BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA RESPECTING ALL WHO EVER WERE MEMBERS OF THE CLASS OF 1832 IN YALE COLLEGE, Edited by the Class- Secretary for Private Distribution, New Haven, Tuttle, Morehouse and Taylor, Printer, 1880
Pages 301-303….WRIGHT, JOSHUA BUTLER From New York
1877
" The late Joshua Butler Wright was born in Rome, N.Y., on the 9th of March, 1812, the fifth son of Benjamin Wright and Philomela, his wife, daughter of the Rev. Simon Waterman of Connecticut. Benjamin Wright was born in Wethersfield, Conn., Oct. 10th, 1770, son of Ebenezer Wright, also born in Wethersfield, an officer of the Continental Line during the war of the American Revolution. The father of the latter, also of Wethersfield, was Rev. Ebenezer Wright, a graduate of Yale College in 1724, and a settled preacher of the gospel in Stamford, Conn. The Rev. Ebenezer Wright was a descended from Thomas Wright, third son and sixth child of John Wright of Brook Hall in the parish of South Weald, county of Essex, England, who died May 13, 1640. Thomas Wright emigrated to America, and was a Deputy to the General Court from Wethersfield in 1643, and there died in April, 1670…

"Benjamin Wright, the father of J.B. Wright, was a man distinguished for his talent and skill in the line of his profession, that of surveyor and civil engineer, and for his services as chief engineer of many important public works. With the New York and Erie Canal he was especially identified. During its construction he was chief engineer, and the able assistant of its projector and constant friend DeWitt Clinton; and the name of Benjamin Wright, like that of Clinton, will be long-lived in connection with the building of the great pioneer-work of internal improvement in this country. About the time of its completion he removed from Oneida Co. to the city of New York, where he continued to reside during the rest of his long and useful life. He died Aug. 26, 1842. The writer of this will remember his venerable figure and intellectual countenance.

"Joshua Butler Wright joined the Freshman Class of Yale College in 1828, left Yale in 1830, was admitted to the Junior Class of Rutgers College, and was there graduates 1832. He studied law in the city of New York, in the office of Timothy R. Green, a learned and much esteemed lawyer of that day, and was admitted to the bar at the January term of the Supreme Court in the year 1836. He soon became occupies with a successful practice of law in the city of New York, and in 1850 was married to Louisa Bradford, second daughter of the late H.D. Bradford of New York. During the last seventeen years of his life Mr. Wright chiefly resided t his county-place near Scarborough on the Hudson. In his pleasant home he loved to pass his time, though not because he wished to be considered, or over was, wholly a man of leisure; for he was always industrious, and always usefully employed. He was a man of business; and, though retired from the general practice of his profession of the law, his private affairs received from him a careful attention, and the constant supervision of them occupied largely his time and thought.

"His life was an instance, unfortunately too rare, of harmony between wealth and its prossessor…The adornments of his home were the outcome of a refined taste, not the prodigal display of a spendthrift. The neighbors watched from year to year the development of his plans, not as of one wrapt in isolated selfishness, but as of one of themselves…The gates of his beautiful grounds were as wide open in his living-days as they were on the day of his funeral…His gifts were like those hidden springs which, without being revealed, enrich and beautify the earth…He rejoiced in every opportunity of good citizenship…To a naturally fine chakra was added that which completed the man, the luster of a religious life. So unostentatious was his piety that one would need to know him well to realize the fact, in his case, that "the secret of the Lord is with them the fear Him"…

"In early life he was a model of physical comeliness inform and feature; and even afterwards to have. Personal presence which won respect, and tended to excite the esteem of the high-minded and the good. Robust in form, and with a natural vigor of constitution which seemed to defy disease - apparently never ill - it was his fate to be stricken with a malady treacherous, painful, lingering and incurable. All those cherished objects which often render this present life so pleasant and so useful, and of which he had a store more than ample, were to be left behind. But with manly resignation he submitted to the blow, with patient fortitude he endured the suffering and pains of long continued bodily sickness, and with Christian faith and hope he quietly died. His death occurred at Scarborough, on the 30th Oct.m 18y6. His wife and two sons, Louis Bowery Wright and Albert Markoe Wright, survived him.

"He was a man of superior intelligence, prudent, cautious and accurate in the transaction of his business; his opinion of men and things were always decided. Not hasty in the forming of an opinion, he carefully and cautiously expressed it, when formed, and his judgement on any subject he considered was sound and reliable. Though to him the post of honor was the private station; his cultivated intellect and great executive ability well fitted him for elevated office and position; indeed, he was the kind of man the public life of the country needs, but does not always obtain.

"Mr. Wright and the writer of this sketch of his life were classmates at Yale, and also at Rutgers College. They commenced the practice of law in New York together, being friendly associates in the same office, in the transaction of their separate affairs, and for more than forty years the writer had his place of business in connection with this friend and companion of early days. He thinks, therefore, that he may truly say he knew him well. "