From the 1874 DuPage Atlas – W.H. Wright

W.H. Wright’s farm looks tidy and prosperous, but who exactly was W.H. Wright? 

Naperville’s history features a number of Wrights. One of the most community-minded was James Gregson Wright. James was born in England, emigrated to New York, and by 1843, he had settled in DuPage County where land was reasonably easy to obtain. He farmed for a number of years, and then became a banker, launching Producers’ Bank in 1857 with partner George Martin II, the Scot who built the mansion at Naper Settlement. 

 

Continuing to be involved with Naperville, James was appointed postmaster and served six terms in the Illinois General Assembly. He was also the first owner of the farm that is now the site of the Meson Sabika restaurant, but this engraving is not of that farm and James is obviously not W. H. Wright. 

James married Almira Van Osdel, whose father was a noted architect, and they had seven children, one of whom was named William. William also lived a life of public service, but dedicated himself specifically to the G.A.R. (Grand Army of the Republic), an organization for veterans of the Civil War. The G.A.R. was actually founded in Illinois and grew to be a national organization. 

Captain William had served as an officer in the 156^th Illinois Volunteer Infantry and it apparently had a deep impact on him. Building on his local involvement, William was eventually elected the 66^th Commander-in-Chief of the national organization. He served from 1932 until 1933 when he died in Pittsburgh at the age of 88 years old while attending a G.A.R. encampment. 

 

In 1872, William had married Ida Sleight, whose father, Delcar Sleight, and grandfather, Morris Sleight, were both major real estate developers in Naperville. Delcar donated the land for North Central College and there is a Sleight Street in one of their developments. There is also a Wright Street which was named for William, Delcar’s son-in-law.

But William’s middle name is Parkinson, which was his Grandmother Wright’s maiden name, and he moved to Chicago in 1871, just before the Great Fire, so he can’t be the W.H. Wright of this farm engraving either. 

W.H. Wright is mentioned twice in the 1874 DuPage Atlas. His residence is listed as Naperville Township, Section 17, with Eola as the post office. The other listing is as a “patron” of the atlas, which no doubt means he paid for inclusion, but cemetery, census, newspaper, and other records reveal nothing else about W.H.. 

So the search continues! 

Naperville 1920 Flashback: Staying in Touch by Phone

The city’s first telephone lines were installed in the 1880s by the Chicago Telephone Company, which in 1920 changed its name to Illinois Bell to represent its growing domain. When the City Council granted the telephone franchise to Chicago Telephone, they also received a number of telephones “free of charge” for the city’s use. 

Few homes or businesses had a telephone in those early years. Philip Beckman’s harness shop, which was on the corner of Washington Street where Jimmy’s Grill currently does business, was among the first, although the shop could only connect with his home. Pine Craig, or as it is known today, the Martin-Mitchell Mansion, also had a phone early on to assist with the brick and tile business the Martins ran out of their home office. The first public phone was installed in Thomas Saylor’s ice cream parlor.

Most phone service subscribers used party lines. The Chicago Telephone Company started pushing a two-party service by 1920 because “Troubles and annoyances, occasionally found on the four-party line, are eliminated,” but party-line services lingered for many years as it was cheaper. Saving money would soon became even more important, of course, due to the Great Depression which was followed by World War II.

Early wall phones required you to crank the magneto, which is a kind of generator, to power a bell that alerted the switchboard operator so you could ask them to connect you. Once your call was over, you cranked again to ring the bell to let them know they could disconnect you. The first candlestick phones also required the assistance of a switchboard operator, but instead of cranking a magneto, you clicked the receiver hook. Rotary phones were already available in 1920, but were not widely used for a few decades. 

To add new subscribers and explain this new-fangled device, telephone companies ran ads in local newspapers, like the one from The Naperville Clarion reminding people not to be “cross” when they get a busy signal. They also published helpful articles in the phone books on how to best use one’s phone. The first phone books were just a dozen or so pages and everyone had a three-digit phone number – except for a couple of special cases. For instance, Edwards Sanitorium’s phone number was “6.” 

Naperville Weddings in History

June has long been the traditional month for weddings because the goddess Juno was thought to take especial care of women who married during her namesake month.

Naperville has certainly had it’s share of weddings, but sometimes tradition was the last thing on the bride’s mind.

Harriet Warren Dodson settled in the area with her parents in 1833, not long after Joseph Naper. Originally they lived on the south side of I-88 before founding the town of Warrenville. One of her first social events here was a non-traditional wedding, as related in her book The Warrens of Warrenville:

“The wedding was on Sunday and our conveyance a cart drawn by oxen ...driving up to the tavern door, the residence of the hospitable Capt. Joseph Naper, and such a wedding!

“The bride was actually scrubbing the floor of the only room in the house where she was to stand when the ceremony was to be performed…

“The bride made her appearance in a dress of the common veiling material, a kind of cinnamon brown. She was a sensible looking woman about thirty or thirty-five years of age. Her intended also looked about that age or a little older, an affair of little romance surely, but sensible, I should judge, as I look back upon it now.”

Another unconventional bride was Hannah Ditzler Alspaugh who was born in 1848. She taught for ten years at Naper Academy and was the first librarian at the original Nichols Library. Hannah didn’t marry until late in life when she wed John Alspaugh, a widower who was also her first cousin.

Today the law allows cousins to marry if they are over are 50, but in 1905, Hannah and John were actually wed illegally, despite their ages.

The Martin-Mitchell Mansion at Naper Settlement is named for

Caroline who bequeathed it to our city. The Martins were of Scottish descent and frequented local “Highland” picnics. It’s thought that while at one of these events, Caroline met and fell in love with Edward Mitchell of Hinsdale.

Caroline apparently grew tired of waiting for permission to marry and at the age of 31, eloped with Edward to Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Eventually the couple made peace with her family and held a second wedding, complete with a  traditional formal announcement, at the mansion in 1896, nearly six months after their elopement.

It’s interesting to know that our forebears were not as hidebound by tradition as one would think!