John Bright

From the Bright Side book:

John Bright of Tennessee by Marva Bright Tibbitts.

My grandfather, John Bright (known as Jack to all his friends), was the youngest child of a family of six children born to John Bright (son of John Bright and Susanna Ginther) and Susan Pugh. They owned and lived on a large plantation in what is now the main part of the city of Knoxville, Tennessee. At the time Johnston’s army came to exterminate the Mormons, the Saints were ordered to move south of Salt Lake City for safety. At this time the Bright family moved back to Alpine, Utah, for a time. After the state of agitation caused by the army had quieted down and peace once more restored, Mother Susan consecrated all her property to the church and again moved her family back to Willard, Utah.

They had experienced many hardships up to this point. I vividly recall grandfather telling us in our childhood how hungry they were, and how they would go out in the hills to dig sego roots to eat to keep the pangs of hunger away. He told of one day when they were living in Alpine, they were out digging when his brother, Isaac (who always loved to tease and play pranks), came running and shouting, “Come home and get some bread and duck!” They asked each other “Could it be possible?” They ran down the hill toward home all eager and breathless. On reaching the house, they found it to be only a joke Ike had played on them.

Grandfather, being a small boy, could not appreciate that joke and sat down on the ground and cried with disappointment. He always told us not to ever waste even one crust of bread, as he felt it was a sin and being ungrateful, after having these experiences.

Many times, I have thought of this as I have seen bread and other food thrown out. In the spring of 1860, the family moved to Richmond, Utah. When John grew into young manhood, he made a trip or two back to get immigrants who were coming to Utah and I have enjoyed hearing him tell of their problems with the Indians and the unpleasant times fording the rivers, and the hardships of the travels at that time.

On Dec. 18, 1871, he married Phoebe J. Smith. In time the church authorities asked him and others to move across the Cub River and settle the country there. So, John and his family moved across the river to what was known as “Poverty Flats” and homesteaded a quarter section of land in the southeastern part of the town which was later named “Lewiston.” For a time, they would stay in Lewiston for the summer months and return to Richmond for the winter. When they finally did go to this barren spot to build a home, they encountered many difficulties. The soil was sandy, much different from any other soils they had worked with.

The irrigation problems were not easy to surmount in this type of soil. The winds were severe and would blow the seeds from the ground after the planting. The winters were severe, and the frost came early. With all these problems it was not an easy task that lay before them. However, the church authorities had promised them that they would be blessed, and the Lord would temper the elements so they would eventually bring this land under cultivation and reap bounteous crops, a promise that was literally fulfilled.

The land did later prove to be some of the most fertile in all of Cache Valley. However, it was not until the year 1872 that farming began on a large scale in that area. The first child born to this couple was John Wesley, born January 12, 1873. He was born at Richmond. Also born to them at Richmond was a girl, Phoebe Etta born 27 March 1874. After the family moved to Lewiston to make a permanent home four girls were added to the family: Sarah Florence, 2 October 1878, Adah, 3 February 1881, Emma, 6 Aug 1882, and Deliah Ann 16 March 1884.

On March 24, 1884, Grandmother passed away from complications developing from the birth of Deliah Ann. John Wesley, the eldest and only son, was eleven years old at the time. So, grandfather was left with the tremendous responsibility of rearing their family of small children. He was sad and very bewildered, not knowing which way to turn. A good neighbor and friend, Jane Aller, came to the rescue. She had given birth to a child about the same time as Delilah Ann was born and was kind enough to take the baby which she breast-fed along with her own until they were both old enough to be put on solid foods. She then returned the baby to her family.

According to my father, John Wesley, their home life was not so pleasant without his mother. He always said that the worst thing that could come into a child’s life was to be without a mother in the home, and above all else he wanted his own daughters to become good mothers and homemakers. After a time, grandfather hired a housekeeper whose name was Alice Young Nelson, and after a while they married. Two children were born to them: Francis Earl, 23 August 1891, and Susan Caroline, 29 December1887.

This marriage did not work out and sometime later they were divorced. Note from Camille Hart: My father, Hazen, said that his father, John Wesley, had told him that the second wife became a drug addict, and this was the cause of their divorce. Grandfather remained unmarried for twenty-five years doing his best to bring his children to maturity and help them to learn the true purpose of life.

After the children were all grown and married, he was lonely and came to live with us in our home and he became very near and dear to us. My sister, Norean, and I enjoyed going with him to the sugar factory with a wagonload of beets. Since our mother did not approve of this because she was fearful of an accident, grandfather would try to get his load out of the field and on his way without us. But he could never make it without Norean. She would climb up over the back of the wagon and he would find her perching behind him on the beets. He seemed to enjoy us following him and never scolded us. He made everything seem fun.

At Christmas he would add such fun to our celebrating. I can remember when he told us how he fell asleep on the couch in the living room and Santa rolled him off onto the floor to send him off to bed. He was a fun-loving man with a keen sense of humor. It was said of him and his brother “Ike” that all the men loved to work with them on the threshing machine or the irrigation projects or whatever was to be done in the community because they were always joking and making the work seem fun.

