John Edward Wright was born on April 1st, 1862 in Humberstone near Welland, Niagara, Ontario. Edward came to homestead at Scarth in 1882. He went back in 1889 and worked as a purchaser for a wholesale firm in Buffalo, NY. In 1897 he married Mary Jane Fraser of St. Catherine’s Ontario. He continued to work for the Buffalo firm until 1901. At that time, he returned to the farm at Scarth. By his own words, he was a successful farmer and continued farming until 1908 at which time he retired to Virden. It is believed that around this time he purchased the property (currently the Pioneer Home Museum) from Mr. Frame. There is a photo in the Museum of the E. Wright property (circa 1910). It clearly shows the house that is the Museum today. He and his wife raised six children – Evelyn (1900-1913), Dorothy (1901-1978), Venita (1904-1913), Charles (1906-1992), Eleanor (1908-1991), and Lelia (1913-1966). One of the early guests to the Museum in the summer of 1969 was Mrs. Eleanor Wilson (nee Wright) from Vancouver BC, who told the Museum staff about her time growing up in the house that became the Pioneer Home Museum.

 

John Edward Wright went back to the farm at Scarth in 1922 and continued farming until 1928 when he retired to Virden again. In 1930, he became a Commissioner of Oaths and appears to have worked as a collector for Imperial Oil during the Great Depression. He took up the butchering trade and worked at the Virden Safeway until 1948, at which time he would have been eighty-six. He had the distinction of being Virden’s oldest citizen in the mid 1950’s and possibly the last of the pioneers of 1882. John Edward Wright died on April 15, 1959 shortly after his 97th birthday.

 

While researching John Edward Wright’s life, other information was uncovered about the Wright family in the Scarth area. John Edward Wright’s father who was also called John Wright, with his middle name being Augustus, came to Scarth to farm in 1882. He was born in Prussia on May 4th, 1837. His family name was Richter, but it was changed to Wright when they came over to Canada. He came to Port Colborne as a young man, later coming to Manitoba in 1882. He worked as a farm hand, a farmer, a hotel keeper in Welland, Ontario, and as a butcher. Although there is no evidence that his sons came to Manitoba with him, it does seem likely that they did. He farmed in the Scarth area for many years according to his obituary, once owning two and a half sections of land. He retired from farming in 1902 and moved to Virden, where he lived to the ripe old age of 87. He died on April 12, 1925 and was buried in the Virden Cemetery. There is a photo in the Virden Story of a group of Virden Oldtimers in 1913 and John Wright is among them. The Virden Oldtimers’ was a proline association of pioneers in the Virden area for many years. It is mentioned in his obituary that he is survived by two sons Edward and Charles, and a daughter Mrs. Scott Ellsworth of Pipestone.

 

It appears that John Edward Wright’s brother, Charles Augustus Wright accompanied his brother to the Scarth area in 1882. He was also a successful farmer, and married Mary Misner of Wellandport, Ontario in 1892. He had five children - John Jackson (1892-1949), James Edward (1894-1986), Charles Orlin (1896-1962), Emma (1899-1994),

and Arline (1901-1989). Charles Augustus Wright died on July 21st, 1954.