VAN BUREN CO., IA: BIOGRAPHY: George G. Wright
From the A.T. Andreas Illustrated Historical Atlas of the State of Iowa, 1875

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Page 363

      Honorable GEORGE G. WRIGHT, United States Senator, was born in Bloomington, 
Indiana, March 24, 1820, and graduate from the University of that state in 1839.
	He studied law with his brother, Honorable Joseph A. Wright, who was Governor of 
Indiana, and afterward Minister to Berlin, where he died in 1867.  Senator Wright was 
admitted to the bar in 1840, and in that year removed to Iowa. Settling in Keosauqua, Van 
Buren County, on the 14th of November, where he opened an office for the practice of his 
profession, and continued till his removal to Des Moines on the 20th of October, 1865.
	In 1847, he was prosecuting attorney for Van Buren County; in 1848 he was elected to 
the State Senate, and served in that capacity two terms; in 1853 he received the Whig vote of 
the General Assembly for United States Senator, but the Democrats being in the majority, 
General George W. Jones, of Dubuque, was elected.
	Senator Wright was elected Chief Justice of Iowa in the Winter of 1854-5; but in 
1859, when judges of the Supreme Court were elected under the new Constitution, he 
declined a nomination.  In the Summer of 1860, a vacancy occurred in the bench of the 
Supreme Court by the death of Judge Stockton, Governor Kirkwood appointed Judge Wright 
to fill the place.  He accepted and occupied it till the next general election, when he was 
elected by the people to fill out the unexpired term of Judge Stockton, which continued till 
December 31, 1865.  At the general election in 1865, he was re-elected for a term of six 
years ensuing from the first of January, 1866.
	On the 18th of January, 1870, Judge Wright was elected to the Senate of the United 
States for a full term, commencing March 4, 1871, in consequence of which, he resigned his 
place on the Bench, to take effect September 1, 1870. In the Senate he acted on the following 
important committees; on the Judiciary, on Finance Claims, the Revision of the Law, and on 
Civil Service and Retrenchment.  For the remainder of the Forty-third Congress he is 
Chairman of the Committee on Claims.
	For five years, commencing in January, 1860, Judge Wright held the office of 
President of the State Agricultural Society.  In the Fall of 1865, in connection with Judge 
Cole, he organized the Law School at Des Moines. Which in 1868 was removed to Iowa 
City, and made part of the State University.  Judge Wright continued to give lectures in the 
Law School till he entered upon his duties as United States Senator, March 4, 1871.
	In politics Senator Wright was originally a Whig.  He came to the Territory of Iowa 
when the Democratic party was strongly in the ascendant, but just at the time when party 
lines began to be distinctly drawn in the Harrison campaign of 1840.  Among the influences 
which aided in giving strength and development to the Whig party of the state, and in paving 
the way for its final absorption by the Republican movement of 1856, the personal exertions, 
ability and weight of character of Senator Wright, formed no inconsiderable part.  He was 
from the first an able and zealous advocate of Whig principles, and subsequently of the 
principles, policy and measures which have been so signally triumphant under Republican 
auspices throughout the country.  In 1850, against his earnest protest to the contrary, he was 
nominated by the Whig Convention in the first District for Congress' and although not 
elected succeeded in effecting a considerable reduction of the then overwhelming 
Democratic majority.
	On the 25th of February, 1875, Senator Wright wrote a letter declining re-election to 
the Senate.  He returned to Des Moines, and is now engaged in the practice of law as senior 
partner in the firm of Wright, Gatch & Wright.
	No man in Iowa has been more laborious, thorough and effective in political 
campaigns than Senator Wright, particularly during the last four or five years.  He was 
served the public faithfully and well for a long period, during which he has been a hard 
worker, without accumulating a large fortune.
	Senator Wright delivered his first speech in the campaign of 1875, on Saturday, 
September 4, at Hillsboro, Henry County.  The State Register says of it:
	"We give Senator Wright's speech as completely as possible for the reason that to 
him, more than to any other man in Iowa, the people look with the most confidence for an 
honest, frank, and logical discussion of all political questions.  His candor and fairness, too, 
make his speeches, independent of all mere partisanship, of great popular interest and value.
	"Purity and power both considered, Senator Wright stands to-day the highest of all our 
public men in Iowa.  The people implicitly believe in his honest because in a lifetime of 
official service he has never proved else than honest; and the know he is strong because he 
has been tried in several of the most exalted positions in our public service, and ever and 
always found the man for the place and a leader of the people.  This speech which we 
publish to-day is worthy of the man and the party."
	In matters of education, both general and local, he has always felt a deep interest, and 
taken an active part, being many times elected to serve on school boards, and has aided the 
cause of education in many other respects.  He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, and President of the Board of Trustees of the Simpson Centenary College at 
Indianola.	
	Senator Wright was married on the 19th of October, 1843, to Miss Mary H. Dibble, of 
Van Buren County, daughter if Judge Thomas Dibble, formerly of New York.