Grandfather took care of things on the farm and helped us while our father filled a mission of two years to the Northwestern states.

He died at the age of 76 years and was buried in the Richmond Utah Cemetery by the side of grandmother who died so young, and dear Aunt Lillie has been placed by them also.

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BRIGHT / BRECHT FAMILY DESK SEEMS TO CONFIRM THE BRECHT FAMILY MAY HAVE BEEN ENGLISH.

Beckley Post-Herald, Beckley, W. Va. Friday Morning, January 29, 1954 "Beckleyan Obtains Desk Which Tradition Says His Family Carried in Flight from Persecution" A Beckley man has come into possession of a valued antique that has been in his family at least 227 years and probably many years longer. George Woodson Bright, 113 Hill Park Drive, has acquired the desk his great-great-great-grandfather brought to America from Germany in 1726. The actual records of the old desk, made of curly maple, go back that far and tradition has it that progenitors of the Bright family took the desk from England to Germany a century or two earlier. The strange history of the desk is closely related to the Bright family history in this country. Reference has been made to it in several historical publications. A 1917 special edition of the West Virginia News of Ronceverte, commemorating the 140th anniversary of Greenbrier County, has this to say about the origin of the desk and the early history of the Bright family: "In Germany there lived from 1591 to 1665 a Christopher Brecht. He was the progenitor of the Bright family. His great-grandson emigrated to Germantown, Pa., in Oct. 1726. This emigrant, Johannes Michael Brecht (1706- 1794) married Margareta Simone, daughter of a newly arrived French migrant, Jacob Simone. He was the founder of the Bright family in America.

A son, David Bright, as the name became Anglicized (1740 - 1808), was the founder of the Greenbrier County Brights. But if the tradition in the family concerning an old desk is true, the Brights were originally English, leaving England and going to Germany to escape religious persecution and taking with them a desk that was later brought to Pennsylvania and subsequently to Greenbrier by David Bright." David Bright, the great-great-grandfather of the present owner of the desk, was a miller in Berks County, Pa., before moving to Greenbrier County about 1784. In his will, recorded in 1808, he left to his wife the old desk, indicating even that early it was a treasured family possession. Before moving to Greenbrier County, David Bright is said to have supplied large quantities of flour for George Washington's army. Both David Bright and his father, Michael, are among those listed in the Pennsylvania Archives as signing the Oath of Allegiance to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on June22, 1778.

David Bright's mill at the time of the Revolutionary War was at Shaefferstown, Pa., about 20 miles from Valley Forge, where Washington's army wintered in 1777-78. It is said that he furnished a large supply of flour to the troops that winter receiving his pay in Continental currency, which depreciated so rapidly that he was left bankrupt. The receipts from the quartermaster of Washington's army for the flour were deposited in the old desk at the time it was brought to Lewisburg. These papers remained in the desk for many years until they were borrowed by a descendant of the Bright family from Baltimore to be included in a family history he was writing. He died a short time later; however, the receipts were never returned.

This information is contained in the "Historical Sketches of the Bright Family", written in 1900 by A. G. Green. The old desk went from David Bright's widow to her son Jesse Bright (1773-1856) who inherited the old family homestead at Frankford. The old Bright home is now known as the Brinkley place. It was there that David Bright settled in 1784. From his three sons---Michael, Jesse, and David, Jr.--- have descended several family lines of different names. Jesse Bright, with James Watts, James Bowen and Frank Luddington cut the first wagon road from Frankford to Lewisburg. David had been forced to take his wagon and the old desk and other family possessions in the hard way, as there were only footpaths and bridal paths along the old Seneca Trail at that time. Jesse Bright, who kept possession of the desk throughout his lifetime, was the father of 14 children.

Of historical interest is the fact that three of his daughters married three of the sons of George and Mary Switzer Leivasy, who were also the parents of 14 children. The desk next passed into the hands of Jesse Bright's son, also named Jesse (1818-1905), who lived most of his life in Lewisburg. It was from the younger Jesse Bright's granddaughter, Miss Dora Pare, of Lewisburg, that the Beckley man purchased the desk. The new owner of the highly prized antique considers the desk priceless as a family possession and hopes it will always remain in the Bright family. He is willing it to his eldest son, Woodson Bright, and from him to his grandson, James Woodson Bright, with the request that young Jimmy pass it onto a son if he has a male heir. It is well authenticated that the old desk had been in America for 227years. Several authorities on antique woodwork, have informed Bright that the desk is unquestionably of English make, tending to confirm the legend that the progenitors of the Bright family had gone from England to Germany to escape religious persecution, taking the desk with them.

Homemade and of sturdy construction, the old desk has three large drawers underneath and numerous small drawers on top, with the "hidden drawer" tha twas typical of the desk of ancient times. Except for minor scars, the desk is still as good as new. Because of the height, Bright is finding it necessary to place a large dictionary on his chair to use it handily.