brothers who survived into
adulthood also became ministers. Harvey became a Baptist preacher, and
William became a United Brethren minister. [12]
Although he was preaching, Milton did not earn enough money to
support himself, and he supplemented his income by working on his
father's farm and teaching school. This circumstance was common with the
ministers of the time. Many of them made their living as farmers or in
another occupation and preached in their spare time. In the 1850s the
General Conference of the church set the annual salaries at $150 for
unmarried preachers and $300 for married ones. [13]
In April 1852, the school examiners of Rush County, Indiana,
certified Milton to teach orthography, English grammar, reading,
writing, arithmetic, and geography in "common schools" for one year.
After a "preaching tour" in the winter of 1853, Milton received a call
to serve as a teacher in the preparatory department of Hartsville
College, a United Brethren institution, located in Hartsville, Indiana.
While at the college, Milton took courses in addition to instructing. He
did not obtain a college degree, for he left the school the following
year when he became very ill with "remitting fever." [14]
While at Hartsville College, Milton met Susan Catherine Koerner.
Milton had been searching for a wife who would assist in fulfilling his
strong notion of family. J.E. Hott, a fellow minister, described in
later years what he viewed as an ideal minister's wife, a definition
that most likely characterized what Milton saw in Susan:
A minister... knows only too well how much depends on the minister
having a good wife. If she is a fashion plate she spoils all the girls;
if she is extravagant in habits of living, a poor charge will not
support her; if she is an untidy housekeeper, she cannot be sent to
refined and cultured people; if she is a gossip from house to house, she
will keep the charge in an uproar of turmoil and confusion and so on
indefinitely. On the other hand if she is a quiet, devout, sympathetic
Christian, and well-skilled in household and domestic affairs, her
husband can leave her for a few days in a home of an outsider while he
goes to a remote appointment and on returning will find that, that
family is forever bound to the cause of Christ and the church with hooks
of steel. May God bless our preachers' wives with this spirit and
influence. [15]
Milton believed Susan possessed many of these characteristics and
that she was a probable candidate for his wife. Born near Hillsboro, in
Loudoun County, Virginia, on April 30, 1831, Susan possessed a strong
commitment to Christianity and was extremely shy. [16]
Susan's parents, John Gottlieb and Catharine Fry Koerner, first lived
with Catharine's parents on a farm three miles southeast of Hillsboro.
John, a carriage maker by trade, operated a small shop on the farm and a
forge in the town. The family sold the farm in 1832 and moved to a
170-acre farm in Union County, Indiana. When their grandson Orville
visited the Koerner farm almost fifty years later, the property was
developed with twelve to fifteen buildings, including a carriage shop.
Shortly after moving, the Koerner family converted from Presbyterianism
to the United Brethren Church. Susan joined the church in 1845 after
experiencing a conversion. [17]
As a child, Susan spent many hours with her father in the carriage
shop and developed an understanding of mechanical devices. She, instead
of Milton, who was more of a scholar, repaired items and often invented
items for use in the home. Through Susan, her children Wilbur and
Orville developed a desire to tinker with mechanical objects until they
understood how they functioned. As described in an article on the Wright
brothers, Susan "was one of those rare women who can do things with her
hands. She used to make bob-sleds and playthings for the boys, and of
course, interested them in what they were trying to make." [18]
Milton and Susan proceeded cautiously with their relationship. They
did not marry until November 24, 1859, six years after they met. Susan
remained a student at Hartsville College after Milton returned to his
father's farm and taught school. In August 1856, he was posted to the
Andersonville Circuit of the United Brethren ministry, which was
comprised of churches in Indiana. In 1857, Milton joined the church
mission headed to Oregon. Prior to his departure, Milton met with Susan.
In his diary, he recorded, "I supped at David's, went to Daniel's and
had my first private talk with Susan Koerner. I asked her to go to
Oregon with me." [19]
Susan declined and the two parted. While in New York, Milton sent
Susan a letter and enclosed his photograph. According to Milton's
memories, the letter "captured" Susan, and she wrote to him "determined
to have me." When Milton returned to Indiana in 1859, he and Susan were
married. The separation of two years was the beginning of a circumstance
that lasted throughout their marriage. Milton, dedicated to the
ministry, constantly traveled the circuit and was frequently away from
his family. When Milton traveled, Susan remained home to care for the
family. During his absences, the Wright family kept in constant contact
through letters. [20]
After their marriage, Milton and Susan settled near Rushville,
Indiana. Without a church appointment, Milton taught at the New Salem
subscription school. They moved again in April 1860, to Andersonville,
Indiana, where Milton taught at Neff's Corner. In the fall of 1860,
Milton received an appointment as a preacher on the Marion Circuit, and
in August 1861, the White River Conference elected him presiding elder
of that circuit. Milton and Susan moved to a farm Milton owned in Grant
County, near Fairmount, and lived in a log cabin on the property. During
the years they resided on the farm, Milton served in the Marion, Dublin,
and Indianapolis Districts of the church. [21]
Milton and Susan's first child was born on the Grant County farm.
