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My Granny and Popaw

Around 1920, a 17-year old John Wright saw the prettiest little gal he ever did see standing on a fence rail, she was leaning over the fence and her long pigtails were hanging down over her shoulders. He said that is the gal I’m going to marry one of these days. Four years later he married that pretty little gal, Lillian Curtis, and the rest is history.

Lillian Curtis was born July 29, 1907, in Owen County, Kentucky. She was the daughter of Richard Harvey and Fannie Wright Curtis. Richard Harvey Curtis was the son of John Wesley and Rebecca Pickett Curtis. Fannie Wright was the daughter of Milton Thomas Wright Jr. (Lorenzo Dow Wright’s brother) who was the son of Milton Thomas Wright who was the son of John Raglen Wright. (John Wright and Fannie Wright Curtis were first cousins.)

While John was courting Lillian, she was also being wooed by another young man. Her parents thought this young man would be more suited for her as his family had a little money and he would be able to take care of her. Lillian’s brothers kept after her telling her to stay away from that Wright boy, that he would not amount to anything. She chose John. As it turned out the other young man is the one who did not to amount to anything. When we asked granny his name she never would say.

Lillian told John, let’s get married. John told her he had nothing to offer her – she told him, we’ve got two hands, we both can work, and on October 25, 1924, John Wright wed Lillian Curtis.

John Wright told that he left very early on the morning of October 25, 1924, to go pick up his bride, there was still dew on the ground. On the way to Georgetown, he saw blazes and smoke coming from his brother’s (Milton Wright) house. He stopped to help but was worried about getting his brand new white shirt dirty. Milton’s wife (Lila Belle Curtis Wright, Lillian’s cousin, also called by the nickname, Jack ) had small children to care for and she was not able to help Milton put out the fire. John and his brother grabbed buckets and ran down the hill to the creek for water and put out the fire. It was just a stove fire that got out of control while cooking breakfast so it was put out quickly and his shirt did not get too dirty. By helping put the fire out, he was almost late to his own wedding. He went to pick up Lillian and they went to Georgetown to get married. Granny always told that popaw was almost late for his own wedding.

They drove the family Model T to Georgetown to get married. He first went to the Christian Church parsonage to ask Reverend Ira Boswell to marry them. When he arrived a colored girl told them that Reverend Boswell was at the football game. He said that he would just save his $2.00 and they got married at the courthouse.

When he and Lillian returned home the family had a party for them. He said one of the things they would do is ride the groom on a rail. Some of the men went down to the fence by the creek and brought back a rail. They put him on it and then one man got on either end and hoisted you on the rail up to their shoulders. He said that weddings were different back then. A person would get married on a Saturday and by Monday you would be back to work in the fields.”

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