Wright was born in the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on November 2, 1836. His parents were William Wright and Sarah Wright. He received his schooling at the Philadelphia public schools. Wright took his first job as a dry-goods clerk when he was still a teenager. He worked at this for several years.
Career
Wright's next job in his early 20s was as a clerk at the Philadelphia banking firm of Drexel & Company. He had a finance bookkeeping ability and was promoted to positions of higher responsibility in the company within a few years. Wright became one of the partners in the company around 1864. In 1871 the firm became Drexel, Morgan & Company. He was one of the partners of this new firm. He had a natural ability to detect counterfeit money and was given positions of looking over suspicious counterfeit money. Wright then moved to New York City permanently to work with the firm. Wright took an interest in the securities of corporations and was a board member in The Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad; the Southern Railway; the Long Island Rail Road; the Edison Electric Illuminating Company; and the New York Guaranty and Indemnity Company. He worked with Thomas Edison at Menlo Park and helped financially in developing the light bulb. An electric lighting system was installed at Wright's residence in New York City, where the electric generator was located and the Edison lamps were set up with the first permanent fixtures for electric lighting. This was the first private residence to be illuminated by Edison incandescent lamps, and also the first to be powered by a generator on the premises that provided the electricity for the Edison lamps. In England at William Armstrong's Cragside house, a set of Joseph Swan's incandescent lamps was installed in December 1880. J. P. Morgan, the banker, had visited Edison in January 1881 on the idea to see if his electric lights could be used for illumination of a house. Edison assured him it could. The banker told Edison that when he moved to his new house he would buy one of his electric lighting systems that included a generator for the electricity. Wright, however, installed Edison incandescent lamps and an electric power generating system by December to illuminate his residence before Morgan had his new home finished. It was not until autumn of 1882 before Morgan wired his home for electric lighting.
Wright married Mary Robinson, widow of John M. Robinson, partner of Drexel, Morgan & Co., at the Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia on March 1, 1881. The flowers at the wedding consisted of azaleas, acacias, callas, tulips, and hyacinths. A novelty of the wedding was that all that attended could take home with them whatever flowers they wanted. The newly wedded couple went to Washington D.C. for their honeymoon in a railroad car that was provided for them. Wright had heart trouble starting in January 1894. He gave up business at that time. During the summer he spent time cruising on the yacht Yampa with his wife and stepdaughter. He returned to work in October. He died at an elevated railroad train station in New York City on November 12, 1894. Wright was 58 years old. He is buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in New York City. Wright's estate was estimated to be $20,000,000 of which most went to his wife and his sister. The referee for his Will decided that $100,000 was to be given to the New York Public Library which took over the old Washington Heights Free Library. Also $580,000 was given from his Will to the Knickerbocker Hospital.
