What do you really know about your ancestors? Do you have a traveling ventriloquist and tonic huckster?
Beyond the names, dates and places on your pedigree chart, there are undoubtedly some great stories. Researching our family history can produce some real surprises. Our blog features some of the more colorful biographical sketches we have collected in the course of our research as professional genealogists.
Charles Claibourn Wright had a flair for show business. He hailed from southern Indiana, but left home at an early age. Born in 1864, Charlie developed a skill as a ventriloquist and entertained the residents of many states. He carved two wooden ‘Punch and Judy’ dolls and put on quite a performance. His traveling exhibit also included a medicine show. He sold some sort of elixir, and Electri-Belts, which he made out of webbing with a little copper on them. These supposedly cured rheumatism and just about anything else that ails a body. He made quite a sum of money from these items, but he kept on the move, one step ahead of the law, before his unwitting customers realized that they had been duped.Charlie returned home to Indiana to visit his family, accompanied by a very beautiful woman whom he introduced as his wife. She demonstrated for his family her excellent skill with the rifle. She shot sticks of candy out of Charlie’s mouth from several yards away, or the ashes off his cigar held in his teeth. These daring acts were part of their traveling entertainment. When Charlie and his lady were preparing to leave his Indiana family, his younger brother Campbell begged to go with them. Their mother reluctantly consented to allow him to go, since he had reached the age of eighteen by then. But a few months later, the family in Indiana received a telegram with the sad news that Campbell had died of erysipelas, a deadly and contagious skin-eating bacteria. Charlie wrote that he would be bringing the casket home, but that they were not to open it because of the risk of infection. The family suspected that Campbell had been accidentally shot during one of their shows, but no investigation was ever conducted. Nobody dared to open that casket!After Campbell’s death, a more subdued Charlie gave up show business and married a Missouri woman in 1902. They had five children together. In the 1910 census we find the family in Lawrence County, Arkansas, where Charlie gave his occupation as ‘gardener’, a much more settled business. The exact circumstances of his younger brother’s death are still a matter of speculation, but whatever happened, it had a sobering effect on the flamboyant Charlie Wright.
Charles Claibourn Wright had a flair for show business. He hailed from southern Indiana, but left home at an early age. Born in 1864, Charlie developed a skill as a ventriloquist and entertained the residents of many states. He carved two wooden ‘Punch and Judy’ dolls and put on quite a performance. His traveling exhibit also included a medicine show. He sold some sort of elixir, and Electri-Belts, which he made out of webbing with a little copper on them. These supposedly cured rheumatism and just about anything else that ails a body. He made quite a sum of money from these items, but he kept on the move, one step ahead of the law, before his unwitting customers realized that they had been duped.Charlie returned home to Indiana to visit his family, accompanied by a very beautiful woman whom he introduced as his wife. She demonstrated for his family her excellent skill with the rifle. She shot sticks of candy out of Charlie’s mouth from several yards away, or the ashes off his cigar held in his teeth. These daring acts were part of their traveling entertainment. When Charlie and his lady were preparing to leave his Indiana family, his younger brother Campbell begged to go with them. Their mother reluctantly consented to allow him to go, since he had reached the age of eighteen by then. But a few months later, the family in Indiana received a telegram with the sad news that Campbell had died of erysipelas, a deadly and contagious skin-eating bacteria. Charlie wrote that he would be bringing the casket home, but that they were not to open it because of the risk of infection. The family suspected that Campbell had been accidentally shot during one of their shows, but no investigation was ever conducted. Nobody dared to open that casket!After Campbell’s death, a more subdued Charlie gave up show business and married a Missouri woman in 1902. They had five children together. In the 1910 census we find the family in Lawrence County, Arkansas, where Charlie gave his occupation as ‘gardener’, a much more settled business. The exact circumstances of his younger brother’s death are still a matter of speculation, but whatever happened, it had a sobering effect on the flamboyant Charlie Wright.
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Raquel Lindaas, AG
