Author: Wright, Judah
Biography:
WRIGHT, Judah (1774-1844: ancestry.com)
Wright was born and died in Holden MA. The son of Judah and Tabitha (Hartwell) Wright, he was blind from infancy. His father died when he was about 12; to support himself and his widowed mother, who lived with him, he took on manual labour such as basket-making. The 1820 Census records him as living alone. Despite his disability, he found ways of acquiring knowledge about history and current events and became "one of the most learned men of his residence" according to the death notice. Friends and neighbours rallied to read to him. He did not marry but certainly had a role in the community. Besides his one published volume, he published Alonzo's Dream (1823), which included a few pages of elegiac verse, and Thoughts on the Loss of Sight, addressed to Young People (1825?); he also contributed occasional poems and hymns for public occasions. (ancestry.com 15 Mar. 2021; findmypast.com 15 Mar. 2021; prefatory note, Poems on Several Occasions [1812]; Boston Semi-Weekly Advertiser 9 Mar. 1844) HJ