John Wright, of England, came to America and settled in Pittsylvania County, Va. He had four children John, William, Nancy, and another daughter. William married Isabella Thrailkill, of Virginia, and settled in Clark County, Ky. He served five years in the revolutionary war. He had twelve children, ten of whom lived to be grown, and were married. His first son, William, married Nancy Oliver, of Kentucky, and they had eleven children Harvey S., James T., William, Stephen, Isaac W., Elizabeth, Susan, Nancy, Emeline, Louisa, and Lucinda. Mr. Wright settled in Montgomery County, Mo., in 1824, on a place adjoining the present town of Danville, where he lived and kept tavern for many years. A Methodist minister named Prescott, stopped at his house one day to get his dinner, and there being no men present he went to the barn to feed his horse. While looking around for the food he saw some large flat gourds, which he supposed to be pumpkins, and fed a lot of them to his horse. After that he was called Gourd Head Prescott. In 1833 Mr. Wright sold his place to Rev. Andrew Monroe, a well known pioneer Methodist preacher, who lived there and kept tavern for some time. Isabella Wright, sister of William Wright, Sr., married John Stone, who settled in Montgomery County in 1818, but afterward removed to Arkansas.
