My Genealogy Hound

ISAAC K. WRIGHT is one of the first settlers in the South Loup valley. He was born in Bourbon county, Ky., July 4, 1821, and remained at home, working on the farm, until about twenty-two years old, and then went to Shelby county, Ky., where he remained one year. He then came West and traveled over a portion of Missouri in search of a suitable tract of land, and finally purchased six hundred and forty acres in Andrews county, near St. Joe. He remained there three years, and in 1846 went to the Mexican war; in 1848 he started across the plains for California, as assistant wagon-master in a train of provisions, and remained in California twenty years. He began mining for gold, but, having no success, soon gave it up. He then opened a hay market in Sacramento, which he continued for one year, with considerable success. He next engaged in faro and monte, and made $150,000, after which he engaged in buying and selling cattle, which business he continued until 1868, when he returned to Kentucky having made in all since he left, $100,000. He remained in Kentucky but a short time, and then went to Missouri and engaged in the cattle business. In 1873 he sold out his cattle interests in Missouri and came to Buffalo county, Nebr., purchasing 320 acres on the South Loup river, and went into the ranch business. In those days, deer, elk, antelope, beaver and otter were plentiful; also a great many Indians. Mr. Wright was very friendly with the Indians and could speak their language perfectly. The Indians made his place a kind of rendezvous and he used to frequently kill a heifer and treat them to a feast. In this manner he made them his friends, and while others in that region were continually having cattle stolen, he was never molested in any way. He trapped along the Loup river with the Indians and never even had a trap stolen by them.

In the early days Mr. Wright was well acquainted with Kit Carson, Pegleg Smith and Stephen Greenwood, old mountaineers.

Mr. Wright was never married and has kept bachelor’s hall the greater part of his time. Politically he is a democrat and is now serving in the capacity of constable, being one of only three democrats who have ever been elected in his township, and having received sixty votes out of a total of seventy-nine.