John Wright was born on 8 October 1831, in Thorney Cambridgeshire, England. He was the son of William and Catherine Wright. In his early life he attended school and worked on a farm and later became a mason by trade. About 1850 he married Charlotte Smith in Winwick, Huntingtonshire, England. She was the daughter of John and Hannah Sutton Smith. She was born on 20 March `830 in Winwick, Huntingtonshire.
John and Charlotte Wright were baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints on 5 February 1854 by Elder Moses McHarns and confirmed by Elder Richmond. They moved to Lincolnshire in 1860 and were living there at the time of the cotton famine. In 1863 they moved to Liverpool and in 1866 they emigrated from England to Utah.
Early in the year they with their three children, Hyrum (age 10) John Jr. (age 7) and a baby girl, left Liverpool and sailed on the ship Ark right. (No little girl for this family is on the ship records) After seven weeks and five days on the ocean they landed at New York. They traveled by railroad from New York to Omaha, Nebraska.
The company of Saints remained at Omaha their baby girl died. The mother sat in the shelter of some trees with the child in her arms and held her until morning. A sister in the party, Miss Kettle, later she would marry John Peters, made some burial clothes and a board coffin was made and the dear little child was buried here among others who had passed away while traveling to Utah. In fact many graves were made along the route across the plains for those who could not stand the hardships of the journey.
They crossed the plains in the company under Captains Andrew H. Scott and John Haws, both of Provo, Utah. The father of Andrew Jensen, Church Historian, and his family and Wm. C. Williamson and Hebertson families, later of Pleasant Grove, also came in the company from Omaha. They arrived in Salt Lake City on8 October and on the 10th came to Pleasant Grove where the Smiths, Mrs. Wright's parents, lived in a log house on the lot where the Mayhew, later Nebeker, house now stands. Two more children, James and Hattie, were born here.
In 1871 they moved to String Town, now called Lindon, where they made a permanent home. One more daughter, Letisha (Tish), was born to them at Lindon. There first year at Lindon they lived in a dugout or half cellar while they built their new rock house.
They joined the United Order in 1875. This was an organization in which all property was held in common, a sort of community family. Most all of the people here joined it but after two or three years it was discontinued as being impractical.
The Wright family did their part well in assisting to build up this common wealth, by labor and means, in fostering educational, co-operative, and industrial undertakings in all civil and religious affairs.
John Wright was ordained a High Priest in 1891. He died on 9 May 1893. His wife died three years later. They were the parents of nine children, five were raised to maturity, married, and raised families. They also cared for one little granddaughter, Charlotte, daughter of John Wright, Jr. for six years after the death of her mother. At the time of this writing they have 52 grandchildren and 66 great grandchildren. (1928)
(From the files of Mary Jean Caldwell)