Philip D. WRIGHT

• General Notes
  • b. Greenhill, Lauderdale Cty, AL
    father John WRIGHT Jr d. 1832
    mother Bethany remarries 1840
    Baptist minister Aaron ASKEW (b 1790 NC; performed many marriages in Lauderdale; Lauderdale tax collector 1850) becomes Philip's guardian
    m. (1st) Lauderdale Cty, AL 18 Aug 1851 to Sarah F. LAFAN
    m. (2nd) Lauderdale Cty, AL 21-Oct-1856 to Mary Jane MOORE
    d. Lauderdale Cty, AL
    
    see also sister Bethany's SCC claim:
    Q. How many relatives did you have in the Confederate army?
    
    A. I only know what was right about here.  I had two brothers, and they was just forced to go.  The(?) (?) was in the war till the last year.  I heard Phil Wright was in the battle of Fort Donelson.   I don’t know where Donaldson is.  My brothers were Philip & John Wright.  I never did anything for them.  They didn’t stay long.  They got captured by the Wayne County soldiers.  Yes.  Federals.  They took them to Pulaski, and they were gone a week, and then come back to their home.  I never seen them after [last three words struck out].  Yes, they come home once or twice on furloughs before they were captured.  I don’t think they were in more than three or four months.  Phil was in a fight.  I don’t believe John was.  Why you see he was made to go.
    
    source:  CMB transcript 2/2009
    
    Alabama Marriage Collection, 1800-1969
    Name: Phillips D Wright
    Spouse: Mary J Moore
    Marriage Date: 21 Oct 1856
    County: Lauderdale 
    State: Alabama 
    Performed By Title: Justice of the Peace 
    Performed by Name: W W Pettus
    Source information: Jordan Dodd, Liahona Research
    
    Alabama Marriage Collection, 1800-1969
    Name: Phillips D Wright
    Spouse: Sarah F Lafan
    Marriage Date: 18 Aug 1851
    County: Lauderdale 
    State: Alabama 
    Performed by Name: A Richardson
    Source information: Jordan Dodd, Liahona Research
    
    Lauderdale Alabama Probate Minutes Book A 1850-1851 pg. 187:  Aaron ASKEW guardian of Philip WRIGHT filed his accounts for final settlement.  Page 115:  Aaron ASKEW guardian of Philip WRIGHT filed his accounts.
    
    1840 US Census (June), Lauderdale Cty, AL, A. BEVIS (alt. BEAVERS) 01100001-011201, thus:
    1m 50-60 (1780-1790) (Allen)
    1f 30-40 (1800-1810) (Bethany?)
    2f 15-20 (1820-1825) (Katie, Crissie WRIGHT?)
    1m, 1f 10-15 (1825-1830) (Bethana 1826?)
    1m, 1f 5-10 (1830-1835) (Philip D. WRIGHT 1832?)
    Btwn B. JONES & Jos. MC DOUGALL, near P. WRIGHT.  Next page: no slaves indicated, 8 persons total, 2 persons engaged in agriculture.
    
    Source Citation: Year: 1840; Census Place:  , Lauderdale, Alabama; Roll: 7; Page: 124.
    
    AL land records, hits either for Philip D. or his uncle Philip WRIGHT:
    Philip Wright HUNTSVILLE  39.84  16 Oct 1835
    Philip Wright HUNTSVILLE  39.81  1 Mar 1858
    
    DAR volumes also have:
    Philip WRIGHT T1S R9W sec 27 on 9 Dec 1833 & 17 Jun 1852, next to Aaron ASKEW; also here Nicholas WRIGHT 1850, Philip (again) 1854, John GRAY 1854, John WRIGHT 1851
    
    A Lauderdale County history (McDonald, William Lindsey:  A Walk through the Past:  People and Places of Florence and Lauderdale County, Alabama.  Bluewater Publications, 2003) has this to say about Nicholas and John Wright on pg. 257:
    
    "It has been said that the soldiers of Andrew Jackson, while passing through this area [Green Hill and Cow Pen], liked what they saw and returned another day to claim it.  According to one family story, two of these soldiers, Nicholas and John Wright, drew crude maps that would someday guide them back to this area [endnote cites William Q. Hill, A History of Green Hill and Some Surrounding Communities, 1978].  Another version of this tale is that these two brothers, along with Captain Henry D. Allen, were helping to clear the way for the Jackson Military Road between 1817 and 1820.  While camped at the site of Old Tabernacle Methodist Church, they made plans to return as settlers [endnote cites Granville O. Allen, Our Allens from Maryland to Muscle Shoals Via the Mid-West.  Cullman, AL:  Gregath Publishing Company, 1995].  Other soldiers of the War of 1812 who settled at Green Hill were:  John Chisholm from Virginia, Captain John W. LeMaster from South Carolina, and Joseph Gist and David Lancaster from North Carolina."
    
    The first story seems more plausible if John's tombstone is correct and he fought at Horseshoe Bend, fought under Andrew Jackson on March 27, 1814, near Dadeville, AL in Tallapoosa County in the east-central part of the state; and then later in the Battle of New Orleans, fought under Jackson in December 1814-January 1815, climaxing on January 8, 1815 at Chalmette Plantation.  John was evidently not in the area 1817-1820 and building the Jackson Military Road, as the second story above claims, since he married Bethany in NC in 1817.  However, after the War of 1812 Jackson's fellow soldier John Coffee did wrangle for himself the post of federal surveyor of northern Alabama, and both participated in the Cypress Land Company that bought up the land around Florence after the war -- so there are direct links between Jackson's soldiers and later land speculation in NW Alabama.
    
    The McDonald book also says (pg. 259):  "There were a number of early water-powered mills around Green Hill.  [...] the Wright brothers -- Nicholas and John -- had mills on O'Possum Creek.  Along Richardson Creek were the mills of [...] James and William Danley."  The Wright Cemetery overlooks Opossum Creek, and John/Nicholas' nephew Ephraim Gray married a Danley girl.

Click here for details of Philip D.'s family with Mary Jane MOORE

Click here for details of Philip D.'s family with Sarah Fruzel LAFAN

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