Samuel S. Wright, b. 15 Jan 1807

SMEAD, GRIFFIN, STANTON, BILLINGS, GOOD, LOCKWOOD, TUBBS, TRUAX, JOHNSON, DOIN, GALLAGHER

Posted By: Donna Moldt Walker (email)
Date: 2/20/2004 at 11:54:44

Samuel S. Wright is one of the pioneers of Jackson County, whose early labors in tilling its soil and developing its marvelous agricultural resources have been rewarded many fold. For many years he was one of the leading farmers in South Fork Township, of which he was an early settler, and where he reclaimed a large farm from the wild prairies. But in 1879, having accumulated a competence, he left his homestead to spend the closing years of a busy life in retirement from active business, and is now an honored resident of Maquoketa. He came to Iowa in territorial days, when it was a wild, sparsely-settled country, when the Indians still lingered here, and deer and antelope roamed at will over the broad prairies and through the beautiful groves, and he has been an interested witness of the advancement of the State to its present high position among its sister commonwealths, and he may well be proud of the fact that he has assisted in bringing about its great prosperity.

Our subject was born in Bolton, Warren Co., N.Y., Jan. 15, 1807. His father, Thomas Miles Wright, was a native of the town of Colchester, Conn., born Sept. 3, 1775, and was the son of a sea-captain. He died Feb. 7, 1864, aged eighty-eight years, five months, and four days. Thomas, his father, died leaving two little children, Thomas being two years old. The elder son, Samuel was a carpenter by trade. He went to Oneida County, N.Y. while the Indians still inhabited that section of the country and when they were removed by the Government to Green Bay, Wis., they employed him to accompany them to build a church. He went from there to Milwaukee, and was an early settler of that city, and he it was who built the light-house at that point. His death occurred there about 1844. The father of our subject was reared in his native State, and when nineteen years of age he went to the town of Gill, in Franklin County, Mass., and was there married to Miss Eliza Smead, a native of Shelburne. Her father, Samuel Smead, is supposed to have been a native of the old Bay State. He removed from there to Ohio, and was a pioneer settler of the town of Madision, Lake County, where he bought a home, and spent his remaining years. In 1800 the parents of our subject removed to the State of New York, and cast in their lot with the early pioneers of the town of Bolton. The father took up a tract of land on the shore of Lake George, and at once built a frame house, and commenced to clear a farm from the primeval forests of that beautiful region. For some years he devoted his time to clearing land and farming. In after years he built a woolen-mill, the first one ever erected in that part of the country, and engaged in carding and coloring wool and in finishing cloth - his eldest son having learned the trade. Mr. Wright continued to reside there until 1840, when he came with his family to Jackson County, and settled two and a half miles south of Maquoketa, buying a claim there, on which he lived some years. He then removed to Maquoketa, and here passed the remaining years of a busy and honorable life, dying in 1864; his good wife dying in Bolton, Warren Co., N.Y. Their marriage has been blessed to them by the birth of nine children, eight of whom grew to maturity, as follows: Thomas; Samuel S., who died aged three months; Alfred, Samuel S., Mary, Cordelia, Harriet, Eliza, and Ralph. Ralph Wright, the youngest of the family, was born Jan. 2, 1821. In 1840 he came to Iowa with his father and half-sister, Helen Wright, his father having been married twice; his second wife was Catherine Stanton Griffin, by whom he had one child, Helen, now the wife of Columbus Billings. Ralph Wright married Abigail Good. In the spring of 1849 they started for California. When they got to Ft. Laramie, he being a carpenter, the Government troops hired him to erect buildings for them, remaining there through the winter. Next year he went through, accumulating a few thousand dollars in the mountains. He went to San Francisco, put up a boarding-house there, took in a boarder that had been exposed to the small-pox, took that dread disease, and died.

