The Valley of Heart's Delight
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HENRY J. B. WRIGHT, M.D.--
1889 to San Jose from Olney, Illinois
President of the Santa Clara County Historical Society
SURNAMES: Buckley, Phillips
Bio-Sawyers
Prominent among the eminent representatives of the medical
profession in California whose influence has been felt, to the
blessing of many, beyond the confines of the state and also outside of
their own immediate field of activity, was the late Dr. Henry J.B.
Wright, whose illuminating publications relative to the advantages of
Santa Clara County have proven of such help in the vigorous campaigning
by the San Jose Chamber of Commerce. A wide-awake Hoosier, he was born
in Rush County, Ind., on March 18, 1851, the son of the Rev. Ephraim
Wright, a faithful and scholarly clergyman of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, who had married Miss Polly Buckley. They had five children, and
the subject of our sketch was the youngest in the family. He attended
the local public schools and Morre's Hill College, in Indiana. Later he
was graduated from the Cincinnati College of Medicine and Surgery as M.
D., and in 1880 continued studying at the Jefferson Medical college in
Pennsylvania, receiving the degree of M. D. from that institution in
1881. In 1911 he received the degree of B.S. from Moore's Hill College.
For fourteen years Dr. Wright practiced in Olney, Southern Illinois,
and then, in 1889, soon after the "boom" which brought so many good
folks from the East, he came to San Jose, and here he embarked on that
uninterrupted career which made him, most probably, the oldest
practicing physician in the county. In Illinois he was on the
board of examining surgeons for pensions, and he held a similar office
in California for several years. He was a member of the board of health
for many years, and was health officer of San Jose for two years. He
belonged to the Santa Clara County Medical Society, in which he held
all the offices possible, at some time or other; and for forty years he
was a member of the American Medical association. For twenty-six
years he was financial secretary and treasurer of the First Methodist
Church of San Jose.
In 1875 Dr. Wright was married to Miss Kate E. Phillips, born in
Indiana, a charming lady, who made many friends, wherever she lived,
prior to her lamented death in 1893. Dr. and Mrs. Wright were the
parents of two children, namely, Hannah L., of San Jose, and H. Horton
Wright, deceased.
Dr. Wright was a Republican, and voted and worked with the republicans
in matters of national moment; but he was too broad-minded to permit
partisanship to interfere with his whole-hearted participation in
movements most likely to benefit the locality in which he lived,
operated and prospered. He was a member of the board of freeholders
that made the charter of San Jose prior to the present one, and he was
also a member of the board that made the present city charter. Some
years ago, wishing to contribute definitely to the rapid development of
this part of the state, he wrote for the Christmas edition of the
Mercury a very interesting and suggestive description of "The Seasons
in the Santa Clara Valley", in which he touched upon the phenomena of
nature, the lavish crops of field, tree and bush, the gorgeous variety
of local color, and the profusion of the landscape beauty, from March
to February, pointing out what is peculiar to this section; and this
helpful exposition of undeniable facts the San Jose Chamber of Commerce
has made good use of by sending it broadcasting throughout the
country and beyond the seas. He was truly a self-made man, working his
own way by teaching, etc., through college. He was a great reader,
almost entirely in the line of historical works, and wrote the history
of the Horton and Wright families. As president of the Santa Clara
County Historical Society, he compiled the war history of Santa Clara
County, a comprehensive volume of the county's activities published in
1919. Dr. Wright passed away, December 7, 1920.
Transcribed Marie Clayton, from Eugene T. Sawyers' History of Santa Clara County,California, published by Historic Record Co. , 1922. page 415
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