State Historical Society of Iowa

WRIGHT, George Grover, (brother of Joseph Albert Wright), a Senator from Iowa; born in Bloomington, Monroe County, Ind., March 24, 1820; attended private schools and graduated from Indiana University at Bloomington in 1839; studied law in Rockville, Ind.; admitted to the bar in 1840 and commenced practice in Keosauqua, Iowa Territory; prosecuting attorney of Van Buren County, Iowa, 1847-1848; member, State senate 1849-1851; justice of the State supreme court 1854-1870; served as president of the Iowa Agricultural Society 1860-1865; moved to Des Moines, Iowa, in 1865; one of the founders of the College of Law, University of Iowa; professor in the law department of the State university 1865-1871; elected as a Republican to the United States Senate and served from March 4, 1871, to March 3, 1877; was not a candidate for reelection; chairman, Committee on the Judiciary (Forty-second Congress), Committee on Civil Service and Retrenchment (Forty-third Congress), Committee on Claims (Forty-fourth Congress); resumed the practice of his profession in Des Moines and also engaged in banking; president of the American Bar Association 1887-1888; died in Des Moines, Iowa, on January 11, 1896; interment in Woodland Cemetery.