Charles Thomas Wright, DDS

I found this newspaper advertisement for my ggg-grandfather, Charles Thomas Wright, in the Mayfield Messenger. The ad ran in 1888. Dr. Wright was a "circuit dentist" and would travel all around Western Kentucky. As the ad mentions, he was in Mayfield "the first week in each month."

I thought it was ironic that his office was located above "Stark's Confectionery."

Kissing Cousins

I know that most families have at least one couple in their tree that along with being husband and wife also happen to be first cousins. Although, it may not have been too unusual a century or so ago, from today's viewpoint, it is still a shocking discovery.

I recently discovered just that sort of situation. The most shocking thing about the find is that is came from a side of the family that I would have never expected. The Wright's of Graves County, Kentucky, were by most accounts, very upstanding citizens. The local precinct was named after them, one donated the land and building for the community church (of which he served as pastor), one was a dentist, ect. So here is what I found...

William James Wright and Catherine Sibert were the parents of Josiah Thomas Wright. William's brother was Rev. Robert Thackston Wright. He and his wife, Eleanor Brame, had a daughter named Fredonia. When Fredonia was 23 years old she married her first cousin, Josiah Thomas Wright. He was 22.

Lost In The Woods

Over Thanksgiving Break I began the process of restoring the Wright's Chapel Cemetery in Graves Co., Kentucky. It is located six miles northwest of Mayfield on Highway 80. The cemetery contains over 40 known burials.

Josiah McGehee Wright came to Graves County from Warren County, Kentucky, in 1837. He and his son, William James Wright, bought 480 acres of land four miles east of Fancy Farm. He was a devout Methodist and since there was no church nearby, he offered his home as a meeting place for the traveling circuit rider.

In 1845, a log schoolhouse was built in the neighborhood that had become known as the Wright's Chapel neighborhood. Two years later the church was officially organized and met in the schoolhouse. In 1866, a new church building was built. That same year Josiah McGehee Wright's son, Robert Thackston Wright, became the pastor of the church, a position he held for 65 years.

The schoolhouse and the church are all now long gone. All that remains is an abandoned cemetery that is... lost in the woods.