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Samuel Tilden Wright
and Lydia Margaret Craft

Samuel Tilden Wright (Luntz) b 31 Mar 1878 Letcher Co KY d 27 Apr 1974 Letcher Co KY; s/o William Luntz and Lettie Bates. Samuel Tilden Wright m. 29 Jun 1899 to Lydia Margaret Craft b 5 Apr 1880 Letcher Co KY d 2 Feb 1964 Letcher Co KY; d/o Benjamin Washington Craft and Henrietta Adams. Children of Samuel Tilden Wright (Luntz) and Lydia Margaret Craft;

1. Hillard Wright b 24 Dec 1900 Letcher Co KY d 20 Apr 1916 Letcher Co KY

2. William Wright b abt 1904 Letcher Co KY

3. Nicodemus Wright b abt 1906 Letcher Co KY

4. Harvey Wright b abt 1911 Letcher Co KY

5. Charles Wright b abt 1914 Letcher Co KY

6. Commonly Wright (m) b abt 1916 Letcher Co KY

7. Seldon Wright (f) b abt 1919 Letcher Co KY

8. Hennie Wright b 04 Dec 1921 Letcher Co KY d 6 Jul 1926 Letcher Co KY

9. Samuel J Wright b 18 Apr 1924 Letcher Co KY


Mt Eagle Newspaper, Whitesburg, Letcher Co KY
Thursday Evening, January 3, 1929
Prominent Citizen and Contractor Killed
John D Blair, Long Well Known Citizen
County Official and Highway Contractor Shot and Killed
Related to Nearly Every Family in Letcher County

Early Monday morning John D Blair and two other men drove over from Shelby Gap (Kentucky) to the home of Tilden Wright at Millstone to adjust a matter best known to himself. Mr. Wright and Ben J Adams were in the dining room when Mr. Blair entered. The latter, it is said told Mr. Wright his purpose in coming and a heated conversation resulted. Mr. Wright says that Mr. Blair drew his pistol in a ? (portion of word unreadable...???eating) way and made certain demonstrations with it. Just then William Wright aged about twenty (2. William Wright b abt 1904 above) heard the words spoken or saw the demonstrations from his bed room where he was lying and seizing his thirty-eight pistol, rushed into the room to aid his father.

When he entered he began shooting and kept this up till his gun was emptied. When the smoke had lifted Mr. Blair was shot dead and lying upon the floor. Four shots had entered his body and head, one in the right breast just below the arm pit and ranged through the bony cavity in front and lodged just under the skin to the right of the left nipple, one in the back slightly above the hips and two inches to the left of the spinal column and another in the leg passing through the heavy fleshly part of it four inches below the knee. Another passed thro' the top of Blair's hat. Just which shot produced death so suddenly was not discernable, unless the shot entering the back penetrated an artery leading to the heart. It is said a forty-five pistol cocked ready for firing was found on the floor not far from the dead man's body. It is said that when young Wright entered the room Mr. Blair had his gun drqwn on his father.

Young Wright surrendered himself to the officers and was soon brought before Judge Bentley and at the time this is written, the examining trial has been put off till Jan. 10th. A number of persons were present or near about when the difficulty occurred. The young Wright and John D Blair from a number of angles were closely related. The body of the dead man was brought to the Ideal Undertakers Department here where it was prepared for burial.

This will take place near the old home of the deceased on Lower Rockhouse. John D Blair was a son of Mr. and Mrs. Hiram Blair, now residing near Blair's Branch of Rockhouse and was forty-eight years of age. He was the oldest of a large family of children all of whom are grown and married. He is survived by a widow, a daughter of the late Rev. James Caudill, of Lower River section and a brother to Henricks Caudill well known Bull Creek teacher and citizen. There was no better connected citizen in Letcher County than John D Blair. He was a great-grandson of the late Manan Jenkins and J. Wash Adams of Blackey was his great Uncle. He leaves four young sons and one daughter. The younger child a son, is thirteen.

John D Blair was a brave, bold and determined man. He was admired by thousands of our citizens and had but few enemies. As a hustling business man there were few better. A year or so ago he became a member of the First Baptist Church in Whitesburg and those who knew him best and watched his walks believe he was a changed man.

What is said of John D Blair can be said of the young man who did the shooting. He is a son of Rev. Tilden Wright of the Regular Baptist Church. The Wright family has always been one of our leading families, heavily connected and one that has strongly impressed itself upon the County's progressive welfare. Young Wright's mother is a daughter of Ben Craft, her grandmother, Aunt Hennie Craft, being a niece of the above mentioned Manan Jenkins. Rev. Wright's mother is a first cousin to J. Wash Adams of Blackey. Therefore the heavy relationship of all parties concerned makes it a very regrettable and especially sad affair.


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