Autobiographical Entry in Harvard Classbook of 1852. [From Harvard College Classbook of 1852, pp. 530-533. Harvard University Archives, HUD 252.714.] ²

Wright
Proprietor of Jack Knife
Nautical Almanac office Cambridge.

I was born in Northampton Mass. on the 20th day of September A.D. 1830; near the autumnal equinox; just as the Sun was about to enter the Balance. To this circumstance and to my equable temperament I ascribe the subsequent monotony of my life. My father Ansel Wright is descended without interruption from one of the first settlers of the town of N. who came to this place from the colony of Massachusetts Bay; doubtless himself descended from a series of English Wrights, who in their day and generation were well known to their friends.

My mother Elisabeth Bullen was born in the state of Connecticut. I am the third of nine children seven brothers and two sisters of who three brothers only beside myself, are now living.

My memory of the earliest events of my life is nearly uniform but as years advanced a few salient events stand as landmarks, with no particular propriety that I can discover, except perhaps the fact that they happened at moments in my life when I was unusually conscious, and serve to indicate this state of mind. The baby on which I was founded, was, I suppose, like other babies, except in respect to its destiny of which however its friends knew nothing at that time. At an early period in its life its grandmother discovered on its head, which was born with hair, a light down from which she predicted the present color of my hair.

This child though unusually sober and good natured, was in no way remarkable, except at the time, as being the baby; but this I have observed is ever a source of wonder. I bear at the present moment upon my forehead the mark of a wound which this child received in its first attempt at walking, and by which among other features I was afterwards distinguished.

My father was a democrat and an ardent supporter of Andrew Jackson, then president, and I escaped only by the skin of my teeth, (not then grown,) from receiving the name of this statesman. Fortunately the Fates and my Mother interfered and gave to this infant the name I now bear.

The first day at the infant school I distinctly remember as one of the saddest in my early life, a day of grief inconsolable. My teacher, or the lady who, I suppose, afterwards became my teacher endeavored to comfort me by offering me something to drink, — what I do not distinctly remember. It may have been milk or some sweet

beverage. My fainting spirit with all its tender outlets, rudely torn from home, could find no sustenance in earthly fluids; and so I came to my letters in tears.

From the earliest period of my conscious life, I have shrunk from everything of a startling or dramatic character. I was indisposed to active exercise; to any kind of excitement or change. I was never remarkable at any kind of sport; never could see the value or significance of any kind of formality. In illustration of this I remember a circumstance in my earliest school-days. The schoolmistress wished to introduce the custom of kneeling at morning prayer. This I obstinately refused to do, or at least obstinately did not do. The penalty for my disobedience was to kneel by the teacher's side; a position of dramatic interest by which my spirit was broken.

I was in general a very tractable boy and never was flogged at school, though I remember some slight corrections. I had some little ambitions, such as all boys have, but they were for the most part of a solitary nature. I never aspired to be a leader among boys, and never cared for their quarrels and parties. If I aspired to a place, it was to a solitary place and a peculiar one, not within the general aim of the boys. At one time however my ambition took a social turn.

While I was still in the district school I conceived an ardent attachment for one of the school-girls, which I have never mentioned before this writing to any living soul. I did not even intimate it to the young lady herself, but rather built small castles, or very diminutive houses in the air, wherein I dwelt in fancy with her I fancied,— I will not say adored. Such was the character of all the attachments or fancies I have subsequently had.

Another social turn of my ambition was at the high-school, where I studied hard for one of a series of prizes. I obtained one, not the first of the series, but the first and last in my past life. I carried to this school and retained the character of good-boy. I was never flogged, and on the occasion of receiving the prize I have mentioned, I was publicly praised as the only boy who had received, in that term of school, no marks for tardiness or bad behavior. This virtue of punctuality I have since lost in college, principally in the senior year, in which I received two private admonitions for cutting prayers. In this respect, then the boy was not father to the man; though I think, this can be explained, when we consider that I was not tempted like other boys by their sports, and that I was carefully trained to punctuality at home. Tardiness is the natural result of an indolent disposition, and this I have always had.

I had in my boyhood a violent temper, but I was not quarrelsome,

nor did I ever cultivate pugnacious qualities. My indolence has since completely mastered my temper.

At the age of ten I formed a liking for the study of astronomy, and my zeal in this easily overcame all the fondness for those surprises which had previously constituted the great attraction of New-years gifts. So I asked my father for that puerile book, Burrits Geography and Atlas of the heavens; but I afterwards lost my interest in this study.

In the higher English and Classical branches of the Northampton High-School, I came under the care of a most kind and zealous teacher, Mr. David S. Sheldon, now a Professor in Iowa College. I was inspired by him with a zeal for natural-history, which I have also since lost. I tramped in his company and under his guidance through most of the wilds of N. collecting, preparing and naming specimens of plants, bugs, birds, and reptiles. We drew into our pursuits nearly the whole school, and founded a museum of natural-history, which, I think, is still in existence. My private collection of plants was partly destroyed by fire a few years before I went to college, but not till my whole interest in them had perished, never to rise from its ashes.

The comet of 1843 roused my sleeping interest in astronomy but this soon disappeared again with the comet. At the age of fifteen and a half I left school without any definite interests ambitions or prospects. Through the influence of my friend, schoolmate and classmate James B. Thayer and of his brother William S. I was induced to apply to my father to send me to college. This he most willing consented to do. So after nearly two years of an uncertain, aimless, though not useless life, I went to school in East-Hampton to brush up my faded knowledge. In one term of this school I so far succeeded that with the aid of good-fortune and under the Balance I entered Harvard College, though with several conditions. With the unequalled Class of '52 I followed my destiny through the four years of college, never so much disturbing the Balance as to remember much about my college life, more than these incidents of general interest which are known to us all, among which may be mentioned the armorial honor I won of becoming the possessor of the prepossessing Jack-Knife. At the close of our course the world was deprived of the results of my learning, as embodied in my commencement part, by an accident, which for a time disabled me as to my power of walking. When I recovered I limped from Holworthy to the Nautical Office and I have remained in its employments to the present time.

July 24th 1858

1858 - About Thanksgiving time. Began to teach Nat. Phil in Agassiz's school. Thayer says Jan 25/60

1859. Elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

1863 May 26. Recdg.-Secy. Am. Acad. till May 24/70

1864. July 1 - Chosen member of The Examiner Club.

1867 Recdig secy Am Acay. Of A. &S.

1870 Still living at Cambridge. Left Nautical Alm. Office. University Lecturer (H. C.)

1871

1872 “ “ “

1873

1874-5 Instructor in Physics (H.C.)

1875

1875 Sep. 12. Died suddenly of congestion of the brain.

1877 J. P. Thayer published letters of C. W. with some acct of his life.