George Grover Wright (March 24, 1820January 11, 1896) was a pioneer lawyer,

Iowa Supreme Court The Iowa Supreme Court is the highest court in the U.S. state of Iowa. The Court is composed of a Chief Justice and six Associate Justices. The Court holds its regular sessions in Des Moines in the Iowa Judicial Branch Building located at 1111 E ...

justice, law professor, and Republican

United States Senator The United States Senate is the Upper house, upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the United States House of Representatives, House of Representatives being the Lower house, lower chamber. Together they compose the national Bica ...

from

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to the ...

. Born in

Bloomington, Indiana Bloomington is a city in and the county seat of Monroe County, Indiana, Monroe County in the central region of the U.S. state of Indiana. It is the List of municipalities in Indiana, seventh-largest city in Indiana and the fourth-largest outside ...

, he attended private schools and graduated from

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. Campuses Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI. *Indiana Universit ...

at Bloomington in 1839. He studied law in

Rockville, Indiana Rockville is a town in Adams Township, Parke County, in the U.S. state of Indiana. The population was 2,607 at the 2010 census. The town is the county seat of Parke County. It is known as "The Covered Bridge Capital of the World". History Rockv ...

and was admitted to the

bar Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar * Chocolate bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud * Bar (u ...

in 1840, commencing practice in Keosauqua, Iowa Territory (now Keosauqua, Iowa). He was

prosecuting attorney A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the common law adversarial system or the civil law inquisitorial system. The prosecution is the legal party responsible for presenting the case in a criminal tria ...

Van Buren County, Iowa Van Buren County ( ) is a County (United States), county located in the U.S. state of Iowa. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census the population was 7,203, making it the state's tenth-least populous county. The county seat is Keosauqu ...

in 1847-1848 and was a member of the

Iowa Senate The Iowa Senate is the upper house of the Iowa General Assembly, United States. There are 50 seats in the Iowa Senate, representing 50 single-member districts across the state of Iowa with populations of approximately 60,927 per constituency, . ...

from 1849 to 1851. He was a justice of the

from January 1854 to January 1860, and June 1860 to September 1870.Iowa Judicial Branch Biography of George C. Wright
accessed 2009-06-06. He was the Court's chief justice for seven of those years. He also served as president of the Iowa Agricultural Society from 1860 to 1865. Wright moved to

Des Moines Des Moines () is the capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is also the county seat of Polk County. A small part of the city extends into Warren County. It was incorporated on September 22, 1851, as Fort Des Moines, ...

in 1865. In collaboration with Justice C. C. Cole, he established at Des Moines the first law school west of the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...

. This school later became the

University of Iowa College of Law The University of Iowa College of Law is the law school of the University of Iowa, located in Iowa City, Iowa. It was founded in 1865. Iowa is ranked the 28th-best law school in the United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or U ...

. He served as one of its professors from 1865 to 1871. In 1870, the

Iowa General Assembly The Iowa General Assembly is the legislative branch of the state government of Iowa. Like the federal United States Congress, the General Assembly is a bicameral body, composed of the upper house Iowa Senate and the lower Iowa House of Repres ...

chose Wright (over William Boyd Allison and others) to serve a six-year term in the United States Senate.Dan Elbert Clark,
History of Senatorial Elections in Iowa
" pp. 143-49 (Iowa 1913). He served in the Senate from March 4, 1871, to March 4, 1877. He was not a candidate for reelection. While in the Senate, he was a member of the

Senate Committee on the Judiciary The United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, informally the Senate Judiciary Committee, is a standing committee of 22 U.S. senators whose role is to oversee the Department of Justice (DOJ), consider executive and judicial nominations, ...

(in the Forty-second Congress), a member of the Committee on

Civil Service The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...

and

Retrenchment Retrenchment (french: retrenchment, an old form of ''retranchement'', from ''retrancher'', to cut down, cut short) is an act of cutting down or reduction, particularly of public expenditure. Political usage The word is familiar in its most general ...

(in the Forty-third Congress) and Committee on Claims (in the Forty-fourth Congress). After leaving the Senate, he resumed the practice of his profession in

and also engaged in banking as the president of the Polk County Savings Bank. From 1887 to 1888 he was president of the

American Bar Association The American Bar Association (ABA) is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. Founded in 1878, the ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of acad ...

. He died in Des Moines in 1896, aged 75, and was interred in

Woodland Cemetery Woodland Cemetery may refer to: * Woodland cemetery, a type of cemetery or it may refer to specific places: in Sweden * Skogskyrkogården (The Woodland Cemetery) in Stockholm, Sweden in the United States (by state) * Woodland Cemetery (Quincy, I ...

. Wright's brother,

Joseph Albert Wright Joseph Albert Wright (April 17, 1810 – May 11, 1867) was the tenth governor of the U.S. state of Indiana from December 5, 1849, to January 12, 1857, most noted for his opposition to banking. His positions created a rift between him and the I ...

, was a Governor and Senator from

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wright, George G. 1820 births 1896 deaths Burials at Woodland Cemetery (Des Moines, Iowa) People from Bloomington, Indiana Republican Party United States senators from Iowa Republican Party Iowa state senators Chief Justices of the Iowa Supreme Court Justices of the Iowa Supreme Court American prosecutors Iowa lawyers Presidents of the American Bar Association Politicians from Des Moines, Iowa People from Rockville, Indiana People from Keosauqua, Iowa 19th-century American politicians University of Iowa College of Law faculty 19th-century American judges 19th-century American lawyers