Norris Wright Cuney (1846 - 1898)

Born 12 May 1846 in Sunnyside Plantation, Austin County, Texas, United States

Ancestors

Husband of Adelina (Dowdie) Cuney — married 5 Jul 1871 in Galveston, Texas

Died 3 Mar 1898 at age 51 in San Antonio, Bexar, Texas, United States

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Biography

Wright Cuney is Notable.

Wright was a Freemason. 1st (1875-1876) and 4th (1879-1881) Grand Master, Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Texas

Norris Wright Cuney was the third child born enslaved to Texas slave-owner Philip Minor Cuny and Adeline Stuart, one of his slaves, on Sunnyside Plantation. In 1859 Cuny freed Wright when he was thirteen and sent him to Pittsburgh to join his brothers Nelson and Joseph at George B. Vashon's Wyle Street School for Colored Youth. It was intended that all three boys would attend Oberlin College, but the onset of the Civil War cut off funds from home.

After the war ended, he worked his way down the Mississippi on riverboats and returned to Texas. He settled in Galveston, where he was unsuccessful in winning elected political office, but was quite successful at gaining appointed office. Active in the Republican party, he was a delegate to every national Republican party convention from 1872 to 1892. He rose to become the head of the Republican Party in Texas. He was a Presidential elector and was appointed by President Benjamin Harrison in 1889 to be the Collector of Customs for the port of Galveston, making him the highest ranking African-American in the federal government at that time.

He also organized African-American dockworkers into a successful labor union. When the local dockworker union would only hire white workers, he formed the Screwman's Association, and got work from shipowners by offering to load and unload ships for less than the white dockworkers.

He married Adelina Dowdie in Galveston, Texas in 1871. They had two children:

1. Maud Estelle Cuney (1874)
2. Lloyd Garrison Cuney (1876)

In 1875 he was elected the first grand master of the Most Worshipful Grand Lodge, Free and Accepted Ancient York Masons of the State of Texas (known today as the Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Texas), organized by black Masons.

He died 3 March 1897 and is buried in Lake View Cemetery in Galveston, Texas.^[2]

Sources

1. ↑ Wikipedia contributors, "Norris Wright Cuney," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Norris_Wright_Cuney&oldid=1064000208 (accessed June 19, 2022), citing sources.
2. ↑ Find A Grave: Memorial #15461470

• Sunnyside Plantation, Waller, Texas, for more information about the other enslaved.
• Maud Cuney-Hare, Norris Wright Cuney, A Tribune of the Black People, (New York: The Crisis Publishing Company, 1913).
• Douglas Hales, A Southern Family in White and Black, The Cuneys of Texas, (College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press, 2003) pp. 11-93.
• Merline Pitre, "CUNEY, NORRIS WRIGHT," Handbook of Texas Online, accessed March 14, 2019, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fcu20.
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Hall_Freemasonry#Notable_members
• 1880 Census: "1880 United States Federal Census"
  Year: 1880; Census Place: Galveston, Galveston, Texas; Roll: 1305; Page: 221B; Enumeration District: 073
  Ancestry Sharing Link - Ancestry Record 6742 #7573149 (accessed 19 June 2022)
  Wright Cuney (36), married, Custom House Officer, head of household in Galveston, Galveston, Texas, USA. Born in Texas.
• African American Newspaper: "U.S., African American Newspapers, 1829-1947"
  Ancestry Sharing Link - Ancestry Record 2346 #79817 (accessed 19 June 2022)
  Event Type: Other; Name: Honorable Norris Wright Cuney; Publication Date: 18 Jul 1891; Residence: Galveston, Texas; Column Number: 4; Publication Title: The Historic Times.
• Child Marriage: "Massachusetts, U.S., Marriage Records, 1840-1915"
  New England Historic Genealogical Society; Boston, Massachusetts; Massachusetts Vital Records, 1911–1915
  Ancestry Sharing Link - Ancestry Record 2511 #1062648395 (accessed 19 June 2022)
  Norris W Cuney's child Maud E Cuney (30) marriage to William P Hare on 10 Aug 1904 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.