Wright, John S.

Born: 1815-07-16 Massachusetts

Died: 1874-09-26

John S. Wright moved to Chicago, Illinois, with his father in 1832. He built the first school in Chicago. Wright began purchasing real estate in 1834 and selling to investors in New York. He diversified his interests, buying a warehouse and dock-lots, but a few failed business deals left him in serious financial trouble by 1840. As a member of the Union Agricultural Society, Wright began editing the organization's periodical, Prairie Farmer, and continued in that position until 1857. He returned to real estate in 1845 and eventually found sustained success. Wright was a strong proponent of the Illinois Central Railroad and widely distributed pamphlets endorsing its construction. In 1850, he owned $25,000 in real estate.

Gravestone, Rosehill Cemetery and Mausoleum, Chicago, IL; Weston A. Goodspeed and Daniel D. Healy, eds., History of Cook County Illinois (Chicago: Goodspeed Historical Association, 1909), 2:101; A. T. Andreas, History of Cook County Illinois (Chicago: A. T. Andreas, 1884), 132, 136, 173; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Ward 3, Chicago, Cook County, IL, 211; Chicago: Past, Present, Future (Chicago: Western News, 1868), 289-96.