Reuchlin (pronounced Rooshlin), born on March, 17, 1861, was named for
Johannes Reuchlin, a German theologian. Milton, convinced that Wright
was a common name, strived to give his children unique names. On
November 18, 1862, their second child, Lorin, was born at Dan Wright's
home. Once again searching for a distinctive name, Milton and Susan
named their new son after a town on the map. [22]
The Wrights moved again in 1864 while Milton rotated between the
circuits in the Marion, Dublin, and Williamsburg Districts. As Milton's
duties changed, the family moved and lived in rented houses. In
September 1864, Milton purchased a five-acre farm eight miles east of
New Castle and two and a half miles northeast of Millville. Milton paid
$550.00 in cash for the property and promised $200 without interest in
two years. The family did not move into the three room house on the
property until April 13, 1865. [23]
The couple's third son, Wilbur, named for Wilbur Fiske, a preacher
that Milton respected, was born on the farm on April 16, 1867. In later
years, Milton reflected that, "perhaps there is now nothing very
remarkable in the size or shape of his head, but then it was so high
that a hat becoming him was hard to find." Wilbur, or Willy as Milton
called him, began walking when he was nine and a half months old. An
active child, Milton remembered Wilbur as being able to locate the
greatest possible mischief in a room. [24]
In 1868 the family moved once again. This time the destination was
Hartsville where Milton served as the first professor of theology and
developed the theological department at Hartsville College. In 1869
those at the General Conference elected Milton the editor of the
Religious Telescope. [25] The newspaper
was published weekly and carried official church news to members
throughout the United States. Milton's appointment as editor of the
newspaper meant that the Wright family moved once again, this time to
Dayton, for the church housed the publishing operations in a building on
the northeast corner of Fourth and Main Streets in the city. [26]
During the same meeting where Milton was elected editor, discord
developed among the rulers of the church on the question of approval or
disapproval of secret societies. The 1841 constitution of the Church of
the United Brethren in Christ included an anti-Masonic statement.
However, new ministers within the church felt that the statement should
be removed. Following the Civil War, secret societies grew rapidly in
popularity and were no longer seen as negative organizations. Those
backing the secret societies were branded Liberals, while the
conservatives, including Milton, that remained against the societies
were called Radicals. Throughout the discussion, Milton firmly stood on
the side against secret societies. The Radicals prevailed at the 1869
convention, and the church continued to condemn secret societies.
Milton, in his new position as editor of the Religious Telescope,
controlled the church's publication and allowed proportional coverage to
both sides of the argument in relation to the number of people on each
side of the issue. [27]
FITCH HOUSE
(Courtesy of National Park Service)
|
Arriving in Dayton in June 1869, the family chose to live in West Day
ton, an area west of the Miami River that was newly annexed to the city.
They first rented a house on West Third Street at the corner of Sprague
Street. In November they moved into John Kemp's brick house on Second
Street east of the railroad. In February 1870, while the family lived
at the Second Street house, Susan gave birth to twins, Otis and Ida.
Both died shortly after birth, and they were buried in Greencastle
Cemetery located at the corner of Broadway Street and Miami Chapel Road
in West Dayton. [28]
The area of Dayton that the Wright family chose for their new home,
West Dayton, developed as a street car suburb of Dayton with an urban
flavor. The main thoroughfare, which contained the majority of the
businesses and some homes, was West Third Street. Residential areas
stretched to both the north and south of the street. The lots were small
in size and the houses were constructed close together. In most
instances, only a foot or two separated neighboring homes.
