Charles Wright was born in the town of Ruport, Bennington county, Vermont,
April 27, 1806, and was brought up in his native Green Mountain State.
At the age of twenty he crossed over into Washington county, New York,
where he remained a year, and at the age of twenty-one settled in
Burford, county of Oxford, Canada West. He resided in Canada from that
time until April, 1839, when he came to Whiteside county and settled
first near Prophetstown, and in 1840 in Hume. Mr. Wright married Miss Cynthia
Martin at Blenheim, Oxford county, Canada, on the 31st of January, 1833. Their
children were four sons, and four daughters: Charlotte P., born July 9, 1834;
Alexander H., born June 17, 1836; Charles P., born July 9, 1838; John W.,
born March 23, 1847; David E., born October 12, 1853; Emily M., born September
18, 1840; Cynthia C., born November 4, 1842, and Sarah E., born May 20,
1844. Of these, Alexander H. died November 25, 1865, aged twenty-nine years,
and Charles P., May 28, 1857, aged twenty, both of consumption; David E.
died at the age of six years. Charlotte P. married Abel Cleaveland February
3, 1852; Mr. Cleaveland died August 18, 1855, and Mrs. Cleaveland married
Carlos Haven, March 4, 1857; she is now residing at Port Henry, New York.
John Wentworth Wright married Miss Mary Jane Jones, March 1, 1870; children,
Mertie E., born December 7, 1873, and Ralph Collier, born November 13,
1875; Mr. Wright is now an extensive farmer, residing at the old
homestead in Hume. Emily M. married James Johnson, March 4, 1857; had
one child, Larmia, born October, 1859; Mr. Johnson died in April, 1862;
in April 1864, Mrs. Johnson married Geo. M. Fern, and is now living in
Prophetstown; children, Mary E. and Charles W. Cynthia C. married
George Haven, April 12, 1860; Mr. Haven was a native of Essex county,
New York, and came to Whiteside in 1854, and was a farmer and stock
grower; he died October 30, 1875, of typhoid fever, at the age of forty-
two years; there is one child, Nellie, by this marriage. Sarah E. married
Wallace Johnson; children, Edwin H., Grace E., and Charlotte P. Mr.
Wright’s first wife died January 24, 1855. He afterwards married Miss
Nancy A. Brydia, who still resides at the homestead in Hume. During
his early days Mr. Wright was a school teacher, and then he became a
farmer which occupation he followed until his death, which occurred
September 25, 1875, having very nearly arrived at three score years
and ten, the allotted age of man. He occupied a number of Public
positions during his lifetime, the duties of which he discharged with
credit to himself, and with general satisfaction to the public. In
1852 he was elected Sheriff of the county; for nine successive years
was Supervisor for the township and for seven years Deputy Revenue
Assessor in this District. As a man, his actions were guided by the
golden rule; as a neighbor and friend he was kind and generous, and
in the discharge of the rare quality of charity was wont to quote the
Scripture passage, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”
He was the center of the social circle into which he was thrown,
having an inexhaustible fund of anecdotes, and a faculty of relating
every incident in that peculiarly happy manner that renders the
relator so indispensable to a social gathering.
Bent & Wilson History of Whiteside County Page 239
