Description

Reverend Derrick Brown Wright was born June 5, 1831 in Pownal, Vermont. His father’s name was Josiah Wright; his mother’s Huldah. Both were born in Vermont. He was married to Rhoda Claudia, born 1843; died November 29, 1926. They had four children: Ida W. Wright (b. 1870 -  d. unknown); Edna Wright (b. 1873 - d. unknown); Paul Wright (b. 1877 - d. unknown) and Silas Wright (b. 1878 - d. unknown). The Arizona Republic listed him as working as a Reverend in Ehrenberg 1874. He was sent by the Methodist conference to Prescott in 1874 to serve as the first Methodist minister. He arrived in Prescott on July 23, 1874, with his wife, Rhoda, and two children, Ida and Edna. He died October 9, 1907 in Phoenix, Arizona.

A reference in the Weekly Arizona Miner, January 15, 1875, states: “Rev D. B. Wright has commenced erecting a house on the hill side above Gideon Cornell’s.” Two citations reference him in The Miner, Friday, May 10, 1878: “Rev D.B. Wright has received from San Francisco three pulpit chairs, which are for his Marina street church. The chairs were purchased with the money realized at the ladies’ fair some three months since. They were purchased in San Francisco by Mrs. L. Bashford . . .” “Rev D. B. Wright will preach next Sunday evening at the Marina Street Church.” On March 15, 1878, he was present at the Malone hanging and accompanied the prisoner from the Fort Whipple guard house to the county jail and then walked behind him to his hanging. A citation in the Weekly Arizona Miner, April 18, 1879, states: “Rev. D. B. Wright has returned from his trip to Black Canyon, where he has a soap factory in operation.” In this photograph, he is shown as an older man.