JAMES P. WRIGHT was born in Washington County, Ind., December 4, 1830, and is the son of West Lee and Nancy (Wright) Wright. The former was born in Wayne County, Ky., in 1803, and the latter in Oldham County, same State, in 1808. Mrs. Nancy Wright's father, James Wright, came to Monroe County, Ind., about 1810, and there died in his one hundred and second year; her grandfather, Jacob Sears died in Oldham County, Ky., in his one hundred and fifteenth year. William Wright, grandfather of James P., was a native of Guilford County, N. C., of English parentage; was a soldier in the war of the Revolution, and was noted in his day as a writer of hymns, I.O.O.F. odes and of temperance songs. In the spring of 1832, West Lee Wright moved with his family to Jackson County, Ind., and entered land one mile south of the present site of Medora, and developed a farm on which he resided until his death, in 1876. At a log schoolhouse in this wilderness, James P. Wright received the rudiments of his education, and underwent all the hardships of pioneer life, giving his cheerful services to his parents until 1852, when he married Miss Martha Louden, a daughter of Samuel C. Louden, of Lawrence County, Ind. Two children are the fruit of this union-Theodore J., and Lorenna, now the wife of J. J. Tales, architect. In 1857, Mr. Wright began the study of law at Medora; in July, 1861, he enlisted in Company G, Twenty-fifth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, in which regiment John W. Foster, late Minister to Mexico, was a Major. Mr. Wright served until August, 1864, and when with Fremont, on the memorable march from Otterville to Springfield, was taken ill with fever, and was left at the house of a planter, whose family and a Confederate surgeon carried him through his sickness in safety. He then was in hospital at St. Louis until the spring of 1862, when he rejoined his regiment just after the battle of Shiloh ; be took part in the siege of Corinth, the battles of Iuka, Corinth, Hatchee River and Decatur, and just after the last named was again taken sick, from the effects of which he has never entirely recovered. Soon after the battle of Corinth, he was promoted for meritorious conduct in the field, preferring a Sergeant's chevron in his own company to a commission in some other regiment. In 1866, he opened a law office in Medora, and practiced until 1872, and then moved to Indianapolis and opened an office; in the spring of 1873, he was burned out and lost his valuable library, which was uninsured; he soon opened another office, however, and had a fair practice until the spring of 1876, when he came to Reynolds and entered upon his profession, and has already secured a lucrative business. Criminal and litigated cases are with him specialties, and he has a fine reputation as an advocate and also as a lecturer. In politics, he is a stanch and active Republican. He is a member of Washington Lodge, No. 13, A., F. & A. M., and, although a member of no church, is a zealous advocate of the cause of temperance and an earnest pleader for woman suffrage. He has also inherited somewhat of the poetical genius of his ancestor, and, during the war, composed many patriotic songs and other poems.

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