Person:Anthony Wright (8)

Personal History

Anthony Wright (1795-1862)

According to his great-grandson, Joseph Murdock, Anthony was a Methodist Minister and very strict with his son, Eugene, which led Eugene to run away from home as a boy and join the navy which he found unbearable at how hard shipboys were treated. When he returned home, he was delighted to be loved again and recommitted himself to hard work.

The son of Anthony Wright and Mary Estabrook (Smith) Wright, Eugene Wright (1825-1875), was a cousin with William Henry Leland (WHL) Smith (1824-1889). Together, they built an oil refinery in the height of the oil boom in the 1860's in Corry, Pennsylvania soon after oil was first discovered nearby. The business collapsed in the wake of JD Rockefeller's Standard Oil expansion which may have contributed to his suicide at age 50. Following is their relationship as cousins.

Eugene Wright and WHL Smith are cousins through their mutual grandparents Hezekiah Smith and Mary Rice (married 17 Aug 1794)

• Henry Smith (b. abt. 1793) and Maria Leland had William HL Smith (b. 1824).

• Mary E. Smith (b. 1795) and Anthony Wright had Eugene Wright (b. 1825).

Per "The Descendants of Elder John Strong of Northampton Mass," by Benjamin Woodbridge Dwight, Albany NY, J. Munsell, 1871. Page 138

Anthony Wright was the father of Eugene Wright. Capt. Anthony Wright, was a farmer in Concord, Mass. He served as a Lieut. in the navy in the war of 1812 and was captured by the British and confined for several months as a prisoner in Halifax, but escaped and reached his home at Concord on foot. Later he served as captain of a vessel under Simon Bolivar. He was for seven years a member of the Massachusetts Legislature and was a Captain of the Militia. Anthony Wright was the son of Col. Jonas Wright of Concord - who was a Revolutionary war soldier.

1. ↑ Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States. Births, Marriages, and Deaths, 1635-1850. (Boston: Beacon Press, 1891)
   p. 265.

   Anthony Wright Son of Jonas & Polly Wright Born January ye 14. 1795.

2. ↑ Massachusetts, United States. Massachusetts Deaths, 1841-1915
   Vol. 157, p. 139.

   Deaths Registered in the town of Cocnord for the Year eighteen hundred and sixty-two.
   [No.: 10]
   Date of Death: May 28 [1862]
   Name: Anthony Wright
   Sex: Male
   Condition: Widowed
   Age: 67 y. 4 m. 14 d [Birth calculates to 14 Jan 1795]
   Cause: Gangrene
   Place of Death: Concord
   Occupation: Farmer
   Place of Birth: Concord
   Parents: Jonas & Polly Wright of Concord

3. ↑ White, Almira Larkin. Genealogy of the Descendants of John White of Wenham and Lancaster, Massachusetts. (Haverhill, Massachusetts: Chase Brothers Printers, Press of the Nichols Print, 1900-1909)
   p. 429-430.

   Anthony Wright [#4981], s/o Jonas Wright [#4967] and first wife Polly Hapgood, b. Concord 14 Jan 1795, m. 14 Feb 1819 Mary E. Smith of Concord.

4. ↑ Find A Grave: Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Concord, MA, in Find A Grave
   Anthony Wright.

   ANTHONY
   WRIGHT
   died
   May 27, 1862
   AE. 67.