How Long is Life By: Don Wright
The hardest part of researching is watching a life unfold in front of you and then see it dissolve away without really living. You see it only on paper. "Emma"..., you know not what she looked like, the color of her hair, nor how long it was. Was she slender or a plump little girl? Did she have a big smile with bright eyes? Was she happy and full of life? Over the years you form a picture of what you think she would look like. As you continue your search, you see this little life grow in front of you, but still only on paper, and yet in your mind. Emma has been on my mind many times. Every time I find a family with young children, I wonder if the fate of these children would be like Emma's? You see it happen, time and time again. Sometimes, I find myself wanting to close the books on research to keep from seeing these little lives so shortened.
 Emma was born in 1853, the fourth child of John Wright and Ruth Drake. She had two older brothers, John J., born in 1847, and Henry Myron born in 1850, and an older sister Catherine born in 1851. Unlike her brothers and sister she was raised with out a real mother as she had died two days after Emma's birth. Emma would be the only one of the four children without a memory of her real mother as her father brought seventeen year old Christiania, a new wife into the home when she was only two months old. [This early marriage caused a tremendous amount of friction with the Drake family.] She along with her sister and brothers, were raised for the first few years with the help of her Aunt Eliza, her mothers younger sister, who had lived with them for a period of time, and they also spent many hours with their Grand-parents Jesse and Jemima Drake on their farm. I can picture the four children running free on the farm just outside of town, without a care in the world. This world would come crashing down for all four children during the next few years. In 1856 her Aunt Eliza passed away and Christiania became, not the loving mother expected, but a woman to fear. Young John spent as much time as he could on his grandfather's farm if not living there permanently with his Uncle William. Henry at the age of seven had run away from home for the first time. In August of 1857, Emma's stepmother gave birth to Isaac, which took most of her time. What normally would be a happy time in a home, may have had just the opposite effect on Emma. Then to make matters worse, Emma's older sister Catharine, her best friend and companion, had taken sick and passed away in 1858. No doubt Emma was crushed by her death, and was spending more and more time on the farm with her siblings and Grandparents. Within a year of the death of Catharine, her stepmother Christiania had another child. This time a daughter, which they named Catharine. Could this have been a blow to Emma or would it be a joy? We have no way of knowing now just what the effect would have been. By 1860, Young John was permanently living on his Grandparents ranch in the home of his Uncle William Drake. It is possible that Henry was living there too as he was now going by his middle name Myron. The reason for this was because his Uncle Henry Drake who wasn't much older than himself was also living in the home of his grandparents. In 1861, her father, John with his new growing family had moved to Marshall Co, Ill, leaving young John with his Grandparents. Emma also remained, which may have been at her own request. She was like many young girls of that age, in that she idolized her oldest brother. Later that year after the Civil War had broken out, her Uncle Henry Drake enlisted in the military, and even though young John was only 14, he too took up the cause. At the age of eleven, Myron (Henry) had left home again, having run off to Kansas, leaving Emma as the only remaining member of the first family. Young John was a drummer boy and in April 1862, he died at Shiloh, one of the major disasters of the Civil War. Young John's death may have been the last straw for the young nine year old Emma. Her father enlisted shortly afterwards and he too went off to war. She was to never see her father again. By December of that year she was no more. She was laid to rest beside her sister in the Drake Family Plot, in Summit-View Cemetery, Ottawa, LaSalle Co, Illinois, on 21 Dec, 1862. The headstone reads:
Dau of Mr Wright Died Dec 21, 1862. It was a plain inexpensive headstone as was her sister's and brother's, about three inches thick, 18 inches wide and about 30 inches high. Three stones were side by side. All had a crack through the center where the top half had been broken off and two were cemented back on. The third stone remains only a half of a headstone, no writing visable. Being that the name "Mr Wright" was used on the headstone instead of "John Wright", there is a feeling that John had nothing to do with it. This leads me to believe that he had gone to the small town of Henry in Marshall County, and left her with her Grandparents, the Drakes, when he moved or when he enlisted in the military. It should be noted that her father had been hospitalized in the Military from October 1962 through 19 January 1963, which accounts for him not being present at the time of her death. Although this story was written about Emma, her sister Catherine should not be forgotten. Catherine's life has been nothing but a 3x5 card stuck in a drawer.
To date, nothing more has been found. She was born after the 1850 census and died before the 1860 census. No other records exist that we can find.
This article was written in 1989 and recently revised again with new information received on John Wright. It was put together using notes made from my research trips to Ottawa, Ill, from stories told to me by my father Carl Wright and from an in depth interview of many hours with my fathers brother Hartley Wright who lived in Allegan Co, Michigan. Both Carl and Hartley were grandsons of Henry Myron Wright and spent many years listening to his stories. I can only wish that I would have listened more when I was younger. So many stories have been lost because of my inability to pay attention. Additional information was provided by documents and histories from Judy McMichaels. It is odd that you form a faint picture in your mind when stories were told, but then as you begin to research, the those faint pictures become stronger and you begin to understand what it was really like. From what I understood from my father (as told to him by his grandfather Myron Wright) that the family relied heavily on the aunt after the mother passed away. I did not realize that John Wright had remarried less than two months after Ruth's death. My understanding from my uncle Hartley (also as told to them by his grandfather Myron Wright), is that none of the children got along with the stepmother and that by the age of 7 or 8 Myron began running away, and all the kids were spending a lot of time at their grandfather's (Jesse R Drake) ranch. After really looking at the whole story, you realize that the family was more or less held together until the death of Aunt Liza (sister of Ruth), and from that point on the first family began to disintegrate with only Henry Myron surviving past the age of 12. Aunt Liza was Liza Drake, daughter of Jesse R Drake. This article was brought about from the many stories that Henry Myron Wright told to my father and Hartly Wright (my uncle) who passed them on to me. A few of the stories I have on video of Hartly before his death.
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