Dry goods merchant.
Born at Glasgow, Scotland on 30 January 1854, he worked in the City of Glasgow Bank until 1873 when he emigrated to Canada in the service of the Bank of British North America, serving at Montreal and, the next year, in New York. In 1878 he went into the dry good business in partnership with William Fyfe, coming to Winnipeg in 1881. He established a store in the Spencer Block on Portage Avenue, staying there for seven years after which he moved to the corner of Portage and Main. His shop there burned down in 1894. He rebuilt it and operated at that location until moving to a new location at 426 Main Street, in 1903. Specializing in dry goods, silks, linens and underwear, Wright travelled twice a year to Great Britain, France, and Switzerland in search of new wares. In 1880, he married Mary Rutherford (1857-?) of Glasgow, Scotland at Montreal. They had six children: James Wright (1882-?), Margaret Rutherford “Maggie” Wright (1883-1978, wife of Hartley McKinley Millman), Mary Wright (1885-?), Archibald “Archie” Wright (1889-?), Christina McGill “Tina” Wright (1891-?), and John Mill “Jack” Wright (1896-?). He was a member of the St. Andrew's Society. He died at Winnipeg on 19 September 1932 and was buried in the St. James Anglican Cemetery.
A History of Manitoba: Its Resources and People by Prof. George Bryce, Toronto: The Canadian History Company, 1906.
1901 Canada census, Automated Genealogy.
Death registration, Manitoba Vital Statistics.
“Pioneer local merchant dies while on train,” Winnipeg Tribune, 19 September 1932.
“Winnipeg pioneer buried at St. James,” Winnipeg Tribune, 21 September 1932, page 4.
Obituary [Margaret Rutherford Millman], Winnipeg Free Press, 23 September 1978, page 120.
Obituaries and burial transcriptions, Manitoba Genealogical Society.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 28 May 2023
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