James W. Wright “J.W.” (ca. 1810 Virginia – 8 Oct 1873 Memphis) married Elizabeth J. “Eliza” Edmondson (ca. 1816 VA – aft 1880 Shelby County probably) on 3 Feb l836 in Lawrence County, Alabama. James was a brick mason and farmer. The family migrated briefly from Virginia to Mississippi where the two oldest children were born: Nancy and Margaret. By 1841 the family (J.W., 40, and Eliza, 34) moved to Memphis. (1850 City of Memphis Ward No. 6 Census and “Virginians in Tennessee in 1850″ Part 2) The younger children were all born in Memphis, Shelby, TN
Between 1848 and 1860, James paid taxes for 3 to 6 children in the Fort Pickering area, 12th Civil District, Shelby County. (In 1798 Fort Adams, a swampy, hard-to-defend location was abandoned and Fort Pike, later named Fort Pickering, was built. On the South Bluffs, Fort Pickering became an encampment by the Confederate troops during the Civil War, the Indian mounds used as redoubts.)
The City of Memphis’ population was decimated twice during the 1870s by Yellow Fever. Residents were surprised by the first in 1873 but left the City when the second Fever hit in 1878. A male, J.W. Wright, died in Memphis on 8 Oct 1873 during the first Fever. This was probably James W. as his wife, Eliza, was widowed and lived with her son, Robert, by the 1880 Census.
Issue
Nancy Wright (b. 1837 MS)
Margaret J. Wright (18 Aug 1840 MS – 17 Aug 1904, Memphis, buried Forest Hill Cemetery) married (1) John H. Brooks. Issue: Dr. William Wyatt Brooks, Walter L. Brooks. Margaret married (2) Dr. Shelton Hinson. Issue: Shelton Hinson, Jr. (See Hinson)
John Wright (b. Jun 1841 Memphis) was a farmer and a brick mason. John married Martha (b. ca. 1846 AL) about 1864. Issue: Jesseker (Jessica) (b. ca. 1866 TN), Maggie (b. ca. 1870 MS), Johnnie (b. ca. 1872 MS), and James S. (b. July, 1877).
James Wright (b. ca. 1843 Memphis)
Thomas Wright Thomas Wright (May 1845 Memphis – 17 Oct 1908 Memphis, buried Forest Hill Cemetery) Thomas was a farmer and a brick mason. General Lee was a brick mason and a contractor who built houses. Thomas married:
(1) Unknown. Issue: Jimmie Wright (b. ca. 1866 in MS).
(2) Lizzie Neely (b. ca. 1856 TX – ca. mid-1800’s MS) on 17 Jun 1872 in Desoto Co., Mississippi. Issue: General Lee Wright (b. 28 Dec 1875 MS – 18 Sept 1949 Memphis, buried Forest Hill Cemetery)
(3) Mrs. Amelia Reddell (Nov 1850 MS – Mar 1913, buried Forest Hill Cemetery 8 Mar 1913) ca. 1889.
Samuel Wright (b. ca. 1846)
George Wright (b. ca. 1849)
Robert Richard Wright (24 Oct 1851 Memphis – 5 Apr 1936 Memphis, buried Forest Hill Cemetery) Robert was a farmer and truck farmer who specialized in raising berries. Robert married:
(1) Unknown. Issue: Lucius Wright (b. ca. 1873 MS).
(2) Litiana Augusta Daily (July, 1860 TN – 2 Nov 1915 Memphis, buried Forest Hill Cemetery) ca. 1878. Issue: Maggie (Jan 1880 Memphis), Robert Elmer (Apr 1884 Memphis), and Lena (15 Oct l885 Memphis – 2 April 1924 Memphis, buried Forest Hill Cemetery)
(3) Cambria ? (b. ca. 1870 TN)
The James W. Wright and John Brooks families may have known each other in Mississippi before moving to Memphis. They were neighbors in Memphis by 1850. John and his wife, Narcissa, were born in North Carolina. They migrated to Tennessee where their son, John H. Brooks, was born ca. 1835. Their daughter, Ellen Brooks, was born in Mississippi ca. 1837. By 1850 John H. was 15 and Ellen, 13, and lived in Memphis. The Wright and Brooks’ neighbor children, Margaret J. Wright (1840-1904) and John H. Brooks (1835) married on 28 Jan 1858 in Shelby, TN. John H. Brooks was a farmer in Fisherville, Shelby, TN in 1860. The family is listed in Memphis with their first child, William Wyatt Brooks, age 1 in 1860. Wyatt became a dentist, studying under his step-father, Shelton Hinson. John H. Brooks died bef. 1870 and Margaret (1840) married (2) Dr. Shelton Hinson, Sr. ca. 1871 in Memphis. (See Hinson)
Issue of Margaret Jane Wright and John H. Brooks
Dr. William Wyatt Brooks (3 May 1859 Shelby, TN – 18 Mar 1927 Memphis) practiced dentistry at the age of 20 in 1879 with his step-father, Dr. Shelton Hinson in Memphis. (Southern Business Guide 1879-80.) Wyatt became the foremost pyorrhea specialist in the south. He married a fellow Memphian, May L. Peyton, who became Memphis’ first female dentist after their marriage. They divorced.
Issue: Dr. Ruth Brooks (ca. 6 Jan 1897 Memphis – ca. 15 Dec 1971 CA), attended Randolph Macon, the University of Chicago, and the University of Tennessee to become a dentist. She met Dr. John H. A. Campbell, D.D.S., Ph.D. at the University of Chicago and married in Memphis. They moved to Los Angeles and had a daughter, Mary L. Campbell. (See Peyton)
Walter L. Brooks (ca. 1860 – Aft. 1952)
Issue of Margaret Jane Wright and Dr. Shelton Hinson
Shelton Hinson, Jr. (19 Dec 1871 Memphis – 18 Aug 1952 Memphis) (See Hinson)
To date, no relationship has been determined between the John Brooks and the James M. Brooks families with whom they inter-married. (See Brooks, Hinson, and Peyton)
Submitted by Brenda B. Watson