My Genealogy Hound

COL. JAMES S. WRIGHT, a prominent farmer and stock-raiser of Ohio Township, was born June 7, 1882, in Spencer Co., Ind., being the youngest of four children born to Jeffry and Narcissis (Barnett) Wright. The father was a native of Kentucky, but came with his parents to what is now Spencer County, Ind., in 1808, locating nearly a mile from the river and two and a half miles below the present site of Rockport. Here Jeffry Wright was reared, and here his parents died. After his marriage with the daughter of John N. Barnett, one of the earliest pioneers of this locality, he was, for a number of years an associate Judge of the Probate Court. He continued to reside in Ohio Township until 1840, when he sold out, moved to White County, Ill., but six years later returned to this county and farmed on Section 24 in Ohio Township until his death, March 12, 1868. Our subject’s mother died when he was two years and a half old, his father afterward marrying a Miss Nancy Sallee, who bore him five children and died. Mrs. Emelie Roberts became Jeffry Wright’s third wife, and by him the mother of four children. James S. Wright, the immediate subject of this biography, was raised on a farm to manhood, receiving a good ordinary education. Preparing himself for the teacher’s profession, he made that his occupation until 1861, when he helped recruit the first company raised in Spencer County for the war. He was elected first lieutenant, and the company was designated E, of the Twenty-fifth Indiana Regiment Volunteer Infantry, a detailed history of which is given elsewhere in this volume. Mr. Wright served his country with fidelity and distinction until the close of the war, having been promoted from his first position to the captaincy of Company H, then major and then lieutenant-colonel of his regiment. After the war he followed flat-boating on the river a number of years, and also for six years during the time was engaged in merchandising at Rockport. In 1876 and 1877 he was government storekeeper under Gen. Veatch, his old corps commander, who was internal revenue collector for this district, but in the last-named year began farming, at which he has since continued with considerable success. November 30, 1867, Col. Wright wedded Clara Williamson, who died of small pox, December 3, 1871, the only death of that disease in Rockport, after bearing one son: Will M. He was married December 20, 1877, to Elizabeth Gentry, his present wife, by whom he is the father of one son: James G. Mr. Wright is a stanch Republican in politics, and at the close of the war was elected to represent his county in the lower house of the State Legislature. He is enterprising and thorough going in all his efforts, and himself and wife belong to the Methodist Episcopal Church.