born in yonkers, new york, 12 years younger than harry, george wright was raised as a cricket "club pro", assisting their father samuel wright as harry had done. before george's birth, samuel wright's st george's cricket club moved from manhattan across the hudson river to elysian fields, hoboken, new jersey, where many new york and new jersey baseball clubs played in the 1850s. both boys learned baseball, too, but george grew up with the "national game" and was barely in his teens when the american civil war curtailed its boom; harry was already 22 when the baseball fraternity convened for the first time, and 30 when the war ended. george's younger brother sam wright also played baseball professionally, with brief appearances in the major leagues.