Jabez Wright arrived in Huron in 1808 from New York as a member of the crew who surveyed the Firelands. He settled on a 400 acre tract of land that stretched from the first cove in Huron, near the water plant on Cleveland Road, west to Rye Beach. Wright served as justice of the peace in Huron Township, was appointed an associate judge of the Common Pleas Court in Huron County and was a member of the state legislature. When Jabez died his son Winthrop inherited his house. Winthrop's daughter Gertrude inherited the house after her father's death. (Video: Jabez Wright, Afternoon at the Huron Cemetery, 2017)
Jabez Wright's surveying compass was donated to the Ohio History Connection in Columbus. Several other Wright family artifacts are on exhibit at the Firelands Historical Society Museum in Norwalk.An article dated January 2, 1838, page 3 in the Huron Commercial Advertiser references the increasing number of runaway slaves coming to Huron. Jabez Wright was a known abolishionist who hid and at times employed runaway slaves on his farm.Chief Thunderwater, also known as Oghema Niagara and Lewis Palmer, was a Niagara Indian who was born in 1865 in New York and died in 1950 in Cleveland.. He lived for a time with some followers in a wooded area on the Wright farm, which is now the northwest section of Grand Forest Beach. The Wright family allowed the Indians to live in the wooded area as long as they were peaceful.According to a 1950 article in the Erie County Reporter the Indians made axe and hatchet handles which sold to townspeople. They also made money from a special mud bath they offered.He later moved to Cleveland where he achieved celebrity status for his work on behalf of Native Americans.Originally from New York, General John Sprague married Lucy Wright and moved to Huron in 1845 after Lucy's death with his daughter, also named Lucy, and his parents.Sprague was a general in the Civil War, serving with Sherman on his march to Atlanta. He became an agent for the Northern Pacific Railroad and later moved to Tacoma, Washington, serving as mayor and establishing the Tacoma National Bank.He visited Huron whenever his business took him east.
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