WRIGHT, Ezekiel - Putnam

ELDER EZEKIEL WRIGHT resides on section 21, Madison Township, where he owns 120 acres of land. He was born in North Carolina, December 19, 1821, son of Amos and Elizabeth Wright, also natives of North Carolina, and of Welsh-Irish ancestry. His maternal grandfather was a soldier of the Revolutionary War. The family settled in Madison Township in 1827, where the father died in 1876, aged eighty-eight years. The mother died in 1880, aged ninety years. Their twelve children lived to be grown, and six are now living--Linnie, Ezekiel and Rhoda of this county; Nathan, a minister of the Church of Christ, now of Douglas, Kansas; Dicey, also of Douglas, Kansas, and Turner, of Longmont, Colorado. Our subject was reared on a farm, his present farm being a part of the old homestead. He was ordained elder of the church in 1852, and commenced preaching, and since about 1857 has been preaching in Illinois, Kansas and Indiana. December 31, 1841, he married to Miss Celia Wright, daughter of Levi and Nancy Wright, who was born in Pennsylvania in 1818, and died February 22, 1884. Five of their six children are living--Henry C., of Kansas, married Minerva Simms, who died, and he afterward married her sister, Lucinda; Fanny, widow of Austin Simms, resides with her father; Barton S., of Beman, Kansas; Levi M. and Nancy E. at home. Martha is deceased. Mr. Wright has served as township treasurer three years, and as township trustee about nine years. He is a self-made man. His early education was limited to the common schools of his time. In politics he is a Democrat.