[Signature: Hildebrandt]
[Hand-written note: PS. The pictures are not ready, I have to have them
copied. M.W.]
* * * * *
Dayton, Ohio, June 5, 1909.
Capt. A. Hildebrant,
Berlin, Germany.
Dear Sir:
You did not quite understand my letter. It was General Ulysses S. Grant
that I wrote of, and President Grover Cleveland, of whom I spoke. They
were two presidents of our country, decended like myself from John
Porter of Windsor (16_37) from whom I am also descended. Hence they are
distant cousins of ours, and of each other.
My wife's father was a regular German in his looks. He was born six
miles west of Scleitz in Saxony, the southwest part, as you will see on
any large map of Saxony. The family, of whom we never had any group
picture, is as follows:
Milton Wright, born November 17, 1828, in Rush County, Indiana.
Susan Catharine (Koerner) Wright, born near Hillsboro, Virginia, April
30, 1831.
Reuchlin Wright, born in Grant County, Indiana, March 17, 1861.
Lorin Wright, born in Fayette County, Indiana, November 18, 1862.
(These two older brothers are still living, are married, and have lovely
children--Reuchlin three, Lorin four, Reuchlin's oldest married).
Wilbur Wright, born, in Henry county, Indiana, April 16, 1867.
Otis Wright and Ida Wright (twins) born April 24, 1870, in Dayton, Ohio.
(Without sickness or pain, they died at 13 and 18 days of age).
Orville Wright, born August 19, in Dayton, Ohio, 1871.
Katharine Wright, born in Dayton, Ohio, August 19, 1874.
They were all good children. And they are all of unimpeachable morals
yet. Reuchlin is a deacon on the Congregational Church, in Tonganoxie,
Kan. They are about equal in intellect, the others having had better
education than the inventors. Katharine graduated in the Classical
Course in Oberlin College, and teaches in Dayton High School. I am a
traveling minister in the United Brethren in Christ, served several
years as pastor, ten as presiding elder, eight as editor of our Church
paper, and twenty-four as bishop. As bishop and editor I was elected by
General Conference every four years, those offices being filled every
four years by a ballot election. In filling my duties, I have visited
all the states west of the River, and territories; and all states east
of the Mississipi, except the six New England states and five others. In
all I have traveled by rail, over two hundred thousand miles. My change
of residence every two years must account for my three older children
being born in three different counties in Indiana. Mrs. Wright, the
sweetest spirit earth ever knew, died twenty years ago, in Dayton, July
4, 1889. From that on I raised the children, left to my care. All the
children sprang to help their mother, but Wilbur cared for her,
prolonged her life, and I gave him five hundred dollars for his
incomparable care for her. [Hand-written note: He had no promise of
reward.]
Their first interest in the art of flying, they date back to about the
year 1879, when I brought home to them a Heliocoptere, a toy which could
fly. Later on they began to watch Lilienthal, and followed him to his
death, in the art of gliding. Their first active work began in the year
1900, when as a vacation, they built a gliding machine on the coast of
North Carolina, and each year in the fall of the year, spent a few weeks
there till in 1903, they attached a gasoline motor to it and flew,
December 17th, four short flights. They flew against the wind and made
at the longest only about a half mile, counting the velocity of the
wind. In actual measurment considerably less than a half mile. The
place of flight was on the sandy plain near Kill Devil Mills, in Dare
County, four miles from Kitty Hawk in Cerrituck County. The following
two summers and falls, they experimented at Simson's(?) Station (a
mere stopping place, on the Dayton and Springfield traction railroad, a
perfectly level meadow ground) where they made a few miles flight, but
in 1905, September, they flew as much as twenty-four miles, at one
flight. They flew no more for part of two years, but began negotiations
for the sale of their invention. In 1908, they engaged to a Company in
France, to sell their rights, and sold to the United states government a
single machine at twenty-five thousand dollars, they in each case, to
perform certain exploits with the machine. Time crowding on them to meet
engagements, they separated in June 1908, Wilbur going to France, and
Orville remaining to complete at Ft. Myer (near Washington) the United
States contract. Of Wilbur's scalding his arm in regulating his machine,
and his successful trial, before his arm was well, all have read. But
Orville having his machine ready at Ft. Myer, went far ahead of Wilbur,
but an easily avoided defect in his machine, having under strain caused
friction between the propeller of his machine and a wire, and--far worst
of all broke the management of the _tail_ of his machine, a most
important part--he was on a machine in the air over one hundred feet
high, with his control of the machine rendered useless, and after
sinking to about seventy-five feet, his machine descended vertically, to
the death of Lieutenant Selfridge, two hours later, and a tremendous
jolt to himself and the breaking of a thigh bone (left leg, one third
way down toward the knee) which confined him in the hospital for
several weeks, and from which he will entirely recover. But Wilbur
learning of Orvilles disaster, and reproached as far behind him, rose to
the situation, and in a few days, was ahead of anything Orville had
done, to the great joy of his brother. The rest you know. Wilbur in
France and Rome earned his conracts, and came home with Orville and
their Sister Katharine, and they were hailed at the depot of his city,
with the ringing of bells, the firing of cannon, and by over a thousand
people, and the same at home, at the noon hour, and at night more than
ten thousand people came out as old friends and neighbors to see them,
the most splendid illumination of the street, and decoration of the
buildings for three squares, being the order of the occasion. The city
brought them on their arrival, home in a train of coaches, thier
carriage being drawn with four white horses, in which rode with them
their father and two favorite grandchildren, Leontine and Horace Wright.
The boys were natural workmen in wood or metal. Their father's family,
their mother's family (and the mother herself) were inventive and
ingenius. The father at eighteen years invented a type-writer, having
never heard. It is useless to develop inheritance in their invention.
The city (Dayton) has decreed them two days (Jne 17 and 18), on which,
besides innumerable ceremonies, they will be given three gold medals;
One voted by the nation, one by the State, and another by the City.
Yours truly,
[Signature: Milton Wright]
A. Hildebrandt
Hauptmann a.D.
Berlin W. 30
Martin-Luther-Strasse 10.
Berlin W. 30, den 28. Huni 1909.
Bishop
Milton Wright, Esquire,
Dayton (Ohio).
Dear Sir,
For the two letters, you had the kindness to send me in last time, be
thanked very much. With great interess I am awaiting the pictures, which
you advised me of. I shall try now, to discover the native place of Mr.
John G. Koerner, the father of the late Madame Wright.
Now still once more many thanks for the pains, you have had!
I am with great estime
ever Yours very truly
[Signature: A. Hildebrandt.]
Berliner Lokal-Anzeiger
Redaktion.
Berlin SW 68,
Zimmerstrasse 37-41.