James Wright – Our Forefather

Brothers William Wright, Jr. & James Wright  

Several of the descendants of brothers William Wright Jr., (1799-1863) and James Wright (1799-1868) have worked together to not only provide DNA samples but aided each other in research to come to the most probable conclusion thus far to identify William’s and James’ parents as being William Wright, Sr. married to Mary Cairns and Mary Clevenger. 

Obtaining DNA samples to perform Y-DNA tests from both lines of William (Jr.) and James springboarded linking lines together. Further supporting evidence includes official documents from the States of Virginia and Ohio (court records, land deeds, and marriage licenses) plus Federal Census Rolls. 

Once these two brothers were linked together, the foremost evidence for connecting biological evidence to the father who we have labeled as William Wright, Sr. (b. 1765-appr. 1799/1800) is the following. 

First, a court document from Virginia https://www.lva.virginia.gov/chancery/full_case_detail.asp?CFN=015-1795-009#img that provides the following: 

• He and his wife and their “small helpless family” arrived in Augusta County, purportedly on their way to the “Western Country” early in the winter of 1784 and stayed in an outbuilding on William Black’s land in Augusta County. 
• William was very poor and owned basically no property (which explains his absence from property tax lists and compounding research efforts). 
• William was a terrible farmer and preferred to hunt, putting his wife to work at the plow in his behalf in his ill-fated deal with William Armstrong. (Based on marriage records, the “wife” herein would be first wife, Mary Cairns). 

 Second, a marriage record from Frederick County, Virginia for William Wright, Sr. links him to the Samuel Clevenger family who have established documentation to existing Wright descendants of James. 

Frederick County, Virginia marriage records establish that on Christmas Day, 1792, William Wright, Sr. was married a second time to Mary Clavenger in Frederick County. William Wright’s wife being a Clevenger is completely consistent with the AncestryDNA results that indicate the Clevengers are roughly cousins on James’ side. 

Although this is circumstantial, the fact that Samuel Clevenger, a possible candidate for the father of Mary Clevenger, was a wagonmaker is significant since his possible grandson James Wright was likewise a wagonmaker. The marriage records for a probable first marriage for William was to Mary Cairns-Wright who either died or divorced William between 1784 and 1792. This is presumed upon his 1792 marriage.  

Further evidence to William is an Augusta County, Virginia marriage record of November 3,1800, for William Poage and Polly Wright [who is noted to be the daughter of William Wright, Sr., deceased] and Mary Wright (wife #2) who consents to the marriage (indicating Polly being a minor). These facts allude to William Wright and Mary Cairns having a daughter shortly after their 1784 marriage and was about 15 years old at the time of marriage to William Poage.  

The facts of this marriage coupled with births of his son James in 1799 and William, Jr. (who might have been James’ twin or born right around 1800 leads us to believe William, Sr. deceased in 1800. Because William, Sr. deceased without owning property, it is assumed there were no probate records.  

 CONCLUSION:  

• William Wright, Sr. first married Mary Cairns who bore him a daughter, Polly. 
• William Wright, Sr. married a second time to Mary Clevenger who bore 5 children: Mary Ann, Nancy, John C., James, and William, Jr. 
• Mary Clevenger-Wright, wife #2, gave consent for stepdaughter Polly to marry. 
• Mary Clevenger-Wright’s sister Chloe Clevenger-Harmon’s husband George was chosen by Nancy Wright as her guardian (in other words, Nancy’s maternal uncle via marriage). 
• DNA tests and the above data rule out any Native American links to James, 1799. We are assuming that because the Shawnees were inclusive in “adopting” outsiders into their tribe, maybe James sought them out and would explain the connection to his burial mound with the funeral visitation by Shawnees. Additionally, DNA test results for several of James’ daughter Sarah Wright-Hammond’s descendants have not shown any Native American markers either. 

EXPOUNDING: 

To explain the above resent findings, with permission, Dr. Michael Duplisea is quoted: 

 James, William Jr, Mary Ann, Nancy, and John C. were full siblings to each other and were the children of William Wright, Sr. and Mary Clevenger. Nancy and Mary Ann are proven by the guardianship records saying they were William Wright’s orphans, including George Harmon (husband to Chloe Clevenger, who married her with William Wright as security) being Nancy’s guardian. If I’m right about the relationships here, with Chloe and Mary Clevenger being sisters, George Harman was Nancy’s uncle by marriage. William Jr is proven by his connections in Preble to Mary Ann and Nancy, and John C is proven by his living with William Jr in 1850 and his age being exactly right to be the eldest son of William Sr and Mary Clevenger. I’m also personally convinced that the C in John C stands for Clevenger, but I don’t have any evidence to prove that. Finally, James is proven by his reported brotherhood to the above siblings mentioned in that letter from Claire Garber many decades ago as well as Y-DNA that shows he was William Jr’s very close relative, and AncestryDNA showing close links to all of the above individuals, including our having an overwhelming amount of Clevenger DNA that clearly triangulates to James Wright’s ancestry when analyzed. 

