Bishop Milton Wright and Susan Catharine Wright had four sons, Reuchlin, Lorin, Wilbur, and Orville, and one daughter Katharine. Wilbur was their third son, and was born on a small farm near Millville, Indiana April 16, 1867. Orville Katharine were born at 7 Hawthorn Street in Dayton. Their father moved often from job to job, so the Wrights moved frequently. The house on 7 Hawthorn Street still belonged to their family .
The family moved from Richmond, Indiana back to Dayton in June, 1884, the same month Wilbur should have graduated from high school. Wilbur left Richmond without receiving his diploma, and returned to Central High School the next year to study Greek and trigonometry.
Probably during the winter of 1885-1886, Wilbur was hit with in the face with a bat while playing an ice-skating game. At first, the injury did not seem serious. In the Bishop's words, "In his nineteenth year when playing a game on skates at an artificial lake at the Soldier's Home near Dayton, Ohio, a bat accidentally flew out of the hand of a young man... and struck Wilbur, knocking him down, but not injuring him much. A few weeks later, he began to be affected with nervous palpitations of the heart which precluded the realization of the former idea of his parents, of giving him a course in Yale College." Wilbur cared for his mother Susan, who was dying from tuberculosis. During the years 1900, 1901, 1902, and 1903, the two brothers developed the first effective airplane .
