B. F. Wright Biography

	This biography is from "Memorial and biographical record; an illustrated
	compendium of biography, containing a compendium of local biography,
	including biographical sketches of prominent old settlers and 
	representative citizens of South Dakota..." Published by G. A. 
	Ogle & Co., Chicago, 1898. Pages 458-461

	Scan, OCR and editing by Joy Fisher, jfisher@sdgenweb.com, 1999.

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HON. B. F. WRIGHT, one of the well-to-do, intelligent and enterprising 
agriculturists of Moody county, whose portrait appears on another page, has a 
fine farm of three hundred and forty acres in section 33, Union township.  He 
was born in Hillsdale county, Michigan, December 8, 1845.  He is a son of Harvey 
and Hannah M. (Gould) Wright, early settlers in Hillsdale county. The mother was 
a first cousin of Jay Gould. She is now deceased and the father makes his home 
with his son.  They have only two children now living:  Electa and B. F.

In 1847 our subject moved with his parents to Wisconsin, where they settled in 
Waukesha county and later moved to Green county, where they resided until our 
subject was seventeen years of age and at which place also he was educated in 
the public school.

August 6, 1862, he enlisted in Company G, Twenty-second Wisconsin Infantry, as a 
private.  He then went with the regiment to Kentucky, where they stayed until 
the following spring and then went to Tennessee, under General Granger, and 
there participated in an engagement at Spring Hill. On March 25, 1863, he was 
taken prisoner and sent to Richmond and confined in Libby Prison.  He was later 
sent to parole camp at St. Louis and in June of that year the regiment was re-
organized and sent to Tennessee, where he was put on garrison duty for several 
months.  He then joined Sherman's army at Chattanooga and took part in the 
Atlanta campaign, and, after the fall of that city, they garrisoned it.  Next 
came the celebrated "march to the sea," followed by the capture of Atlanta, and 
the march through the Carolinas.  He participated in the battles of Averysboro, 
North Carolina, and Bentonville, and the surrender of Joseph E. Johnston near 
Raleigh. He then went with the army to Washington to participate in the Grand 
Review, after which he was mustered out by general order No.77, and went back to 
Wisconsin and was discharged at Milwaukee.

Mr. Wright then went back to his father's homestead in Wisconsin, and from there 
attended Milton academy one year, then moved to Minnesota, and for ten years was 
engaged in teaching and farming in Fillmore and Olmsted counties.  In 1876 he 
moved to South Dakota, and the following year located on the farm on which he 
still resides, and proceeded at once to improve and develop it into one of the 
best farms in the community, and since has been engaged in general farming and 
at times has engaged in teaching school in the community.

Politicaily, Mr. Wright formerly affiliated with the Republican party, but for 
the past two years has been one of the charter members of the Populist party.  
He takes an active interest in local affairs, especially those pertaining to 
education and has been a school officer most of the time since locating in the 
state. He has frequently been a delegate the state conventions, and 1896 was 
elected to represent his district in the state legislature and became one of the 
strong members of that body, serving on several of the general and special 
committees. Socially, he is a member of the G. A. R. post at Flandreau. He is 
also an official member of the Methodist church.

Mr. Wright was married in Minnesota, in the year 1875, to Miss Amanda Rubedo, a 
native of Rock Island, Illinois, and a daughter of Louis Rubedo.  To this union 
has been born six children, viz.: Hattie E. Halpin, who has two children; Mary 
S. Rhames; Benjamin J.; W. F.; Grace and Henry 0.  Mrs. Wright died August 28, 
1891. A portrait of Mr. Wright appears on another page of this volume.