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† Source:
History of
the Early Settlers of Sangamon County, Illinois
- Centennial Record -
By John Carroll Power
Assisted by his wife,
Mrs. S. A. Power
Under the Auspices of the Old Settlers Society.
Springfield, Ill.:
Edwin A. Wilson & Co.
1876n
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EXPLANATION: The names of early settlers, or heads
of families, in LARGE LETTER;
Names of the second generation in ITALIC CAPITALS;
third, in CAPITALS;
fourth, in SMALL CAPITALS;
fifth, in Italics
SEE NOTES
ON ERRORS AND ADDITIONS |
CHARLES WRIGHT,
was born July 21, 1799, at Bearnardstown, Massachusetts,
brought up in Vermont, and came with his brother,
Erastus, to Springfield, arriving Nov. 21, 1821.
He taught school a few years in Sangamon county, at one
time in the neighborhood of the Drennans, on
Sugar creek.
He obtained a contract for surveying government lands
on the Wachita river, went south, and worked at it two
years. He had his contract almost completed, when
he died of malignant billious fever, at Monroe,
Louisiana, Sept. 14, 1828.
† Source: History of
the Early Settlers of Sangamon County, Illinois - Centennial Record -
Springfield, Ill.: Edwin A. Wilson & Co. - 1876 - Page 788 |
DOCTOR N. WRIGHT, is
a son of Samuel Wright, an elder brother to
Charles and Erastus. The Dector is not
an early settler, as he came to Springfield August 12,
1842. He has a family, and is a practicing
physician in Chatham, Sangamon county, Illinois.
† Source: History of
the Early Settlers of Sangamon County, Illinois - Centennial Record -
Springfield, Ill.: Edwin A. Wilson & Co. - 1876 - Page 789 |
ERASTUS WRIGHT, was
born Jan. 21, 1779, at Bernardstown, Massachusetts.
The family is a very ancient one for New England.
Erastus left a history of the family, which he
always kept written up, giving the genealogy of the
family for nearly two and a half centuries, beginning
with Deacon Samuel Wright, who came from England
and settled at Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1641.
The parents of Erastus Wright left Bernardstown,
Massachusetts, and went to Derby, Vermont, in 1802, that
being at the time pioneer ground. Erastus
remained with his father on the farm, with no other
advantages for education than the country schools
afforded, until the spring of 1821, when he started
west, in company with his brother, Charles.
They traveled by such means as the country afforded
before the days of canals and railroads, until they
reached Buffalo, New York. There they embarked on
a schooner for Fort Dearborn, now Chicago, Illinois.
From Fort Dearborn they started on foot, making a
preliminary survey of the route now occupied by the
Illinois and Michigan canal, touching the Illinois river
near where LaSalle now stands. They then descended
the Illinois river to Fort Clark, now Peoria, and from
there to Elkhart Grove, where Judge Latham
resided. On their way south they stopped on Fancy
creek, in what is now Sangamon county, at the house of
John Dixon, who was one of the earliest settlers
in this county, but who afterwards went north and laid
out the town, now city, of Dixon, on Rock river.
From there they came to Springfield, arriving Nov. 21,
1821. It had been selected as the county seat on
the 10th of April before, but there had not then been
any town laid out. A log court house had just been
completed. Mr. Wright describes the town, as it
first appeared to him, in these words:
"Elijah Iles had about five hundred dollars'
worth of goods in a log cabin, ten by fourteen;
Charles R. Matheney and Jonathan Kelly lived
in log cabins not a quarter of a mile distant. The
Indians - Kickapoos and Potawatamies - often came along
in squads, and when others had built cabins near, called
the place 'log town.'"
Mr. Wright went with Judge Latham from
Springfield to Elkhart Grove and taught school there
during the winter of 1821-2. He bought a claim of
Levi Ellis and entered it as soon as it came into
the market in 1823. From notes on the flyleaf of a
New Testament, in the handwriting of Mr. Wright,
he says: "I built the first frame house in what is now
the city of Springfield."
In 1824 he built a park, and traded eighty acres of
land in Schuyler county for a elk. Old citizens
remember that Mr. Wright rode that elk, and drove
it in harness, the same as a horse, although he says in
a note that he was rough to ride, and not very kind in
the harness. Mr. Wright spent three or four
years in the lead mining region of Illinois and
Wisconsin, and while there laid out the town of Mineral
Point, Wisconsin, using a bed cord for his cabin.
He was married June 15, 1831, in Fulton county, to
Jane Gardner, whose parents were from Saratoga, New
York. Mr. and Mrs. Wright had three
children.
ELIZA ANN, born
July 2, 1833, in Springfield was married Oct. 20, 1858,
to Rev. John A. Hamilton, of the Congregational
Church, and a native of Chester, Massachusetts.
They have one child, JENNIE LOUISE, born Aug. 26,
1859, at Keene, New Hampshire, at which place Mr.
Hamilton speint the early part of his ministry, and
was afterwards in charge of the Congregational church at
Davenport, Iowa, which he resigned to make the tour of
Europe and the Holy Land, in 1873. He is now- 1875
- settled as pastor of the Congregational Church at
Norwalk, Connecticut.
JAMES G., born Mar. 20,
1835, in Springfield, married Sarah A. Wilbourn,
of Masor county. He died Nov. 16, 1858, at
Lincoln, Ill., leaving a widow and one child, the latter
has since died.
MARIA JANE,
born Nov. 14, 1837, in Springfield, was married Dec.
23, 1856, to Robert P. Johnston, who was born
Apr. 30, 1828, at Halifax, Nova Scotia, and came to
Springfield in 1851. Mr. and Mrs. Johnston
had two children, LLOYD ERASTUS and JAMES WRIGHT.
Mrs. Maria J. Johnston died very suddenly Aug. 16,
1862, in Springfield. The sons reside with their
father, who was married Feb. 22, 1865, to Isabella
Muirhead, of Greenock, Scotland. They have
four children, MARGARET A., ISABELLA, SUSIE and ROBERT
P., Jun. R. P. Johnston was for many years a
partner of P. C. Canedy, in the drug business,
and is now Assistant Secretary of State of Illinois.
He and his family reside in Springfield, Illinois.
Mrs. Jane G. Wright died Jan. 24, 1841, and
Erastus Wright married Lucy Barrows, who died
without children, Apr. 22, 1867. Erastus Wright
was married Mar. 23, 1868, to Mrs. Lucy F. Carpenter,
who maiden name was Johnson She was born
and educated in Vermont, and married Mr. Thomas
Carpenter at Lancaster, Erie county, Pennsylvania,
where she buried her husband and only child, ARTHUR.
She was married to Mr. Wright at Lincoln,
Illinois. He died in Springfield, Illinois, Nov.
21, 1870, on the forty-ninth anniversary of his
residence in that city. His widow visited Europe
in 1873, and now - 1874 - resides in Springfield,
Illinois.
Erastus Wright was one of the earliest teachers
in Sangamon county, and taught for many years. For
ten years he filled office of school commissioner of
Sangamon county. During that time at large amount
of money, derived from the sale of government land for
school purposes, passed through his hands. He was
one of the earliest Abolitionists, and was always
fearless in advocating its doctrines. He acquired
considerable wealth, and was liberal towards all
benevolent objects, and every public enterprise was sure
to elicit his co-operation.
†
Source: History of the Early Settlers of Sangamon
County, Illinois - Centennial Record - Springfield,
Ill.: Edwin A. Wilson & Co. - 1876 - Page 788 |
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NOTES:
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