Sela G. Wright Papers, 1847-1998, 2002, 2017, n.d.
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Administrative/Biographical History
Rev. Sela(h) Goodrich Wright, educator and missionary, was born in Pompey, New York on July 1, 1816 to John (1791-1886) and Betsy Goodrich (1795-1875) Wright, farmers. After 1830 they moved to Medina, Ohio. Wright enrolled in the Preparatory Department of Oberlin College in 1840, but withdrew in 1843 to become one of the first members of the "Oberlin Band" of evangelical missionaries working among the Ojibwe (Chippewa) tribe in Minnesota. Three years later, in 1846, he returned to Oberlin to find a "suitable wife." The principal of the Female Department helped him identify a small group of young women who embodied the "necessary qualifications," and from among these women Wright selected Emeline Farnsworth (1822-1917, enr. 1840-41) whom he married June 6, 1846. They returned to Minnesota, serving at Red Lake, Lake Winnibigoshish, and Leech Lake until 1862. Seven children were born to them during these years, two of whom died young of dysentery. Wright was ordained in 1849 and added ministerial duties to his work in the schoolhouse. The mission dissolved in 1859 with few converts, but Wright and his family stayed among the Native Americans until 1862 when an Indian uprising caused them to flee.
Wright settled his family in Oberlin in 1862 (where their last child was born in 1865 and died one year later). Wright himself went on to establish churches and schools for the American Missionary Association in the American South among the freed slaves. He was frequently at odds with his superiors and teachers, so in 1867 he returned to Government service in Minnesota as a teacher among the Ojibwe, establishing a boarding school at Leech Lake to reduce the influence of family and tribe on the Native American students. He remained here until 1883 and served briefly in the late 1880s as a missionary to members of a Wisconsin tribe. He ultimately claimed 41 years of education and missionary work with the Ojibwe. During these years he and his wife acquired a very thorough knowledge and understanding of the Ojibwe language, and he compiled a grammar text and dictionary of words in order to write materials for the Indians in their own language.
Sela G. Wright was the author of several writings: The Religious Customs of the Ojibway Indians (pamphlet, 1890), Some Reminiscences of Early Oberlin Missionaries and their Work in Northwestern Minnesota (manuscript, 1890), and a manuscript edited by Frank Hugh Foster in 1891 with an unknown title.
Wright had a lengthy career among the Indians, though it was generally characterized by limited success. Although he had mastered the Ojibwe tongue and had a profound respect for its richness, he could not see that its fiber and essence came from the nomadic, subsistence life of the Ojibwe. In addition, although he abhorred the demoralizing effects of the unscrupulous traders and government agents and the intrusion of white settlers, he clung to his cultural prejudices, demanding the Ojibwe give up their culture and accept those same white values held by the intruders as evidence of conversion and "civilization." In his last years he was bitter about the success of an Episcopal mission among the Ojibwe, not able to grasp that it was due to its greater cultural tolerance. Wright died in Oberlin on 12 July 1906.
Sources Consulted
Ronald E. Butchart—SUNY Purchase at Cortland [copy in 30/192 case file].
Sela Wright Papers, RG 30/192, Oberlin College Archives
Author: Melissa Gottwald and Jonathan Thurn Forms of Material (links to similar genres) Administrative InformationFor Sela Wright’s letters to the Treasurer (20 Mar 1835 and 12 Jan 1837), see RG 7.
Frank Hugh Foster Papers, RG 30/103.
Sela G. Wright student file, RG 28/1.
The collection of Sela G. Wright consists primarily of letters, 1847-66, written by Wright or his relatives. Included are Wright’s letters from Red lake, Minnesota, while among the Ojibwe Indians, which are partly written in Ojibwe; letters written while assisting Negroes in the South, 1863-66; a letter containing a description of a sailor’s death off Java, 1847; and a letter containing information concerning the funeral services by C.G. Finney for an Oberlin student, 1847. Also included is somewhat extensive genealogical information dating from the 1600s in England from Ms. Jean Wright, as well as Sela Wright’s Ojibwe language manuscript.
The archives also holds an original 1870 graphite drawing of Leech Lake, Minnesota by Anna Jane Wright, Sela Wright’s daughter (Oberlin College graduate, class of 1872), received from Jean Wright in 1974.
Separate from the rest of the collection, the Archives holds two Native American Indian dolls (20' tall), one moccasin with beaded trim, two 30' decorative leggings with applique design, one baby carrier with wooden base, and two beaded bandolier bags with beaded straps. Included among the artifacts is the wicker basket in which the material was received. Photographs taken in 2002 and in 2017 of the above artifacts are included with the textual materials in the collection.
An Ojibwa Bible and vocabulary workbook were added to the collection in 2022, and Wright’s Some Reminiscences of Early Oberlin Missionaries… (1890) was added in 2023, transferred from the Oberlin College Library Special Collections.
INVENTORY
* Digital photographs available
Box 1
“The Story of S.G. Wright and Emeline, his wife,” by Carrie E. Wright, 1998
Biographical Files (3f) [acc. 228]
General, 1896, 1906, 1938, 1956, n.d.
Statement re: Joshua Goodrich, 1893
Will, 1864
*Photographs of Ojibwe artifacts (in Boxes 4-7), 2002, 8/2/2017
Copy photograph of “Leech Lake” drawing, ca. 1974 (in GR Case 3, drawer 7)
(see also copy negative #2284, 1974)
Correspondence, 1847-48, 1852-66, 1883, 1989, n.d. (ACCESS COPY)
Box 2
Ojibwe Language Manuscript, n.d. (ACCESS COPY)
Box 3 RESTRICTED (see Sela G. Wright Digital Collection)
Correspondence, 1847-48, 1852-66, 1883, 1989, n.d. [acc. 85]
*Ojibwe language manuscript, n.d. (original) [1982/018]
See the Sela G. Wright Digital Collection for images of most of the artifacts.
Box 4 RESTRICTED
*Native American Artifacts, n.d. [1993/086]
Basket
Beaded bandolier bag
Leggings (2)
Box 5 RESTRICTED
*Native American Artifacts, n.d. (cont.)
Basket
Cradle
Box 6 RESTRICTED
*Native American Artifacts, n.d. (cont.)
Dolls (2; male and female)
Moccasin (one only)
Box 7 RESTRICTED
*Native American Artifacts, n.d. (cont.)
Beaded bandolier bag
Box 8 (flat box)
Ojibwa Bible, 1856 [2022/035]
Introduction to the Study of Indian Languages with Words, Phrases, and
Sentences to be Collected (J.W. Powell, 1880). Filled in by Sela Wright in
the Ojibwe language. Presented to the Oberlin College Library, 1893.
[2022/036]
Some Reminiscences of the Early Oberlin Missionaries in Northwestern
Minnesota by S.G. Wright, 1890. Dictated to Jacob Burgner,
stenographer. (2 copies, one handwritten and one typescript) [2022/036]
Handwritten manuscript restricted, use typescript copy
GR Case 3, drawer 7
*"Leech Lake" (Minnesota), graphite drawing (signed and dated) by Anna Jane Wright, 1870
see also Archives Museum Digital Collection
10 3/8" high x 25 1/4" long [acc. 228]
(mounted by the Intermuseum Conservation Association, 2013)