ASEPH E. WRIGHT

ASEPH E. WRIGHT, Assessor of the City of Iola, and for many years buyer and shipper of stock, was born in Ashtabula county, Ohio, December 15, 1840. His father, Ralph K. Wright, was a Conneaut township farmer, who was reared, lived and died in Ashtabula county, was born in Massachusetts September 5, 1803, and at the age of three years was brought to the Western Reserve. He was a son of Ralph Wright who opened out a farm in Conneaut township and died upon it about 1856 at the age of seventy-eight years. He was prosperous, thoroughly representative, a Free Soiler and then an Abolitionist. He married a Miss King and six of their eleven children lived to rear families: Ralph K., Abel K., Frank K., Sophia, wife of Seymour Stephens; Mary, wife of Conover Conover and Caroline who married Charles Simons, of Fairfield, Ohio.

Ralph King Wright was a thorough-going farmer who was born in Connecticut in 1808 and died in 1870. He married Ann Griswold and their children were: Harriet A., whose second husband was Edward Brooks. She resides in Conneaut, Ohio; Aseph Eugene; Josephine, wife of

Luther Ripley, of Detroit, Michigan; Armena, of Detroit, is the wife of John Randall; Florence, of Conneaut, Ohio, is the wife of Lester Griswold; Vina, of Conneaut, Ohio, married Forest Wellman; Electa, of Ashtabula, Ohio, wife of Alonzo Randall.

A. E. Wright secured a country school education and remained with the old home till twenty-three years of age. He earned his first money, as a youth, driving an ox team at thirty cents a day. He began life independently as a farmer, but was soon attracted to the Pennsylvania oil fields and spent a few years there with profit. In 1862 he went to Huron county, Ohio, where he devoted himself to the farm and stock till his removal to Kansas. In 1871 he came to Allen county and made permanent settlement on a farm in Elm township. Some years later he located in Iola and engaged in the grocery business on the "Simpson corner," where the New York Store now stands. He was an Iola merchant nine years and was succeeded, in 1887, by Port brothers.

Mr. Wright engaged in the buying and shipping of stock some ten years ago. He has billed out many thousand head of both cattle and hogs and his face is a familiar one to the buyers and packers of Kansas City.

Notwithstanding Mr. Wright has been busy he has taken time to help in the political battles of Allen county. He was elected Trustee of Elm township and served three years and served in the same capacity in Iola township four years. He was elected Assessor of Iola in 1889 for a term of two years. His frequent re-elections are a sufficient guaranty of the efficiency of his public service and only once has he suffered defeat at the polls. He is one of the staunch Republicans of the county and, whether in success or defeat, he is always a Republican.

December 26, 1866, Mr. Wright was married in Ripley township, Huron county, Ohio, to Tacy P. Green, a daughter of William A. and Adah (Kebby) Green, who came into Ohio from Rhode Island. The Green children are: Eliza Green, Susan, George, Mary, Harrison, Tacy, Whitford and Rilla. Mr. and Mrs. Wright's surviving children are: Adah A. and Blanche Wright. Two sons, Herbert and Ralph, are dead.

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