One of the first homes in the area was built by Daniel G. Fitch. A
native of New Jersey, Fitch moved to Dayton in 1848 and became the joint
owner of the Western Empire, a weekly newspaper. He served as the
newspaper's editor until 1855 when he was elected Montgomery County
Recorder. Located on the southwest corner of Fourth and Williams Street,
the home was constructed around 1856. [29]
The West Side began to rapidly develop after annexation to the city
of Dayton in 1869. That same year W.P. Huffman and Herbert S. Williams
established the "Dayton Street Railroad" that connected neighborhood
areas to the city. Huffman owned property on the east side of town and
Williams on the west side, or West Dayton. The two investors hoped that
the rail transportation into the city would promote development and
increase the value of their property. [30]
As property values rose, Williams sold various lots on the west side
to builders. The builders then developed the lots and sold the homes to
individual buyers. On December 21, 1870, Milton purchased a home for
$1,800 in West Dayton from James Manning, a builder who had purchased
some of the land platted by Williams. The house was still under
construction when Milton bought it, and the family did not move into it
until April of the next year. Located at 7 Hawthorne Street, [31] the house was a modest two story frame
structure. The Wrights' new neighborhood included many working class
residents, and most of the houses were newly constructed, like the
Wrights' home, by either builders or the families themselves. [32]
DAYTON MALLEABLE IRON WORKS
(Courtesy of NCR Archives at Montgomery County Historical Society)
|
In addition to residential housing, manufacturing businesses began
appearing on the West Side. One of the largest was Dayton Malleable Iron
Works located on the north side of West Third Street between Summit
Street and Dale Avenue. Established in 1866, the iron works produced
carriage hardware and malleable iron castings. By 1882 the company
conducted $150,000 in annual business. Other west side manufacturing
companies included John Dodds, who manufactured grain and hay rakes, and
A.L. Bauman's cracker factory on West Third Street. [33]
One of the characteristics of the developing West Side was the large
concentration of Eastern Europeans. In 1898 the Dayton Malleable Iron
Works placed an advertisement in a Toledo newspaper for a foreign labor
contractor. At this time, the Dayton economy was booming and demands on
the factories exceeded the available supply of labor. To find labor,
Dayton Malleable Iron Works chose to recruit foreign workers. A
Hungarian, Joseph D. Moskowitz, was hired as the foreign labor
contractor, and for the next few years he recruited skilled mechanics
and laborers from Hungary to move to Dayton to work at the Dayton
Malleable Iron Works. [34]
Located north of West Third Street and west of Broadway Street, the
Hungarian community consisted of homes for the workers, a clubhouse,
meat shop, and general store. By 1904 the settlement included
approximately 700 inhabitants, most employed by Dayton Malleable Iron
Works. Moskowitz financed all of the construction, and he continued to
own and operate the businesses until 1902. Called the West Side Colony,
this area continued to attract Hungarian and Eastern European immigrants
even after Moskowitz left in 1901. By 1910, about six thousand Eastern
Europeans, including two to three thousand Hungarians, resided in the
neighborhood. [35]
The West Side Colony, while near the Wright home, was a completely
separate part of West Dayton. The Hungarians continued to speak their
native language and follow Hungarian traditions. The Wrights' neighbors
were middle and working class residents mostly from Ohio. By 1900 90
percent of the Wright family's immediate neighborhood was working class
families and 10 percent were professionals. In addition, 5 percent of
the neighborhood population were immigrants and 1 percent African
American. A quarter of these residents owned their own homes. Despite
these statistics, it was hard to develop a description of the typical
family, for the residents varied greatly in the number of people per
house, occupations, and heritage. [36]
ORVILLE WRIGHT
(Courtesy of Wright State University, Special Collections and Archives)
|
Orville Wright, Milton and Susan's sixth child, was born in this
neighborhood in the family's new home at 7 Hawthorne Street on August
19, 1871. Milton named him after Orville Dewey, a Unitarian minister he
admired. The couple's last child, and only surviving daughter,
Katharine, [37] was born in the house
three years to the day after Orville. [38]
The five surviving Wright children experienced a typical childhood in
West Dayton. When the Wright family moved to the West Side, it was a
small newly developed suburb of Dayton. The small size allowed for most
of the residents to know and socialize with most of their neighbors.
There was one school for the community, which was located on the west
side of Perry Street between First and Second Streets. By the time that
Orville entered the first grade, there was a school located on the west
side of the river at the southwest corner of Fifth and Barnett Streets.
