The "The Story Of Wright's Ferry Mansion" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Reading a bit more about the woman known as Susanna Wright.  It was more than 5 years ago that I wrote the first of many stories about Susanna and her Wright's Ferry Mansion which was on the east side of the Susquehanna River in the state of Pennsylvania.  Seems that Susanna was one of the most substantial women in colonial Pennsylvania.  So, exactly what happened to her estate along the banks of the mighty Susquehanna?  According to Lancaster Newspaper writer, Jack "The Scribbler" Brubaker, Susanna had an incredible array of talents and accomplishments.  She was fluent in Latin, French and Italian and had studied the language of the local Conestoga Indians who were her neighbors.  She was a student of both law and medicine as we'll as being interested in science.  Oh, yeah, she also wrote poetry with one poem dealing with the right of women being able to vote in 1750; 169 years before they were given the right to vote. She corresponded with Ben Franklin and James Logan, William Penn's secretary as well as other important colonial Americans.  She was also known for cultivating mulberry trees to feed American's first silkworms who spun silk cocoons which she harvested to make silk stockings.  Wright never married, so, when she died she willed her four nephews as her beneficiaries.  

Wright's Ferry Mansion

She gave Wright's Ferry Mansion and other buildings on her 100 acres to nephew Samuel who lived in the mansion and established the town of Columbia on tha 100 acres.  She divided the ferry property equally among Samuel and his brothers.  She willed her furniture, books and other belongings to Rhoda Wright and children including the four nephews and Susanna's niece, Sukey Wright.  The mansion on South Second Street stayed in the family until 1922 when the Rasbridge family purchased it, saving it from proposed demolition to accommodate a coal yard.  In 1973 the Louise Steinman von Hess Foundation bought the house from the Rasbridge family and restored the property, furnishing the house with antiques of the period when Susanna lived there.  It is now hoped that Susanna Wright's home and legacy will live forever in Pennsylvania history.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.