Katherine was the only one of the Wright children to attend college. She graduated from Oberlin College in Ohio, in 1898, and became a school teacher, teaching Latin and English at Steele High School in Dayton, Ohio. When their mother died of tuberculosis in 1889, Katherine took over the running of the Wright household at the age of 15, which she continued to do the rest of her life.

Reuchlin and Lorin each married and had families at a rather young age. However, neither Wilbur, Orville, nor Katherine ever married and all three lived together in a very close-knit family group their entire lives. Katherine had a very profound influence on her brothers and was very much involved in all their endeavors. In the aviation community she is honored almost as much as Wilbur and Orville.

Wilbur and Orville's interest in flight begin at the age of 11 and 8, respectably, when their father gave them a helicopter made of paper, bamboo, and cork. It was powered by a twisted rubber band attached to twin propellers. The boys named the toy the "Bat" and played with it until it fell apart. They built a number of copies which flew successfully until they tried to make a larger one. It would be many years before they solved the problem of why flying objects, when enlarged, would not fly -- but they eventually did.

Growing up, the boys were always tinkering. Orville built kites and sold them to schoolmates. Wilbur made pocket money by helping to print the church newsletter. He developed a machine to fold the paper and together the boys built a foot-powered wood lathe. Everything they did their entire life was a joint effort. They played together, worked together, and talked over their ideas, thoughts, and aspirations together.

At the age of 17, Wilbur, a master typesetter who loved working as a printer, chose not to return to school for his senior year in high school. Instead he started a weekly neighborhood paper, The Westside News. The paper was a great success. However, when the boys decided to convert the paper to a daily evening newspaper, The Evening Item, they could not compete with the local established daily paper and the Wright's paper folded after only three months.

Not to be stopped by this little setback, their next venture was to set themselves up in business as Wright and Wright, Job Printers. The business promptly became a success and was the first of many entrepreneurial endeavors they created, all of which were very successful. About this time the bicycle craze began to sweep the country. Wilbur and Orville bought bicycles and quickly became avid cyclists. When their friends started bringing their bikes to them for repairs, they found themselves in the bicycle repair business.

In 1892, they put their printing business into the able hands of their pressman, Ed Simes, and formed the Wright Cycle Company, opening a bicycle shop directly across the street from their printing shop. The bicycle business grew so rapidly that they promptly required bigger quarters and very quickly opened four bicycle shops in rapid succession. The Wright Cycle Company initially rented, sold, and repaired bicycles. However, it wasn't long before the lure to experiment and build better bicycles soon had them manufacturing their own designs. The Wright Bicycle Company manufactured two custom-built bikes, the St. Clair and a more expensive model the Van Cleve. They owned the bicycle manufacturing business until 1912, when Orville sold it after Wilbur died from typhoid fever at the age of 45.