The "A Remarkable Woman Living In A Remarkable Mansion" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Talking to Elizabeth who happens to be my tour guide at Wright's Ferry Mansion in Columbia, Pennsylvania.  I have driven past the Mansion on the corner of Second and Cherry Streets many times, but thought it was time to stop and take a look inside the neat English Quaker House.  

This looks as if it is the entrance to the home,
but it is the rear of the Wright's Ferry Mansion.

Walked through the gate to the front door where I found a small sign hanging on the door telling me the next tour would be at 2:50 pm.  Spent some time walking around the grounds taking photographs and returned in time for the final tour of the day.  I was greeted by Elizabeth who ushered me in the door which I found later was the rear door. 

On the kitchen side of the Mansion was a water pump
under grape vines.  In the right rear of the photograph
is the exterior of the squirrel's tail oven.

Inside I found a small entry room that had the original 1738 or the home.  The rear door had a lock with a dovetail coverplate while the dutch front door had glass on the upper half.  The house was built in 1738 by John Wright for his family.  John Wright, was an English Quaker minister and bodice-maker who lived with his wife and six children in Manchester, England.  

This plaque is on the exterior of the Mansion.
Click on photographs to enlarge them.

In 1714, hoping to find prosperity in the New World, he took his family to Chester, Pennsyl- vania and settled in as a shop keeper.  Daughter Susanna remained behind in England since she was being schooled in Manchester.  Some time later she also joined her family in Chester.  John's wife died in 1722 and two years later her father decided to preach to the Native Americans along the Susquehanna River in an area known as Shawanatown, Pennsylvania.  

The parlor shows the wide unfinished flooring.  In the center
is a stone fireplace with cabinets on the right and a
set of stairs on the left with faux cabinet front.

John built a log cabin near a tract of land granted to George Beale by William Penn in 1699, but a year later returned home to Manchester.  He returned once again to the Susque- hanna River location with his family and began to develop the area with Robert Barber and Samuel Blunston.  He built a new house about a hundred yards from the edge of the Susquehanna River in the area of South Second and Union Streets.  

Another view of the parlor showing the desk that was
probably used by Susanna for record keeping.

In 1730 he received a patent to operate a ferry to carry goods and people across the Susque- hanna River and built a ferry house.  The settlement was given the name of Wright's Ferry and became well known throughout the Colonies.  His ferry consisted of two dug-out canoes lashed together so the wheels of a wagon or carriage could be placed in each canoe for the trip across the river.  Then in 1738, John built Wright's Ferry Mansion and his daughter Susanna moved in to help take care of him and her bother James and his family as well as manage her father's affairs.  

This was the clock room which featured the large Grandfather's
clock in the rear of the photograph.  This room also had a
fireplace for warmth.  

Eventually she became sole resident of the Mansion and lived there until 1750.  As for Robert Barber, he constructed a swa mill in 1727 and later built a home near the river.  That home still stands today and is the second oldest in the borough, after Wright's Ferry Mansion.  Samuel Blunston also built a mansion on a hill near Wright's Ferry.  He died in the late 1740s and willed his mansion to Susanna.  I have read a variety of accounts of Susanna's relationship with Samuel, but am still unsure of what it may have been.  She eventually moved into that mansion for the rest of her life composing poetry, gardening and raising silkworms until she died in 1784 at the age of 87.  For most of her life she lived on the edge of the Pennsylvania frontier, but was able through books, periodicals and letters, to keep up with political and scientific debates taking place in Philadelphia.  

The kitchen had a very large fireplace that had a squirrel's
tail oven for baking and had a rather unusual device for
cooking known as a clockjack rotisserie.

One of Susanna's best friends was Benjamin Franklin who visited her frequently at the manson.  In 1788, Samuel Wright, grandson of the founder and Susanna's nephew, laid out the town in building lots and disposed of them by lottery, and named the town Columbia after Christopher Columbus.  Well, my trip through Wright's Ferry Mansion was extremely interesting.  I was told I wasn't allow to take photographs which I abided by, but did find photographs online that I will share with you. The majority of the Mansion was the work of Susanna, who furnished it with items that suited her taste.  The first floor consisted of a parlor that had a wall of original red woodwork with a cabinet on the right, a fireplace in the center and another cabinet on the left which was just a front for a door that led to the servant's quarters on the second floor.  In the center of the house was a clock room that housed a Henry Taylor, a Philadelphia clockmaker, grandfather's clock.  The walls of the house are limestone from the area which look to be 18" thick.  Plaster covers the walls on the interior of the house.  75% of the house still has original plaster which was made using deer's hair.

Another view of the kitchen showing the
turkey hanging on the rear wall.  The table
in the center could be used for eating meals.

 Most of the glass in the home is original glass.  The floors were mostly unfinished and mostly original with hand-made cut nails.  The final room downstairs was the kitchen with a huge fireplace used for preparing food.  To the right of the fireplace, which had a squirrel's tail oven which ran to the outside of the home, was a clockjack rotisserie.  The steps going upstairs were very narrow and very worn.  Just loved thinking of whom may have walked up the steps at one time; perhaps Benjamin Franklin! Upstairs was one room known as the "Best Bedchamber" and another known as the "Secondary Bedchamber."  Both rooms were beautifully decorated.  A final bedroom, to the rear of the second floor, was for the slaves.  It had an exit that led down another set of stairs that came out in the parlor.  The mansion was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.  Susanna Wright was a remarkable woman.  She was an artist, had some knowledge about medicine and law and counseled the local Native Americans.  Wright's Ferry Mansion was purchased a few years ago by the von Hess Foundation from Lancaster, Pennsylvania and is now a showcase with furniture from the Queen Anne and William and Mary periods.  And, Elizabeth was the perfect tour guide for a place such as the mansion.  I was amazed at her knowledge of everything in the mansion.  Every question I asked she answered.  I asked her how she knew so much about everything in the mansion and she said, "It's my job."  Job well done!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

Older photograph of Wrights Ferry Mansion.