M. G. WRIGHT

The following bio was taken from page 457 of the book entitled " Rusk County History" compiled and edited and used with permission of the Rusk County Historical Commission.

Transcribed by Claudia Schuster

Submitted by Gloria Briley Mayfield, Rusk County TX Coordinator

On February 12, 1876, Cole and Margaret Wright, then living in Rusk County, welcomed the first of their eight children. They named him Memory Griffin, Memory being a family name. He and his brothers and sisters spent their early years going to school in Elderville and other places in north Rusk County. When he was older, Memory attended the Normal, which was then the college in Henderson.

In his late twenties, Memory met Blanche Sparks. She was the fourth of six children born to Joe Warren and Julia Sparks of Gregg County. When the time came for the children to enter school, Joe Sparks moved his family to Kilgore. The family lived in their house there until a son sold it in the late sixties.

The family soon learned that Blanche was musically inclined, so her mother sold butter and eggs to buy her an organ and began giving her music lessons. After finishing school, Blanche taught music in the Chapman Community, later going to Campbell school to teach, where Memory and his sister, Ellen, were the community schoolteachers.

After Memory and Blanche were married on July 20, 1907, Memory built his wife a new house in the Oak Hill and he continued teaching school in Campbell, commuting in a buggy drawn by a big yellow horse known as "Dunk." While living in Oak Hill the first two children were born to this couple.

Later the Wrights moved to Henderson, where Memory was in the livery stable business with his uncle, Bill Wright. When the coal mines opened in 1911 in Ore City of Upshur County, Memory and his brother George opened a drug store there. The mines were not open very long, so after they failed, Memory moved his family, which by now had grown to three daughters to Pine Hill and served as depot agent on the Timpson and Henderson Line. While working at the depot, Memory invented a boxcar door seal. He sent it to Washington and received a patent on it, but did not stay with the railroad long enough to have the seal manufactured.

At that time Pine Hill was a prosperous and thriving town. Memory’s brother, Joe, and his wife, Janie Crim, were living there. Later, when the Timpson and Henderson Line was closed and the United States had become involved in World War I, he moved to Henderson to work in a mercantile store. After a few years in the store he made a race for County Clerk of Rusk County. He made this race in 1920 on a large black horse, because he had no car. He traveled over all of Rusk County, leaving home on Monday morning, spending nights with friends, and returning home on Friday evenings.

One interesting experience that he liked to relate was his spending the night with the Penny family of Sulphur Springs. The next morning as he was leaving, he asked Mr. Penny how much he owed him. Mr. Penny’s reply was: "You don’t owe me anything, I figure this is all you will get out of it," but he was elected, defeating three opponents, and held this office for three terms. After serving as County Clerk of Rusk County, he owned and operated a grocery store for eight years and then decided to make a race for District Clerk of Rusk County, an office he also held for three terms.

Memory and Blanche were the parents of six children. Irma, the oldest, was married to Aubrey Milstead, who was killed in Italy in World War II. Hazel did not marry, but lived at home with her parents. She spent forty with a tax evaluation firm and died three months after her retirement. Frances married Roy Lyle, and they live in Carthage, Texas. Their son, James Aubrey, was the first grandchild of the family, and the first remark Memory had to make about his grandchild was "I wonder if he will be a bass or tenor." This grandchild has a daughter, Brittany, that sings as all the family does.

J.G., Jr. spent time in Europe during World War II. He married Kathryn Spear of Longview, and they have two children—Ann, who lives in Tyler with her three children, and Larry who lives in Marshall. M.G. Jr. recently retired as Postmaster of Marshall, where he and Kathryn still live.

Ellen Beall is married to King Rogge, and they also live in Marshall.

Bettye Jo is married to L.M. Streeter, and they live in Overton. They are the parents of twins—Memory, who with his wife, Dr. Joan Streeter, lives in Austin, and Jennie, who married to Don E. Vetsch, and has one son. They now live in Houston. Jeffrey, another son of this couple, lives in Longview.

Memory Wright, after an extended illness, died in 1959, and Blanche died in 1963. During their life together they instilled in their children love and respect for their family, their church, their school, and their country.

Music was always important to the M.G. Wright family. At times all members of the family participated in the music program of the First Methodist church, and in 1929 Hazel was presented in a graduate piano recital. The church and its place in the community is still very important to the members of the M.G. Wright family. One of the fondest memories the children have of their mother is the fact that of the many, many times Mr. Arrington Crim called her to play for a funeral, she was never too busy to help bring comfort to the bereaved.

Submitted by Irma Wright Milstead.