[39]
The Wright children spent part of their days attending school and
completing chores, but there still remained a significant amount of time
for play. One of the common games on the west side was "fox," which was
similar to "hide and seek." Several children, playing foxes, received a
head start and then blew a horn. The remainder of the participants
pursued them, and the "hunt" continued until all the foxes were
captured. In many of the games, Reuchlin, Lorin, their friend Al Feight,
and other older children played the foxes, while the younger children,
like Wilbur and Orville, were the hunters. [40]
WILBUR WRIGHT
(Courtesy of Dayton and Montgomery County Public Library)
|
Wilbur and Orville also participated in games of marbles and top
spinning. Throughout the neighborhood, Orville was known as the best
marble player. He was often seen with his pockets bulging from his
winnings at the game, and Wilbur often borrowed marbles from Orville. On
the other hand, Wilbur was a proficient top spinner, who often destroyed
his companions' tops. In later remembrances, the brothers' childhood
playmates remembered them as honorable children, who never cheated or
took advantage of anyone. [41]
The Wrights taught their children to earn whatever money they spent,
and some of Orville's childhood activities focused on ways to earn
money. One of his early ventures was collecting old bones in the
neighborhood alleys and vacant lots. Orville and a friend then sold the
bones to a fertilizer factory. In several instances, Orville borrowed
money from Wilbur, who was more of a "saver" than Orville. The boys
arranged that any money Orville borrowed would be repaid with the next
money he earned. [42]
Their inquisitive minds led Wilbur and Orville to pursue various
scientific experiments and inventions. Orville filled the kitchen with
various devices, experimented with them, and then moved on to other
projects. Susan would place Orville's inventions on a shelf for a time
when they might interest him again. Both Milton and Susan encouraged
their children's curiosity and felt that it was another form of
education and learning. [43] In later
years Katharine recalled the uniqueness of her parent's approach to
parenthood:
I wish you could know what Father and Mother were like. They were
so independent in the way they ran the family. I used to wish they would
be more like other people! No family ever had a happier childhood home
than ours had. I was always in a hurry to get home after I had been away
for half a day. [44]
Shortly after his fifth birthday, Orville started kindergarten. The
school was a short walking distance from the Wrights' Hawthorne Street
home, and Orville would leave shortly after breakfast and promptly
return home after class. After approximately a month, Susan met with
Orville's teacher to make sure that Orville was behaving satisfactorily
and doing well in school. The teacher was surprised to see Susan, for
Orville had not attended class since the first few days. Upon returning
home and questioning her son, Susan discovered that he spent each day
with his friend Edwin Henry Sines, or Ed, at the Sines' house at 15
Hawthorne Street, which was two doors down the street from the Wrights'
home. Orville was not severely punished when his parents discovered that
the boys were focusing their attention on repairing an old sewing
machine in the Sines household. [45]
In 1877 the General Conference of the United Brethren elected Milton
a bishop, and he was assigned to the region between the Mississippi
River and the Rocky Mountains. In his duties, Milton traveled quite
extensively. For a while, the family stayed in Dayton while Milton
visited the conferences throughout the region. In June 1878, when the
extra mileage to return to Dayton became too much travel for Milton, the
family moved to Cedar Rapids, Iowa. [46]
Returning from a trip in the autumn of 1878, Milton brought a rubber
band powered toy helicopter home for Wilbur and Orville. Milton came
into the house with the toy concealed in his hands, and then threw it
into the air. Instead of falling to the ground as Wilbur and Orville
expected, the helicopter "flew across the room till it struck the
ceiling, where it fluttered awhile, and finally sank to the floor." The
toy was designed by the French aeronautical experimenter Alphonse
Pénaud. Consisting of a cork and bamboo frame that was covered with
paper, the toy was propelled into the air with a rubber band. Wilbur and
Orville, who called the toy a bat, played with the toy frequently ,but
due to its fragile construction it soon broke. Despite the short life of
the toy, it remained in the memories of the brothers. [47]
The fond memories of the toy helicopter led Wilbur and Orville,
several years later, to construct their own helicopters. Each version of
the toy they built became larger, and the boys discovered that the
bigger the frame, the less the helicopter flew. This conclusion led
Wilbur and Orville to quit their first venture into aviation research.
[48]
In later years, Orville's second grade teacher, Miss Ida Palmer,
remembered Orville bringing a toy flying machine to class. She attempted
to discourage him in pursuing the problem of flight, but Orville did not
listen to Miss Palmer's advice. In later years, he identified the toy
helicopter as the object that triggered the brothers' interest in
solving the problem of flight. [49]
The Wright family moved once again in 1881 to Richmond, Indiana. When
he was not re-elected bishop, Milton returned to the White River
Conference and served as editor of the Richmond Star. This was a monthly
journal which Milton founded to promote the conservative cause within
the church. [50]
Both Wilbur and Orville assisted Milton at the Richmond Star by
folding papers to earn extra spending money. Wilbur, thinking the manual
labor tedious, designed and built a machine to fold the papers. At this
same time, Wilbur and Orville together built a treadle-powered wood
lathe. Orville in later years recalled this as the first joint venture
by the brothers in mechanics. [51]
While living in Richmond, Orville developed an interest in both
flying and constructing kites. In another example of Orville's ingenuity
for locating ways of making money, he made kites not only for himself
but others to sell to his playmates. Orville's kites had frames as thin
as possible to decrease the overall weight of the kite. This often
resulted in the kite bending to create an arc during flight. [52]
The strong beliefs in family and Christianity that Milton and Susan
brought into their marriage were conveyed and passed on to their five
children. While these ideals were important to Milton and Susan, the
family members did not readily communicate them in conversations or
writing. Ivonette Wright Miller, Lorin's daughter, wrote:
The Wrights were a family with deep feelings and convictions.
