HISTORY OF KENTUCKY AND KENTUCKIANS, E. Polk Johnson, three volumes, Lewis
Publishing Co., New York & Chicago, 1912. Common version, 
Vol. III, pp. 1284-85.  [Boyd County]

GILES WRIGHT--In the history of business development and of individual
achievement Giles Wright is deserving of prominent and honorable mention,
for from commencing on a small scale, he has caused the development of a
lumber business of magnitude in this section of the state and has advanced
to a leading position among the successful business men whose enterprise
is leading to the rapid growth and improvement of the country.  The great
forests of this and adjacent states furnish ample opportunity for
representatives of the lumber industry, and the giant trees converted into
building material are now being shipped to all parts of the country.
     Giles Wright was born in Lawrence county, Kentucky, January 6, 1867,
the son of Calvin and Celina (Hilton) Wright, the former a native of Wise
county, Virginia and the latter from Carter county, Kentucky.  When a
young man Calvin Wright in company with his older brother Henry, and a
younger one named James, came to Kentucky in the early thirties and
located on Dry Fork, a branch of Little Fork river, in Lawrence county,
Kentucky, and engaged in farming, making great improvements, building
good homes and becoming well fixed financially and influential.  He died
on the homestead in 1872 on August 11, at the age of fifty-three years.
During the Civil war he was a southern sympathizer but took no active part
in the conflict.  He was a member of the United Baptists as was also
his wife, who is now living at Willard, Carter county, Kentucky.  They
were the parents of three children, one son and two daughters, all living,
the son being the eldest and but a child when his father died.
     Giles Wright was reared in his native county until he was thirteen
years old, attending the common schools.  He began work at this age on a
farm and in public works and continued in the same until 1889.  In 1890 he
entered the employ of Leatherber, Slade & Kelton, wholesale lumber, at
Columbus, Ohio, as buyer and shipper for manufacturing and buying in the
markets in Ohio, Kentucky, and West Virginia and continued in this business
until 1893, acquiring a thorough knowledge of this business in all its
departments.  He then began the manufacture and wholesale of lumber
for himself at Ashland under the firm name of Kitchen & Wright, which firm
existed until 1897, when they dissolved partnership and Mr. Wright
continued until 1902 and then formed a partnership under the name of Giles
Wright Lumber Co., B. B. Fanning being Mr. Wright's partner in the concern,
which continued until 1906 and then incorporated into the Wright,
Saulsberry Lumber Co., which continued until 1910.
    On May 1, 1910, the Wright-Kitchen Lumber Co. was organized with a
paid up capital stock of $75,000 and with the following officers: Giles
Wright, President; J. H. Kitchen, Vice-President and C. J. Kitchen,
Secretary and Treasurer.  The business has developed from small beginnings
to its present proportions.  During its early days it made about $40,000 a
year and in 1910 showed an increase of over $200,000 and from shipments of
ten cars to sixty or seventy cars per month.  It operates an eight foot
single band mill at the Ashland plant, cutting thirty-five thousand feet
daily, making a specialty of Kentucky oak timbers, length up to forty
feet, and is one of the few mills equipped for such work, and employing
about fifty men.  This company owns timber land in the Big Sandy
district but by principally on the market.
     In politics Mr. Wright is a stanch Republican and in 1909 was a
candidate from his party to the state senate, the 32d senatorial district,
but a large opposition majority precluded his election.  In social
societies, he is a Mason, belonging to the Blue Lodge, Royal Arch Chapter,
the Commandery and Shrine, all at Ashland.  He married on September 27,
1891; Mollie Lee Kitchen, a native of Carter county, Kentucky, and a
daughter of Charles Kitchen, of whom a sketch is published elsewhere in
this work.  Mr. and Mrs. Wright are the parents of five children, four
of whom are living.  Their names are: Lena Mabel, who died at the age of
eleven years; Charles K.; Lauretta; Giles Edward; Mollie Lee.  Mrs.
Wright is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, South.

Wright Hilton Kitchen Fanning
=
Lawrence-KY Willard-Carter-KY Columbus-Franklin-OH Wise-VA

http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/boyd/wright.g.txt