Samuel Bright, our subject's father, who was born, about 1818, at Aaronsburg, near the present site of the Lutheran cemetery. He was educated in that town, attending both the common schools and the academy, and then learned the carpenter's trade under the instruction of his brother George. He was of ordinary stature, was active and sup-
ple, and possessed decided genius in his line. As a citizen he was well known. He was the drum-major of an organization in Aaronsburg, and was a consistent, if not an active, member of the Lutheran Church.
In politics, he was first a Whig, later a Republican, but he had no taste for the life, of a politician, and he followed the business of carpentering and cabinet making until his death; he died at the early age of thirty-eight, from the effects of being over-heated, and he was buried at Aaronsburg. His wife. Eve Weaver, a daughter of Daniel and Elizabeth (Fiveplinger) Weaver, was born and reared in Haines township, Centre county. Six children blessed their union: (i) Mary E. (Mrs. Thomas Miller), of Winfield, Kans. ; (2) Anna (Mrs. John Walton), of North Bend, Penn. ; (3) Jennie (Mrs. Samuel Huston Hunter), of Mill Hall, Penn.; (4) James W. , professor of English Language in Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md.; (5) John W., our subject, and (6) Margaret, who died in infancy. After the father's death [Samuel] the mother formed a second union, this time with Levi Conser, and now resides at Logantown, Penn. By this marriage there are three children: Harry N., Ph. D., now principal of the high school at Sunbury, Penn.;-Thomas C. , M. D., practicing medicine at Sunbury; and Minnie M., now Mrs. James Stoman, of Loganton, Penn.

Son of Samuel Bright & Eve Margaret Weaver: J.W. BRIGHT, M. D., of Rebersburg, Centre county, is a physician whose professional attainments place him in the front rank among
the practitioners of this section. European travel and study in the most noted centers of clinical work have supplemented the thorough preparation of our own schools, while natural talent has enabled him to improve to the utmost these ad-
vantages and the no less valuable training gained in years of practice. His success is the more creditable from having been gained by his own efforts in the face of financial difficulties in early life.
John Bright, great-grandfather of our subject, was born in Pennsylvania of pioneer stock, his family having been among the early settlers in the eastern counties of that State, and after spending the greater part of his life there as a
farmer, he came to Centre county to spend his last days. This was in the latter part of the eighteenth century, and he was then too old to work. His son George, our subject's grandfather, who was born, probably, in Lehigh county, was
married in Centre county, about 1788, to Eve, daughter of John and Barbara (Wolf) Stover. George Bright, who possessed much mechanical ability, located at Aaronsburg, and having learned the hatter's trade in the East before the removal of the family, he followed that business, and was also interested in farming. He and his wife reared a large family, all of whom are dead except George. Jr.: (i) David, who never married. was a hatter at Aaronsburg; (2) Sophia married Adam Guiswite, a farmer of near Aaronsburg; (3) Margaret never married, and her death occurred at the old homestead; (4) Catherine was the wife of Samuel Shafer, a farmer, who lived at Madisonburg; (5) John, who married Martha Hill, was a brick maker and tanner at Aaronsburg; (6) George, a carpenter and cabinet maker, married Sarah Bower, and is living in retirement at Aaronsburg at the age of eighty-five years; (7) Michael, who married Elizabeth Robinson, was a slave-holder before the war, in which he participated on the Confederate side, and his death occurred in Memphis, Tenn., in 1893.

SOURCE: "Commemorative biographical record of central Pennsylvania, including the counties of Centre, Clinton, Union and Snyder" Page 123