Thomas Bright

Source: History Morris County New Jersey, Volume II, Lewis Publishing Co., 1914

The BRIGHT family, of which the Thomas BRIGHT of this sketch is a distinguished member, is the oldest in that section of Morris county, situated about the charming town of Woodport on the shore of beautiful Lake Hopatcong. The BRIGHTs came originally from England, are typical of the best character of that strong and dominant race, which in the early days of American colonization laid a foundation in this country, upon which has been built up in safety all the subsequent fabric of American citizenship, a fabric composed of the most various and multiform races, with characters as divergent as the four corners of the world.

The great-grandfather of the present Thomas BRIGHT was also a Thomas BRIGHT. Indeed, it is a curious fact that the subject of this sketch is the fifth to bear that name in consecutive generations, and moreover that each Thomas BRIGHT has been the fourth son of his parents. To return to the great-grandfather of the present generation, Thomas BRIGHT, the second, was a native of England, and lived his entire life in that country. He was one of the BRIGHTs of Greebank, near Rochdale, in Lancashire, and an own brother of John BRIGHT, the distinguished Liberal statesman and orator. John BRIGHT’s fame rests primarily on the part he played in the anti-corn law agitation in the forties of the past century, a part which won for the people much relief from the burdensome and oppressive taxation of that time, and for himself a popularity great and merited. He was the great popular champion of the time, and enjoyed a brilliant government career. Entering Parliament for the first time in 1843, he became president of the Board of Trade in 1868. He was chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in 1873-74, and 1880-82, and finally became lord rector of the University of Glasgow in 1883.

Son of the second Thomas BRIGHT, and a nephew of the great John BRIGHT, was Thomas BRIGHT, the third of the name, the grandfather of our subject. Like his father before him he passed his entire life in England, where he was interested in the mining industry to a large extent.

His fourth son, and the fourth Thomas BRIGHT, was a native of Cumberland county, England, where he was born in the year 1828. He spent the first few years of his life in his native land, coming to the United States when but seven or eight years of age, and here became the founder of the American branch of the family. Upon first arriving in this country he settled in Pennsylvania, but did not remain in that state more than a few years. He was a youth of eighteen when he finally came to Morris county, New Jersey, and there made his home at Hurdtown. He was already a capable man, despite his youth, and possessed a thorough understanding of the mining business, in which his family had been engaged in England, and in which he had himself had some experience in Pennsylvania. In Morris county he became associated with the Glenden Iron Company, and by them was put in charge of the opening and operating of their mining property. This Mr. BRIGHT accomplish for them with great success, and continued mining there for a period of thirty-eight years, comprising most of the active years of his life. After the close of his term he removed to Woodport, Morris county, and there purchased property of his own. It is near this property that the Hurd, Ford, and Schofield mines are now located. In 1872 he purchased the Woodport House, into which he moved, and conducted the same as a first class hotel with eminent success until his death in the year 1890. Mr. BRIGHT was a very prominent figure in the life of Morris county, and instrumental in building up the industries, especially mining, of the region. He was closely associated for many years with George RICHARDS, another prominent man in Morris county, and with him opened up and operated a great number of mines in that locality. It was these two men who made the first opening in the great Hurd, Ford, and Schofield mines already mentioned. Like Mr. BRIGHT, Mr. RICHARDS had come from Pennsylvania to New Jersey. He later died in Dover, Morris county. Besides his mining operations, Mr. BRIGHT was active in almost every department of the community’s life. He conducted a general store with great success, and was a prominent figure in politics, being a staunch member of the Republican party. He was a great fraternity man, a member of the Knights of Pythias, of Dover, and of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, of the same city. Mr. BRIGHT married Ellen ROEBUCK, a member of the ROEBUCK family of Pennsylvania, and a daughter of Daniel ROEBUCK, of Port Carbon, in that state. She was born at Port Carbon, December 29, 1830, and there passed her girlhood. To Mr. BRIGHT and his wife were born six children, as follows: 1. Irene, now the widow of John WOOD, of West Orange, New Jersey, where she now resides with her only son, William B. WOOD, who is associated with Thomas A. EDISON in his great works at West Orange. 2. Ella, now Mrs. C. D. SIMPSON, formerly of Morris county, and now a resident of New York State. 3. Leonard, deceased, graduated in letters from Ann Arbor, and later in medicine from Columbia University; married Jennie MERRITT by whom he had two children; practiced his profession in Dover and Rockaway, New Jersey; was a member of the Morris County and State Medical Societies, and of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. 4. Thomas, of whom further. 5. Rebecca, married (first) Joseph H. NICHOLS, by whom she had one son, Thomas NICHOLS, who died; married (second) Charles B. CORWIN, of Woodport, where he is employed in the government works. 6. George, who died at the age of seven years.

