Genealogy Story – the Wright Line

My wife’s ancestry, while all European, is a mix from several countries – Dutch, French, Irish, Scottish, German, and English. This is the story of just one branch of her family tree, the male ancestral line of her maternal grandfather, Frank Andrew Wright. This line can be traced back to New England during the time of the Great Migration, where it has been documented in (*1) as follows:

“Thomas Wright, Esq., was born in England and was bap. Nov. 19, 1610; emigrated to America, coming first, probably, to Watertown, Mass., and settled at Wethersfield, Conn., sometime before 1640, probably about 1639. He was a deputy to the General Court of Conn. in 1643, and was a man of influence and high social standing in the colony. His principal estate was on an island in the Connecticut River, known as “Wright’s Island,” called by the Indians “Manhannock,” (“Great Laughing Place”), where he owned land as early as 1640. This land is no longer an island, the river having changed its channel. In 1792 it was taken from Wethersfield and annexed to Glastonbury, by a resolution of the General Assembly. Part of this land, owned by Thomas Wright in 1640, has ever since and still is (1897) owned by his lineal male descendants. Thomas Wright died at Wethersfield in April, 1670.”

The males in my wife’s line remained in CT for the next 150+ years, living in various towns along the Connecticut River (Wethersfield, Middletown, Saybrook, Killingworth). They were James (1638-1727), Thomas (1670-1749), James (1694-1773), James (1723-1762), Benjamin (1760-1828), and Benjamin (1787-1882). As can be seen, the names Thomas, James, and Benjamin were used over and over.

Sometime around 1810, Benjamin Wright (1787-1882) left CT and moved west to NY. There he married Phoebe ___ (1789-1883) and they had children, including Lois (1815-1894), Benjamin (1820-1908), Rhoda (1823-1879), and Jonah Dayton (1825-1879). He and his entire family, including his children and any spouses, then moved to Michigan sometime before 1850, settling in Calhoun County.

[Benjamin Wright]

As evidenced by census records, Benjamin lived in several places in Calhoun County (Tekonsha, Eckford, Fredonia) over the next several decades, but his final resting place is in the Lyon Lake Cemetery just down the road from a place called Wrights Corners. But this Wright name appears to be coincidental. While Benjamin has the earliest Wright grave in this cemetery (1882), the cemetery dates back to the 1830s, and the most numerous Wright family in the area are Julius Wright (1815-1894) and his children and grandchildren. (Julius’ forebears came to the US around the same time as Benjamin’s and from the same area in England, but they do not appear to be related.)

Over the next few generations, the Wright family slowly migrated farther north in MI – to Eaton County, then Clinton County, then Antrim County, and finally to Charlevoix County. Thus, it was in Charlevoix County that Frank Andrew Wright (1873-1957), a bachelor nearly 50 years old, married widow Cassie Cincush (1890-1948), in 1922. Cassie was the daughter of two German immigrants, and a widow with 5 children.

Frank Andrew Wright had had one girl, Elizabeth, whom he loved when he was younger. But Elizabeth’s mother did not approve of the relationship – so much so that she moved the family to Grand Rapids so that they two of them could not see each other. As I noted in some correspondence several years ago:

“According to my wife's remembrance of what her mother told her, Elizabeth was the only one whom Frank actually loved - and as you noted, Elizabeth's mother did not want them to be together.  When Frank finally married Cassie, it was not for love, but because he wanted a hard-working woman to help on the farm (Frank's mother Abigail had passed away in 1920).  Unfortunately, Cassie's mother-in-law had blamed Cassie for the death of her son, and conspired to take the children from her.  So, the Eaton children never lived with Frank and Cassie - therefore she had five more children with Frank so they could help on the farm as well.  Frank did not like his children any more than he liked Cassie, but wanted them to be farm workers for him - which they were.”

[Frank Andrew Wright]

By the time my wife was born, Frank was already an old man in his mid-70s, and her younger sisters have no memories of him as he passed away before then. When I met my wife in 1970 and married her a year later, her grandparents had been dead for many years and she was unaware that she had long ancestral roots in my home state of Connecticut. It was only when I began doing genealogical research many years after that where I discovered her rich heritage, including the Wright line.

Notes:

*1 – History of the Town of Goshen, Connecticut: With Genealogies and Biographies, Augustine George Hibbard, 1897