 As for William Sr’s first marriage and his daughter Polly, I think the evidence is good but not as ironclad as the above. It essentially comes from three documents:  

1. The 4 Oct 1784 marriage document of William Wright and Mary Cairns in Frederick County, VA 
2. The 1790-1796 court case between William Wright and William Armstrong in Augusta County, VA 
3. The 25 Dec 1792 marriage of William Right/Wright and Mary Clevenger in Frederick County, VA 
4. The 3 Nov 1800 marriage of Polly Write daughter of Mary Rite to William Poage in Augusta County, VA 

All of these sources are found in William’s FamilySearch Sources page. https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/GDJ4-VJD 

#1 tells us a William Wright married a Mary in Frederick County in late 1784. #2 tells us that a William Wright stopped in Augusta County in the winter of 1784/1785 with his young and poor family on their way to the western country, implying a migration along the Great Wagon Road, a highway leading from Philadelphia to Tennessee that ran straight through Frederick County, down the Shenandoah Valley, into the heart of Augusta County. They essentially were too poor and it was too wintry to continue, so they got stuck and stopped. #3 tells us William was able to make it back to Frederick County to marry Mary Clevenger, and I’m absolutely certain this William and Mary are our people. This also obviously implies Mary Cairns died between 1784 and 1792—not surprising for a poor young woman giving birth on the frontier with an apparently unsupportive husband (read the court case if you haven’t already—he apparently made his wife farm so he could go hunt instead). #4 tells us an illiterate Mary Wright was a widow by 1800 in Augusta County. While I can’t be absolutely certain this is Mary Clevenger, the second wife of William, it seems most likely since I know of no other widowed Mary Wrights in that county at that time. We know for certain that William was dead by 1810 when Nancy married since the marriage record says so, and the last document I can definitely say shows our William Sr alive is the 2 Aug 1799 Frederick County, VA marriage bond between George Harman (Nancy’s chosen guardian in 1810) and Chloe Clevinger, with an illiterate William Wright as security marking his X. Given that his death must have occurred between 1799 and 1810, and no documents appear to show him alive after 1799, a death in 1799 or 1800 seems reasonable. Overall, to me it seems more likely than not that our William married the two Marys and that we descend from his second Mary-age. (Close quote). 

 To view more records on James Wright, click the FamilySearch link below. James Wright’s profile can be found under the Sources tab: 

https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/KN1J-7TJ 

 Burial: Wright-Three Locks Indian Mound Pride Ross County Ohio, USA; The Wright Homestead

WRIGHT, James – 1799-1868 Will dated Aug. 31, 1868; probated Dec. 5, 1868, in Ross County, Ohio.

 James Wright’s Find A Grave Memorial:

 

 

 

---

The Wright Homestead in Chillicothe, Ohio

James and Harriet’s property is pictured below and now is only 7 acres. In 1875 it covered 296 acres plus 40 acres down the road owned by Silas E. Wright. Sarah Ellen, married to Joseph Hammond, owned another 71 acres. Note the location of Three Locks Cemetery where some of the family is buried and the Scioto State Park to the southwest. Contributors:  Mark Smith (great, great grandson of Sarah Ellen Wright-Hammond) and Glenda Wright (great granddaughter of William Allen Wright

.

Click to view James Wright Gallia Cty., OH Land Purchase from U.S. Government; Credit Volume Patent Vo. 57 Page 83 Contributor: Glenda Wright

---

 James Wright’s Marriages

First:  Harriet Elizabeth Shnider/Schnider July 7,1822, and filed July 12, 1822, Elk Township, Athens County, Ohio. Family search has this marriage indexed as Ross County, but the marriage certificate image is definitely Athens County. Therefore, Harriet is the mother of all James’ children and not Reba as previously reported in many genealogical trees. 

 Second:  “Reby”/Reba (Palmer) Gay, June 4, 1849,  Athens Co., Ohio. “Rebe” Palmer married first March 1, 1833, Washington Co., Ohio to Robert Gay (Sr.) and had a son named Robert (Jr.) b. 1834. Reba Gay is in the 1840 census of Adams Twp., Washington Co., OH.  She and Robert (Jr.) are in the Gallia Co., OH 1850 census with James Wright. Reba (Palmer) Gay Wright died in 1855 and is buried in Mt. Tabor Cemetery, Gallia Co., OH.

Learn about James and Harriett’s children by clicking here.

The Wright Maple Syrup Legacy

---

  Family Find A Grave Links

James Wright b.1799  Spouses:   First wife and mother of his 6 children: Harriet Elizabeth Schnider Wright (1801 – 1847)  –  Second wife:  Reba M Palmer Wright (1804 – 1855)  

Children:  Elizabeth Mary Wright Bennett (1826 – 1896) | John “Harvey” Wright (1829 – 1908) | James Jefferson Wright (1822 – 1912) – Correct dates for James are 1832-1913 | Silas Wright 1834-1916* | William Allen Wright (1836 – 1926) | Sarah Ellen Wright Hammond (1838 – 1880)*  | and stepson Robert Gay

*At differing times, Silas lived with his daughter Missouri Thomas who resided both in Sibley and Independence, Kansas.

James and Harriett also had two sons who died early in life and do not have markers nor Find A Grave memorials:  William:  April 1823 – August 12, 1833, Chillicothe, Ohio and Joseph:  April 1841 – January 27, 1842, Chillicothe, Ohio.

---

Contact us  with any inquiries or request to be added to the email list to receive updates regarding the site. Feel free to comment about the site or the family in the “Leave a Reply” box.

---