Thomas BRIGHT, the fifth of that name, and the fourth child of Thomas and Ellen (ROEBUCK) BRIGHT, was born February 10, 1865, at Woodport, Jefferson township, Morris county, New Jersey. The whole region about Woodport is among the most lovely in the highlands of New Jersey, and Lake Hopatcong, itself, combines the charms of natural beauty and of romance as few other bodies of water in the eastern mountains. Its irregular shore line gives occasion to innumerable picturesque bays and inlets, the shores rising boldly and are crowned with the beautiful forest of the region. It seems strange to the tourist who now enjoys himself in the security on it gracious waters to believe, yet it is a fact, that scarcely so much as a hundred years ago it was know to our forebears as the great lake in the wilderness, the vaguest notions prevailing as to its position and extent, and one fact certain regarding it that it was the rendezvous of the Lenni-Lenape and even of the fierce and dreaded Iroquois, on their periodic travels east and west, north and south. In this beautiful region Mr. BRIGHT passed his boyhood and youth, and has continued to live here up to the present time, with only short periods of absence like those caused by the exigencies of education. He attended for a time the local public schools, but later went to Flushing, Long Island, and to E. A. Fairchild’s Institute where he prepared himself for college. Ha matriculated at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania, in the year 1886, and there took the scientific course. During his term in college Mr. BRIGHT distinguished himself in the classroom and campus, and finally graduated. After completing his education he turned to the active business of life, engaging at first in a mercantile business which he has continued with a high degree of success up to the present time, adding by degrees his various other interests to this the original one. Like his father, Mr. BRIGHT is a man of great versatility of talents, and his energetic nature could not be content with but one line of activity. The mining industry in one form or another might be said to be a family inheritance, and accordingly Mr. BRIGHT became interested in the great industry, with the development of which his father had had so much to do. He opened the Weldon Mine which he operated until 1898. He also engaged in the stone business, and now operates a large lime stone quarry from which the returns are highly lucrative.

The chief business connection of Mr. BRIGHT and the one in which he best known in the community is his proprietorship of the Woodport House on Lake Hopatcong. The management of the Woodport House is first-class in every particular and it affords a most delightful retreat for such as wish to enjoy the holiday season in this picturesque locality. Mr. BRIGHT is not content to devote his entire time and attention to his business interests, even though they be of so varied an diversified a kind of those in which he is engaged. On the contrary he gives generously to both time and attention to the life of his community and the conduct of its affairs. He is a member of the Republican party, as was his father before him, and takes an active part in the councils of the local political organization, being regarded as a leader of his party thereabouts. He is also a member of Acacia Lodge, No. 71, F. and A. M., of Dover, and also of the Dover branch of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.

Mr. BRIGHT married, June 20, 1887, Minnie De FREIGHN, a native of Tamaqua, Pennsylvania, where she was born November 29, 1869, daughter of Charles and Emma (ROEBUCK) De FREIGHN, of that place. Mr. and Mrs. Thomas BRIGHT are the parents of six children, as follows: 1. Charles, who lives with his father and is associated with him in business, now twenty-six years of age. 2. Leonard, who died when young. 3. A child, who died in infancy. 4. Thomas, aged twenty years, who lives at home with his parents, and is the sixth fourth child to bear that name consecutively. 5. Brighten, now eighteen years of age and attending school. 6. Elmer K., aged five years.

Transcribed by John Cresseveur (1949-2003)