There were some subjects they did not talk about. They didn't think it
was necessary. They didn't discuss what they believed anymore than they
discussed their devotion for one another-and for us. There was never any
doubt in our minds about that, though they never made that statement in
writing. [53]
While the Wright family did not communicate emotions to each other in
letters, they did keep in constant contact. Since Milton traveled much
of his life, he maintained contact with his friends, family, and church
acquaintances through letters. Jeannette Whitesell, a neighbor of the
Wright family in West Dayton, remembered as a child noticing the large
correspondence that Milton produced each day. She watched him make daily
trips to the mailbox, "a fine-looking old gentleman, tall, white-haired
and always buttoned to the neck in his long black coat, always wearing
his broad-brimmed black hat and red bedroom slippers." In addition to
the large quantity of church associated letters he sent, Milton when
traveling corresponded regularly with his wife, and as the children
grew, he also wrote to them. [54]
In later years, Wilbur, Orville, and Katharine kept up regular
correspondence with each other and with their father when they were in
different locations. One of the earliest surviving letters is an 1881
letter from Orville to his father. The letter not only illustrated the
family's commitment to correspondence, but Orville's inquisitive
nature.
April 1, 1881
Dear Father,I got your letter today. My teacher said I was a good
boy today. We have 45 in our room. The other day I took a machine can
and filled it with water then I put it on the stove I waited a little
while and the water came squirting out of the top about a foot. The
water in the river was up in the cracker factory about a half a foot.
There is a good deal of water on the Island. The old cat is dead.
[55]
The deep and affectionate relationship between the youngest three
Wright children is apparent in the childhood nicknames that they
continued to use in correspondence throughout their adult lives. Known
as Will, Orv, and Katie to their friends and even other family members,
among the three of them Wilbur was Ullam, short for Jullam, the German
equivalent of William; Orville was Bubbo or Bubs, the best Wilbur could
pronounce brother at Orville's birth; and Katharine was Swes or
Sterchens, both affectionate diminutives of Schwesterchen, the German
word for little sister.
Being closer in age the bond between Orville and Katharine was
greater than that between Wilbur and Katharine. As the three grew older,
this was not often apparent, for the three siblings were a trio that
stuck together. However, during disagreements and discussions, Katharine
almost always sided with Orville against Wilbur. [56]
In June 1884, Milton decided to move the family back to Dayton. This
could not have been an easy decision. The family was happy in Richmond,
and they were located near both Milton and Susan's families as well as
childhood friends. The Wright farm was located in the middle of Milton's
preaching circuit and he was home more often. Yet, Milton felt it was
time to prepare for the General Conference of 1885. He believed it would
be easier to gather support for the Radicals in Dayton, the unofficial
headquarters of the church and the home of its publishing house. [57]
This was not a simple move for the family. Susan was in poor health,
and she would be leaving behind the support from her mother, sister, and
friends. Wilbur was nearing completion of his senior year at Richmond
High School, and the hastiness of the move prevented him from attending
the commencement ceremonies and completing the requirements for
graduation. The move prevented Wilbur from officially completing high
school or obtaining a degree. [58]
Milton, Wilbur, and Orville packed the family goods and shipped them
to Dayton on June 14. The boys, along with Lorin and Reuchlin who lived
in Dayton, supervised the moving of the household items into the
family's new home at 114 North Summit Street. The Wrights leased the
home on Summit Street, for the house on Hawthorne Street was leased for
another sixteen months. Susan and Katharine left for Dayton on June 17,
and Milton followed a few weeks later after completing business
requirements in Richmond. Once they arrived in Dayton, the Wright family
reacquainted themselves with their old neighborhood and friends. [59]
Throughout their childhood, Milton and Susan encouraged their
children to follow their individual interests. Although it appears that
Susan had a stronger influence on Wilbur and Orville's mechanical and
inventive interests, their father, reinforced by their mother,
contributed much to his sons' fortitude. Through their encouragement,
support, and guidance, both parents contributed to the industrious
nature of not only Wilbur and Orville, but all the Wright children.
|