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benefit of a life-insurance policy owes a blessing to Elizur Wright, who was the first to establish life insurance in America on-a strong foundation, and whose reports on that subject, made during his long term as Insurance Commissioner for Massachusetts, have formed a sort of constitution by which the policy of all lifeinsurance companies is still guided.
His name deserves a place beside those of Horace Mann and William Lloyd Garrison.
Apart from this, his biography is one of the most interesting, one of the most picturesque, when compared with those of the many brilliant men of his time.
His grandfather was a sea captain, and his father, who was also named Elizur, was a farmer in Canaan, Connecticut.
His mother's name was Clarissa Richards, and he was born on the twelfth of February, 1804.
In the spring of 1810 the family moved to Talmage, Ohio, making the journey in a two-horse carriage with an ox-team to transport their household goods.
Their progress was necessarily slow, and it was nearly six weeks before they reached Talmage, as it was generally necessary to camp at night by the way-side.
This romantic journey, the building of their log-cabin, the clearing of the forest, and above all his solitary watches in the maple-orchard (where he might perhaps be attacked by wolves), made a deep poetic impression on
1905. E. P. DUtton and Co. Boston,.
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