Lucinda Watt

F, #11436, b. 1806, d. 25 June 1853
ChartsThompson (paternal side) - Robert Almer Thompson
ReferenceT19
To-Do* To-Do list for Lucinda Watt have Ancestry stuff to enter in files. 
Birth*1806 She was born in 1806 at Kentucky; per 1850 census. Daughter's 1880 census says IL. 
Marriage* She married James Birchfield at Kentucky.1 
Marriage*4 August 1836 Lucinda Watt married Thomas H Wright, son of Thomas Huston Wright and Susannah (_Garrison?_), on 4 August 1836 at McLean Co., Illinois; bk A pg 53 license 1 Aug 1836 (no ages or other pertinant info) except that she is shown as Mrs Lucinda Birchfield) - Not copied but is on SLC film 1401956. 
(InHomeOf) Census18501850 Lucinda Watt appeared on the 1850 census in the household of Thomas H Wright, Pg 86a, Randolph Grove, McLean Co., Illinois. Her info on the census included -
Wright, Lucinda 44 b.KY. 
Note*1853  In 1853 per family papers - "Grandma [Martha] crossed The Plains via ox team in 1853 when she was 16. Her mother died during the trip." 
Residence*1853 Lucinda Watt and Thomas H Wright lived in 1853; Left Illinois to go on the Oregon Trail to the north west.1 
Death*25 June 1853 Lucinda Watt died on 25 June 1853 at Sublette Cutoff, 15 miles east of La Barge, Lincoln Co., Indiana; http://wyoshpo.state.wy.us/trailsdemo/lucinda_wright.htm. 
Burial* She was buried at 15 miles east of La Barge, Lincoln Co., Wyoming; http://wyoshpo.state.wy.us/trailsdemo/lucinda_wright.htm
     This grave on a remote stretch of the Green River Desert segment on the Sublette Cutoff was long a mystery. Lucinda (Watt) Birchfield Wright was born in Kentucky where she married James Birchfield. They moved to Illinois where Lucinda had three children. Birchfield apparently died in the winter of 1835/1836 and Lucinda then married Thomas Huston Wright. The two of them had four more children. In 1853, the Wrights along with their children, some with families of their own, set out for Oregon.
     Lucinda Birchfield Wright, then 47, died on the Sublette Cutoff on 25 June 1853. The cause of death was not recorded. Lucinda’s nephew wrote: "Uncle Huston’s wife died on the Green River desert and was buried at the side of the road. I shall never forget how desolate we felt as we hitched up the oxen and pulled out, leaving the freshly broken earth by the side of the Old Oregon Trail as the only visible sign that one of our number had finished the journey, while we must still travel on. There were four families of us that stopped to bury my aunt, in a blanket in a shallow grave, with a few feet of earth and the wide sky over her."
     A wooden headboard which is believed to have been the original gravestone was found on the site In 1961. It is now on display at the Museum of the Mountain Man in Pinedale, Wyoming.
     Ownership - Public (BLM), Directions -Lincoln County, Wyoming. T26N/R112W. Approximately 15 miles east of La Barge, Wyoming. A visit to this site should not be attempted except in a 4WD over dry roads. Even then, extreme caution is urged. Check locally for directions and road conditions.
     National Park Service Comprehensive Management Plan - The site has been fenced and marked by the Oregon-California Trails Association. There is no known threat to this site. It is not listed on the National Register.
     Additional Information: Duffin, Reg. "The Grave of Lucinda Wright" Annals of Wyoming (Spring 1998.)

Family 1

James Birchfield
Marriage* She married James Birchfield at Kentucky.1 
Children

Family 2

Thomas H Wright b. 1817
Marriage*4 August 1836 Lucinda Watt married Thomas H Wright, son of Thomas Huston Wright and Susannah (_Garrison?_), on 4 August 1836 at McLean Co., Illinois; bk A pg 53 license 1 Aug 1836 (no ages or other pertinant info) except that she is shown as Mrs Lucinda Birchfield) - Not copied but is on SLC film 1401956. 
Children
Last Edited20 Jul 2016

Citations

  1. [S186] email with Deanna Hirz: e-mail address, Sep 2004.