He of whom we write was the fourth child of the family in order of birth. He grew to a stalwart manhood in the place of his nativity, and at the age of twenty-one became a partner with his father in farming and the lumber business. He remained at home until 1841, when he came to the territory of Iowa with a party of nineteen others. They had four teams, and were seven weeks on the way, and at night the men slept in the wagons, while rooms were hired at some farm-house or other building for the ladies of the party. Mr. Wright's father had bought a claim on section 36, of what is now South Fork Township, and there were ten acres of the land broken and fenced, but there were no buildings on it, so the family spent the first three months in this county in Canton, where our subject, with others, rented a saw-mill; and in the spring of 1842 he built a block-house on the claim in South Fork Township, its dimensions being 14 x 18 feet; and on the last day of June, 1842, the stage, making its first trip from Davenport to Dubuque, stopped at his abode for the night. It was established as a stage station, and the stages met at his house twice each week for four years, and spent the night there. There were no railways at that time in this part of the West, and all travel was by team or on horseback, or afoot. Mr. Wright carried on farming in partnership with his father a few years, and then they divided the property and our subject continued alone. Davenport was the nearest market for some years, and occasionally he carried his produce to Sabula, Bellevue, Dubuque, Galena, or Lyons. He entered 160 acres of land from the Government, paying therefor $1.25 an acre, and after that he purchased other land, until at one time he owned 400 acres of land. He was greatly prospered in his agricultural ventures, improved a fine farm, and in 1879, as we have before noted, was enabled to retire from active business.

Mr. Wright has been twice married - first, at Bolton, N.Y., to Maria Lockwood, their union taking place March 7, 1833. She was born in Bolton, N.Y., and was a daughter of David Lockwood, a native of New York. She departed this life in Iowa, Nov. 26, 1868, aged fifty-five years, three months, and twenty-six days, leaving three children - David, Mary, and Emeline.

Mr. Wright was married to his present wife, formerly Mrs. Ellen (Truax) Tubbs, in 1879. Her father Aaron Truax, was born in Dunham Township, Missisquoi County, Province of Quebec, Canada, May 12, 1802, but his father was born in the State of New York. He was there reared and married, and subsequently removed to Canada, and was a pioneer of Dunham, where he secured a tract of timber land, and improved a farm from the wilderness. He resided there until his death, at the age of eighty-six years, he having lived to see that section well improved. Mrs. Wright's father was reared to agricultural pursuits, and remained under the parental roof until he had grown to manhood. He then bought a tract of slightly improved land three miles from the old homestead, and a log-house stood on the place. He improved a good farm, and there being fine water-power on the estate, he utilized it by building a saw-mill, and engaged in the lumber business. A part of this lumber was sold at home, and the remainder was shipped to various lake ports, and to Troy, N.Y.

Mr. Truax continued his residence in the land of his nativity until 1849, when he sold out and came to Iowa, traveling on the Lakes to Chicago, and thence by team to Clinton County, this State. He settled in Brookfield Township, that county, taking up a tract of Government land in a wild, sparsely settled region, where deer and other wild game were still plentiful. He improved a farm, on which he lived about twenty years, and then sold it, and has since lived retired at Maquoketa. Mrs. Wright's mother closed her eyes to earthly scenes in 1884. Her maiden name was Patty Eliza Johnson, and she was a native of New Hampshire. Her father, Solomon Johnson, was likewise a native of the Granite State, and he removed from there, about 1810, to Canada, and located in Farnum, where he engaged in farming, and spent the rest of his days. The maiden name of his wife was Mary Doin, and she was also a native of New Hampshire. There were eight children born to Mrs. Wright's parents, seven of whom grew to maturity. Mrs. Wright has been twice married. Her first husband was Ara E. Tubbs, a native of Washington County, N.Y., and a son of George and Angeline Tubbs. He came West with his parents at an early day, and died here in November, 1871. Two daughters were born to Mrs. Wright of that marriage - Mary, wife of Frank Gallagher; and Carrie V., a student at Cornell College, Mt. Vernon.

Mr. Wright is held in veneration and esteem not only as a pioneer of Jackson County, but as a man and a citizen, as he possesses a benevolent mind, a kind heart, and other attributes that mark a noble, Christian character. For many years he has been a useful, working member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and has served as Trustee and Class-Leader. His wife holds the same religious views, and is connected with the same church, as one of its most esteemed members. Mrs. Wright's first husband was First Lieutenant of Company I, the 24th Iowa regiment.

("Portrait and Biographical Album of Jackson County, Iowa", originally published in 1889, by the Chapman Brothers, of Chicago, Illinois)