In Pennsylvania 1862-1865 - teaching
Between Jonathan Jasper Wright’s completion of studies in Ithaca at the Lancasterian School in 1862 and his first departure for South Carolina in mid-1865, his time was consumed by two activities - teaching in Montrose (likely 1862-63 and 1863-64 school years) and Wilkes-Barre (1864-65), and reading the law with attorneys in each city.
It is not noted where he taught in Montrose. There may very well have been an informal school for the few Black children who lived in the county*, and depending on the number of students, it’s not hard to imagine that he leveraged the processes and practices of Joseph Lancaster in his educating. The Lancasterian methods required very few resources, and one teacher could oversee a large number of students.
In Wilkes-Barre he taught at the first school for Black children in the borough.
At the same time he taught in Montrose and Wilkes-Barre, he also studied law with lawyers in those towns. Jonathan, if he had lived at home in Springville, would have had an untenable daily commute - ten miles or so to Montrose, nearly 40 miles to Wilkes-Barre. Therefore, it is very likely that he had a room in town as part of his teaching or legal work. (It was not uncommon for legal students, who worked as legfal clerks as part of their assignments, to be offered room and board in lieu of salary.) That would allowed him to work late to keep up with his two demanding activities - teaching and legal study.
So during this period, Jonathan Jasper Wright began down two pathways that would last the rest of his life - education and the law.
*Based on a review of 1860 Susquehanna County census records in Waiting for the Lord, there were at that time roughly 30-35 Black school-age children in Montrose.
Sources: Waiting for the Lord, Debra Adleman; African-Americans in the Wyoming Valley, Emerson Moss.