DANFORD WRIGHT

     One of the respected yeomen of the town of Machias, is the son of Joseph B. Wright, a native of Oneida Co., N.Y.  His father removed to Gainesville, Wyoming Co., N.Y., where he married Nancy Lewis, a native of Delaware, from which state her parents had emigrated to Wyoming when she was very young.  Joseph Wright came to Cattaraugus County in 1823, locating in the western part of the town of Machias, near the Ashford town line.  The county was then a wilderness; there were only three houses, and those built of logs, in what is now Machias village; and “blazed” trees, in lieu of roads, marked their route through the dense woods.  He cleared his farm of fifty acres, afterwards increased to three hundred, and there he resided until his demise in the year 1860 (January 1), aged sixty-one years, six months, and twenty eight days.  His wife died Oct. 23, 1865, aged fifty-six years.  His family embraced seven children, of whom six survive, --all residing in this town, -- viz.: Danford, Myron, Cleantha (deceased), Dennis, Mandana, Lafayette, and Paulina.  Dennis is located on the homestead farm. 

     Danford Wright, the eldest son of Joseph and Nancy Wright, was born in Gainsville, N.Y., Sept. 25, 1825.  He was about a year and a half old when his parents removed to Machias.  He remained with his father upon the home farm until he was twenty-three years of age, when he married Eliza Wright (not related), purchased a tract of seventy-four acres in the neighborhood of his father’s place, and commenced life for himself.  That he prosecuted his labors with success is evidenced by the fact that his acreage was subsequently increased to three hundred and fifty acres.  He sold one hundred and fifty acres.   The remainder embraces two farms, --one occupied by a tenant; the other, in the northeast portion of the town has been his home since the date of its purchase in 1858.

     Mrs. Danford Wright’s father, Reuben Wright, was also an early settler of the town; he died on his farm, near Machias village, in the year 1858, aged eighty-two years.  Her mother, whose maiden name was Susanna Stebbins, was a native of Wilbraham, Mass.; she died also on the homestead farm, Oct. 2, 1868, at the advanced age of nearly eighty-three years.  Eliza Wright was born Jan. 13, 1821, at Alexander, Genesee Co., N.Y., to which place her parents removed from Massachusetts in an early day, and thence to Cattaraugus County

     The family of Danford and Eliza Wright consists of an only son, Amon D., who was born July 215, 1851.  In 1869 he married Miss Mary Lewis of Gainsville, N.Y., who was born July 10, 1851.  The reside on a farm near Machias Junction.

     Mr. Wright is, and has ever been, a hard-working, calculating, and prudent farmer, whose many years’ toil has yielded him a competence for his declining years, although he now enjoys good health and is possessed of a rugged constiution.

*The above information was obtained from the History of Cattaraugus County, New York by L. H. EVERTS, 1879.