From Past and Present of Fayette County Iowa (1910):
"In 1814 William Wright, then a youth of fourteen, in company with his grandfather, Joseph CLARK,and Thomas RIPLEY, an uncle, come to the United States and grew to maturity in Oneida county, New York, where said relatives located. He was reared a farmer and followed that vocation in the above county until 1844, when he went to Chicago, Illinois, where he spent the summer of that year and then located five miles north of Elgin. After spending the ensuing ten years in that part of the state, he decided to move farther west, accordingly, in May, 1854, he started on the journey to Iowa, traveling by the way of Rockford and Freeport, crossing the Mississippi river at Galena and proceeding onward until arriving at Fairbank, in the state of his destination, where he decided to locate. The town of Fairbank at that time was a mere frontier hamlet of four families, the county of Buchanan in the main being but sparsely settled. Mr. Wright purchased sixty acres of land and took up a homestead of eight near by, on which he erected a log building, sixteen by twenty feet in size, which answered the purposes of a dwelling until replaced by a larger and much more comfortable edifice some years later. He improved his land and in due time had an excellent farm on which he and his good wife spent the remainder of their lives, both being buried in the cemetery at Fairbank."
"In 1814 William Wright, then a youth of fourteen, in company with his grandfather, Joseph CLARK,and Thomas RIPLEY, an uncle, come to the United States and grew to maturity in Oneida county, New York, where said relatives located. He was reared a farmer and followed that vocation in the above county until 1844, when he went to Chicago, Illinois, where he spent the summer of that year and then located five miles north of Elgin. After spending the ensuing ten years in that part of the state, he decided to move farther west, accordingly, in May, 1854, he started on the journey to Iowa, traveling by the way of Rockford and Freeport, crossing the Mississippi river at Galena and proceeding onward until arriving at Fairbank, in the state of his destination, where he decided to locate. The town of Fairbank at that time was a mere frontier hamlet of four families, the county of Buchanan in the main being but sparsely settled. Mr. Wright purchased sixty acres of land and took up a homestead of eight near by, on which he erected a log building, sixteen by twenty feet in size, which answered the purposes of a dwelling until replaced by a larger and much more comfortable edifice some years later. He improved his land and in due time had an excellent farm on which he and his good wife spent the remainder of their lives, both being buried in the cemetery at Fairbank."
From Past and Present of Fayette County Iowa (1910):
"In 1814 William Wright, then a youth of fourteen, in company with his grandfather, Joseph CLARK,and Thomas RIPLEY, an uncle, come to the United States and grew to maturity in Oneida county, New York, where said relatives located. He was reared a farmer and followed that vocation in the above county until 1844, when he went to Chicago, Illinois, where he spent the summer of that year and then located five miles north of Elgin. After spending the ensuing ten years in that part of the state, he decided to move farther west, accordingly, in May, 1854, he started on the journey to Iowa, traveling by the way of Rockford and Freeport, crossing the Mississippi river at Galena and proceeding onward until arriving at Fairbank, in the state of his destination, where he decided to locate. The town of Fairbank at that time was a mere frontier hamlet of four families, the county of Buchanan in the main being but sparsely settled. Mr. Wright purchased sixty acres of land and took up a homestead of eight near by, on which he erected a log building, sixteen by twenty feet in size, which answered the purposes of a dwelling until replaced by a larger and much more comfortable edifice some years later. He improved his land and in due time had an excellent farm on which he and his good wife spent the remainder of their lives, both being buried in the cemetery at Fairbank."
"In 1814 William Wright, then a youth of fourteen, in company with his grandfather, Joseph CLARK,and Thomas RIPLEY, an uncle, come to the United States and grew to maturity in Oneida county, New York, where said relatives located. He was reared a farmer and followed that vocation in the above county until 1844, when he went to Chicago, Illinois, where he spent the summer of that year and then located five miles north of Elgin. After spending the ensuing ten years in that part of the state, he decided to move farther west, accordingly, in May, 1854, he started on the journey to Iowa, traveling by the way of Rockford and Freeport, crossing the Mississippi river at Galena and proceeding onward until arriving at Fairbank, in the state of his destination, where he decided to locate. The town of Fairbank at that time was a mere frontier hamlet of four families, the county of Buchanan in the main being but sparsely settled. Mr. Wright purchased sixty acres of land and took up a homestead of eight near by, on which he erected a log building, sixteen by twenty feet in size, which answered the purposes of a dwelling until replaced by a larger and much more comfortable edifice some years later. He improved his land and in due time had an excellent farm on which he and his good wife spent the remainder of their lives, both being buried in the cemetery at Fairbank."
