Isaac W. and Eunice Lavina (Zion) Wright

WRIGHT, ZION, LEMMON, JONES, BARRATT, JENSEN, RUTHERFORD

Posted By: Jennifer J. Jensen (email)
Date: 5/9/2004 at 12:12:24

Isaac W. and Eunice Lavina (Zion) Wright

Isaac W. and Eunice Lavina (Zion) Wright were pioneer settlers of Audubon County. In 1878, the Wrights purchased Section 22 east of present-day Audubon from the railroad. Mr. Wright moved his family to the Audubon area in 1880.The house they built in 1905 was completed to host the funeral of Mrs. Wright. The house continues to stand on its original location today. Both of the Wrights lived the remainder of their lives in Audubon County.

Mr. Wright was a direct descendent of Revolutionary War veteran Joseph Wright. Joseph was born in Frederick County, Maryland, on January 13,1754. He enlisted in the war in Randolph, North Carolina. Joseph later settled in Lincoln and Cumberland Counties in Kentucky and may have been a wheelwright.

Isaac’s brother, Noah, was one of the first three settlers of Jefferson County, Iowa. Their father, Jacob, donated the land where the Wright cemetery near Fairfield is located today. Isaac’s youngest brother, Josiah, who died in 1852, was the first to be interred there.

Isaac W. Wright, son of Jacob Wright and Rebecca (Groce or Gross), was born in Scott County, Illinois, on October 4, 1836. As a child, he moved with his parents and eight brothers to Fairfield, Iowa, where he grew to manhood.

In 1860, Isaac married Eunice Zion in Des Moines County, Iowa.

Eunice Lavina Zion, the daughter of Jonathan and Elizabeth (Jolley) Zion was born in 1838 in Franklin Township, Des Moines County, Iowa. Her family settled in Des Moines County in 1837.

Eunice’s great-grandmother, Lucy (McCormick) Zion, was a relative of Cyrus McCormick, the inventor of the reaper. Lucy was born in 1772 in Washington County, Virginia. Lucy married John Zion and died January 1, 1854, in Cane Creek, Lee County, Virginia.

The Wrights were the parents of three children; all born in Fairfield, Jefferson County, Iowa. Sarah Elizabeth Wright was born December 23, 1860. Jacob Zion Wright was born on February 9, 1865. Sherman William Wright was born August 11, 1868.

Sarah married George Hice Lemmon on September 9, 1877, in Jefferson County, Iowa. They were the parents of six children: Robert, Charles, Effie (Throckmorten), George Sherman, Mae (Jones), and J. Arthur.

The Lemmons joined the Wrights on the family farm in Audubon in 1880, later living in Nebraska and Montana. George and Sarah returned to the live on the farm in 1930, following the death of Jacob Wright, and remained there until their deaths in 1948.

Jacob was a local Audubon farmer and seed corn dealer. He resided on his family’s farm until his unexpected death in Excelsior Springs, Missouri, on March 26, 1929. His body was returned to Audubon and he was interred in the Wright family plot. He was 64 years old.

Sherman, a well-known rural Audubon County educator, married Frances E. Neff of Atlantic, Iowa, on June 7, 1899. They were the parents of three children, Grace B., Mildred H. and Harold Bell. Sherman attended the State Teachers College (now University of Northern Iowa) in Cedar Falls, Iowa. He died suddenly on June 3, 1921.

Eunice Wright died on November 11, 1907, at the age of 69. Isaac Wright died on February 28, 1925, at the age of 88 years.

All of the members of the Wright family are buried in Maple Grove Cemetery in Audubon.

Local descendents of the Wright family who continue to make their homes in the area are Audrey Jensen of the Friendship Home; Bernice Barratt (Duane) of Irwin, Iowa; and Larry Wright (Meredith) of Glenwood, Iowa.