Biographical Details
Date of Birth: January 6, 1830
Birth Location: Madison, IN, USA
Graduation Year(s): 1849
Degree(s) Earned: Bachelors
Date of Death: December 4, 1868
Death Location: Warsaw, KY, USA
Michael Steele Bright
Life Experience
Michael Steele Bright was the son of Michael Bright Sr., a judge and Indiana state senator. Bright Jr. was a lawyer, who practiced law until 1854. He was, for some time, a judge in county court in Superior, Wisconsin. In 1862, he moved to Chicago. He then moved to New York and established the banking house of Bright & Co. in 1863.
Marriage and Family
Bright studied law with his father Senator Michael S. Bright Sr. He married Sarah Irwin Lodge in Madison in November 1850. They had two children, a son Michael III, nicknamed “Steel,” and a daughter Sarah.
Interesting Anecdote
On December 4, 1868, the mail line steamer “America” was headed up the Ohio River toward Newport, and the mail steamer “United States” was headed downriver toward Louisville. Between 11:00 pm and midnight, the boats collided about a mile upriver from Warsaw. The two boats passed each other almost every day while traversing the Ohio River. That unfortunate night, they met at a particularly dangerous bend in the river, where a couple of crafts had previously met their demise. A miscommunication between the signal whistles of the ascending and descending boats led to a terrible collision in which the “America” rammed the hull of the “United States.” The collision caused the “United States”—transporting barrels of petroleum oil on board—to catch fire, which quickly spread to the “America.” The death count was 162. The “United States” was eventually raised and repaired by the United States Mail Line Company, but the “America” remained at the bottom of the Ohio River. Future Kentucky governor, J. Proctor Knott, then a congressman, was on board the “America” when the collision occurred. Bright died in this collision in his exertion to save others.
References
- Wylie
- angelfire.com/mn/thursdaynighthikes/
- explorekyhistory.ky.gov
- usgenwebsites.org/KYCampbell/steamboatdeaths.htm
- Daily State Sentinel [Indianapolis] 12/07/1868
- Daily State Sentinel 12/14/1868
- Daily State Sentinel 12/18/1868
- Evansville Journal 12/19/1868
- Daily State Sentinel 12/23/1868
- The Franklin Democrat 01/21/1881