ALBERT S. WRIGHT.

______

Another Promotion From the Ranks on

Earth, to the Eternal Camping Ground,

At the Call of the Grand Commander

Departed this life at his residence in Paris township, near this city at near one o’clock, Monday morning, February 17th, 1902, after a brief illness of pneumonia, Albert S. Wright, aged fifty nine years, ten months and twenty-eight days.

Albert S. Wright was the seventh of eleven children born to the union of his sturdy parentage, North Liberty, Adams county, Ohio, who first saw the light of day March 19th, 1842. But three of the brothers and sisters survive him.

When the subject of this brief sketch was about 12 years of age his parents removed from the Ohio home to McLean county, Illinois, where he grew to young manhood on his father’s farm receiving for the time, and opportunities, a more than fairly common school education.

When “war’s dread alarms” in the early months of 1861 spread over the prairies of that patriotic old commonwealth of Illinois, “Al” Wright, as he was familiarly known, volunteered his services as a Union soldier, but was refused. Returning to the farm, he bided his time with but little patience, until the call in 1862, when he again tendered himself to his country, and became, at nineteen years of age, a private in Co. E, 94th regiment of the Illinois Infantry, on August 10th of that memorable year. He served through the entire civil war with conspicuous gallantry, being mustered out at Galveston, Texas, and with his command was returned to Springfield, Ill., and received his final honorable discharge on August 9th, 1865. Three years of his maturing manhood—three years out of his three score, he cheerfully gave for his country’s preservation, for the perpetuity of the institutions founded by a self-sacrificing patriotic ancestry.

Immediately after his discharge from the service of his preserved country, he returned to the pursuits of his boyhood, and took earnest and successful hold of the work that he laid down on the farm three years prior.

On April 14th, 1871, he was joined in marriage with Martha M. Eyer, a beautiful and beloved daughter of a highly respected family in the neighborhood of his home, since which this now grievously afflicted lady has been to the husband of her youth all that the words wife and mother signify, a helpmeet in every day of their united lives. To this beloved husband she gave as sacred pledges of her devotion four children: Ada, wife of C. R. Ewins, of Danvers, Ill., Charles Alya, Chester G., and Stella Mae, all of whom survive the departure of their beloved father, and were with their widowed mother in this hour of their darkest sorrow.

In the spring of 1884, with his family, he came to this country and purchased the farm that has since been his home to the day of his death. He was a well known and greatly respected citizen. In every good work coming within the scope of his acquaintance he was ever foremost in helpfulness. In the departure of Albert S. Wright from this life, not alone are his widow and children called to mourn. He leaves behind him a wide circle of sorrowing friends. The neighborhood in which he has lived, both here and in the home of his boyhood, will grieviously miss his stalwart form and kindly greeting. In town and country, at public and private gathering, he was always a welcome and honored personage. In Grand Army circles there were but few private soldiers better known at local and state reunions than he. At the 34th Annual Grand Encampment of the Grand Army, at Philadelphia, November 15th 1889, he was commissioned by the Grand Commander, Albert D. Shaw, Aide-de-Camp on the General Staff, and was at the time of his death vice president of the Illinois soldier association of Kansas. This brave old veteran loved the flag of his country next to the love of God and his home. He loved it, because to him it stood for the shed blood and broken bodies of the comrades, who like him, freely tendered their lives, and shed their blood on the hundred battle fields, who died in prison pen, and hospital, who gave up their lives in far off land, and whose bodies sleep in unnamed graves. He loved it because it typified to him, more than any other emblem, the will of a free and independent people.

Albert S. Wright was a good soldier, for he was brave. He was a good citizen, for he was an honest man. He was a loving husband and kind father, for he was a big-souled man. He was at all times, and under all circumstances, a fearless and capable defender of what he considered right. He was a man of pronounced political and moral convictions and was endowed with a personal and moral courage that enabled him to meet and discharge his full duty as a man, as a gentleman, in every demand and in every emergency. He was not a church member, no was he a professing Christian. He was one who divided with those who had less than he. He fed the hungry, he clothed the naked and visited those that were sick. He did all that he could to make the world better for having lived in it. It is not for what this man has said while in our midst that he will be remembered. It is what he has done, that his memory will be cherished and kept green in the hearts of comrades and friends for all the years to come to them.

At the next call of the roll of his comrades on earth, the answer will be “not present, but accounted for.” There is a muster roll “over the river” where are rapidly assembling the brave old veterans of the civil war. The great commanders, on both sides are there. Their soldiers are rapidly joining heaven’s glorious colors. Albert S. Wright has but just joined the Grand Army on eternity’s camping ground.

The funeral services over the remains of this esteemed citizen were held at the M. E. church in this city and were in charge of the pastor, Rev. Howard. Montgomery Post G. A. R. assisted by members of the Post at Pleasanton took charge of the body and laid it to rest in the cemetery at this place, on Wednesday of this week.

The sorrowing relatives have the deepest, most heartfelt sympathy of the entire community in this hour of their irreparable loss.

ED. R. SMITH.