Transcribed from A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans, written and compiled by William E. Connelley, Secretary of the Kansas State Historical Society, Topeka. [Revised ed.] Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1919, c1918. 5 v. (xlviii, 2530 p., [155] leaves of plates): ill., maps (some fold.), ports.; 27 cm.

Harvey L. Wright

HARVEY L. WRIGHT is a newspaper man, now publisher of the Lebanon Times, and has had an extensive experience in the printing and publishing business for a number of years.

He was born in Smith County October 8, 1879. His grandfather was William Henderson Wright, who spent his active life as a farmer in Indiana, Kansas and Oklahoma. He died at Lenora in Dewey County, Oklahoma, in 1916. J. A. Wright is father of Harvey L. Wright and a prominent citizen of Lebanon.

He was born in Indiana in 1854, grew up and married in that state, and was a farmer by occupation. Coming to Kansas in 1878, he homesteaded a quarter section twelve miles north of Lebanon in Smith County, but finally left the farm to enter the newspaper business. In 1889 he established the Criterion at Lebanon, published it several years, and was next the founder and publisher for fifteen years of the Lebanon Journal. For the past six years he has concentrated his energies upon the real estate business at Lebanon. He is a republican in politics. In Indiana he married Martha Ellen Good, who was born in Illinois in 1857. Their children are: Clara Alice, wife of L. J. Brown, engineer for the Smith Center Co-operative Association; Harvey L.; Marcus L., who died when twenty-three years of age; William H., a newspaper man at Hays, Kansas; Estella, teacher in the high school at Salina, Kansas; and Roy C., who is now serving with the United States army in France.

Harvey L. Wright secured his education in the public schools of Lebanon, but left school when only fifteen years old to begin practical work as an apprentice and general utility boy in his father's printing office. He was there twelve years and acquired a knowledge of every detail of printing and publishing. For another period he worked for Congressman Connelly a year and a half on the Colby Free Press, and then followed his trade as printer at Smith Center, conducting the Smith County Messenger six years, and two years was on the Pioneer and one year on the Journal. In May, 1912, he returned to Lebanon, going in partnership with his brother, W. H., in the publication of the Lebanon Times, and in 1915 bought his brother's interest and assumed full control of the Times, which he has continued as its proprietor and editor. The Lebanon Times was established in 1885 by Mr. Wright's father, and represents a consolidation of the Lebanon Criterion, the Journal and the Argus. It is an independent republican paper with a large circulation over Smith and surorunding[sic] counties. It is published semi-weekly, the plant and office being in the Dykes Building on Main Street and Kansas Avenue.

Mr. Wright himself is a republican. He is affiliated with the Knights and Ladies of Security. September 10, 1910, at Smith Center, he married Miss Cora B. Turner of Smith Center. They have two children: Dorothy May, born May 5, 1912; and Everett Lewis, born November 30, 1913.


Pages 2278-2279.