Scope and Content Note
The papers of Nathaniel Wright (1789-1875) and his family span the period 1781-1917 and consist of legal, personal, and family correspondence, letterbooks, diaries, journals, accounts, receipts, deeds, agreements, briefs and other legal documents, biographical and literary writings, and related material. The collection is organized in seven series: Diaries and Related Matter , General Correspondence , Letterbooks , Legal and Financial Records , Miscellany , Legal Briefs , and General Miscellany.
The bulk of the papers are concerned with Nathaniel’s career as a teacher and lawyer and, after his retirement, with the law practice of his son, Daniel Thew Wright, and his son-in-law, Maskell Curwen, who were partners in Cincinnati, Ohio. Much of Wright’s legal business concerned the settlement of estates and litigation in connection with railroad, canal, insurance and other enterprises with which they were associated. Family letters begin with Nathaniel’s student days at Dartmouth College and continue through his own and his sons’ educational and social careers.
After Wright’s retirement from law practice due to deafness in 1842, he became interested in his church’s business affairs, in Lane Theological Seminary and law and medical schools in Cincinnati, and also in the work of his son, Reverend William B. Wright. In addition to the immediate family, there are papers generated by in-law members such as Mary F. Wright and Maskell Curwen, Louisa W. Stephenson and Reuben H. Stephenson, Eliza W. Lord and Henry C. Lord, William B. Wright, Chester Wright, Joel Wright, and Jemima Dewey.
Correspondents include Lyman Beecher, Catherine E. Beecher, Jacob Burnet, William J. Duane, George H. Dunn, Stephen Elliott, J. A. Giddings, Casey S. Goodrich, William Henry Harrison, Jr., Samuel Lewis, Edwin Noyes, William Pennington, William V. Peck, John Reiley, Samuel Perry, Daniel Vail, Chauncey Whittesey, and John Woods.