A Short History of Wright's United Methodist Church

No history of Wright's Church would be complete without reading the history of the Wright family. You are encouraged to read the more complete history by following the link below.. The following deals specifically with Wright's Church ( or Wright's Chapel as it was once called) and is comprised of selected exerpts from the Wright Family History.

Enoch and Rachel Wright were the parents of only one child, a son Joseph, born in 1794, who attended Canonsburg College and later became a local preacher in the Methodist Episcopal Church. He married Catherine Hopkins in 1814 and to them were born eleven children.

Although Enoch was a staunch member of the Peters Creek Baptist Church in Library in 1823 he gave the land and means to build a church and cemetery nearer his home. The church was known as Wright's Chapel and was open to all denominations. Enoch and his wife both died on the old farm, he in 1846 and Rachel twenty years later, at the age of 88.

An analysis of the persons mentioned in the will reveals Enoch was attached to his family and, evidently very proud of all his grandchildren. It seems a little puzzling to find so little given his son, Joseph? Could he have been aware of the physical condition of his son so that he was afraid that, upon his death, the estate could have gone to the Hopkins family, or to the Methodist Church? He had stayed a member of the Peters Creek Baptist Church of Library, PA, even though his son had caused him to give the land and building, he had readied for the Baptist or non-denominational, to the Methodist Church.

Rev. Joseph Wright was quite a scholar and was compiling a dictionary at the time of his death in 1851. Sometime earlier he had influenced his father to deed the chapel to the Methodist Church with the provision that "no slaveholding or pro slavery preacher be ever permitted to officiate, lecture or preach in said house".

In 1854, the church was badly damaged by a tornado, which blew off the roof and spread the walls. All the money for repairs was collected the day after the stormby David B. Connelly of the Mingo Church from the neighboring congregations, who subscribed promptly and liberally as a sort of Thanksoffering for their own escape from disaster.

The old cemetery at the original site can still be visited and the foundation of Wright's Chapel is still in evidence. The cemetery contains many weather worn markers, among them being those of Enoch Wright, his wife Rachel, Rev. Joseph Wright, his wife Catherine, and many of their descendants, as well as, seven war veterans.

Charity Wright Anderson, the youngest daughter of Rev. Joseph Wright, was a faithful and active member of the church for most of her 85 years. She played the organ for many years and was especially interested in the youth of the church. The electric pipe organ currently being used in the church was dedicated to her memory when it was installed. Her husband, Dr. David M. Anderson, was a native of Beaver County, PA. In the early gold excitement in California he accompanied his father to that state, going from there to South America. He remained there two years and began the study of medicine during his stay in that country. He returned to this state about the time that Fort Sumter was attacked and entered the Western Army in the capacity of surgeon. He remained in the service until the close of the Civil War when he went to New York City and graduated from Bellerue Medical College. He came to Peters Township, married Charity Wright, and began the practice of medicine here. He was also interested in coal operations, his mines lying along the line of the Pittsburgh Southern Railroad. They were parents of two children, Alexander Hopkins Anderson, an attorney, who served in the Spanish American War, and Elizabeth Eleanor, who married David Rees, a native of Wales.

At the death of Elizabeth Rees (the daughter of Charity Wright Anderson and the granddaughter of Rev. Joseph Wright) approximately 33 acres of woodland directly behind the cemetery and extending to the village of Hackett, was bequeathed to the church. This tract of land contains virtually virgin white oak and the will stipulates that the trees are not to be cut; until 50 years after her death.

Mrs. Rees summarized her feelings about the church in this way: "We may have no records, but we cannot say that we have no history. Faithful service, patient adherence to duty, sacrifice of time and comfort, the torch of the faith held aloft, the fires ever burning on the alter. Human minds may forget and human pens neglect to write down, but when the greatest book of all is opened, the record will be there. The results are with God."