CO-ROOTS-L Archives

From: "Maggie Stewart" <>
Subject: JAMES N. WRIGHT
Date: Sat, 4 Sep 1999 01:04:51 -0400

"History of Colorado", edited by Wilbur Fisk Stone, published by The S. J.
Clarke Publishing Co. (1918) Vol. II


p. 107-108

JAMES N. WRIGHT.

James N. Wright is president of the firm of James N. Wright &
Company, investment bankers of Denver, with offices in the First
National Bank building. He has been at the head of this business since
1909 and through the Intervening period the reliability of his business
methods, his marked enterprise and sound judgment in investments have
brought to him a very gratifying clientage. He is numbered among the
native sons of Chicago. Illinois, born August 13, 1878. His father,
Abner Miles Wright, was a native of Vermont and belonged to one of the
old families of that state of English lineage. He became a successful
grain dealer of Chicago and a member of the Chicago Board of Trade,
with which he was thus identified in 1859. He continued active in the
grain business in that city for many years and following his death his
sons continued the business until 1903. He was very prominent in
republican politics and was a candidate for mayor of the city, running
against Carter H. Harrison. Sr., at his second election as the
candidate on a fusion ticket. He was a member of the "old guard" which
stood stanchly for the nomination of U. S. Grant for the presidency on
fifty-six ballots in 1868, being a national committeeman and was
prominent in national politics as well as in municipal affairs in
Chicago. It was Mr. Wright who instituted the fight on bucket shops in
that city which later led to their abolition, and he stood at all times
for high standards in business affairs and public life. He passed away
in Chicago in 1890, at the age of fifty-nine years. His wife, who bore
the maiden name of Helen Sophia Hickox, was a native of Ohio. where her
ancestors settled at an early day. The family is of English lineage,
the ancestry being traced also back to Lord Pemberton, of the famous
Pemberton family of Ireland, who was lord chief justice of the king's
bench in Ireland and presided at the trial of the famous Rye House
plot, which is one of the historic treason plots of England. Mrs.
Wright passed away in Florida, November 30, 1916, at the age of
seventy-four years. In the family were three children, of whom Charles
H. Wright is now a resident of Evanston, Illinois, while Halle is the
wife of Judge T. P. Warlow, of Orlando, Florida.

James N. Wright, the youngest of the family, pursued his
education in the public schools of Chicago and in the John B. Stetson
University at De Land, Florida. When his textbooks were put aside he
entered the grain business in connection with his brother, under the
firm style of A. M. Wright & Company, and was thus engaged until 1904,
when he turned his attention to the bond business in Chicago, there
remaining an active factor in financial circles until 1908, when
attracted by the opportunities of the west, he came to Denver, The
following year he established his present business, which was
incorporated in 1913 under the name of James N. Wright & Company,
investment bankers. He has been the head of the company since its
establishment, directing its policy and shaping its interests. He has
had long and valuable experience in this field and is a man of notably
sound judgment and keen sagacity.

On the 4th of October, 1906, in Chicago. Illinois, Mr. Wright was
united in marriage to Miss Catherine Smith Rollo, a native of Chicago
and a daughter of William F. and Mary Rollo. Her father is one of the
oldest insurance men in Chicago, where the family has long resided. To
Mr. and Mrs. Wright have been born four children: Mary Rollo, who was
born in Chicago in 1907; James N., born in Chicago, January 13, 1909;
Pemberton, born in Denver, November 20, 1912; and Helen Sophia, born in
Denver in 1916.

Mr. Wright is still a member of the Union League Club of Chicago,
while in Denver he has membership with the Denver Club, the Denver
Country Club, the Mile High Club and the Cactus Club. He is also a
member of the Chamber of Commerce and of the Denver Bond Dealers
Association. He stands very high in business circles, enjoying the
respect and confidence of colleagues and contemporaries, and his
opinions in large measure carry weight. In politics he maintains an
independent course, voting according to the dictates of his judgment
with little regard for party ties. Fraternally he is a Mason, holding
membership in lodge, chapter and commandery. He was president of the
Denver Country Club In 1917, has been president of the Mile High Club
since the 1st of January, 1918, and is a member of the board of
governors of the Investment Bankers Association of America.

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