Linking Vasper Leo Wright to his daughter Iris Wright Using Genealogical Records
Trigger Warning: Family Violence, Emotional Abuse, Physical Abuse, Mental Abuse, Incest, Childhood Abuse, Sexual Assault, Substance Use and Abuse. Please do not continue if any of the above topics trigger you.
Method
The method I used to find out if Iris Wright was Vasper Leo Wrights daughter and that V.L. Wright was, in fact, my great grandfather Vasper was focusing on the relationships found in the Supreme Court analysis document as well as the 1940 U.S. Federal Census where Iris was a niece living with the Bailey's. I took into consideration documents that might corroborate or contradict the notion that these were my family members.
The Small Clip that Started it All
As iterated in the previous blog, the clip above started me down a genealogical rollercoaster I never thought I would go down [1]. I was not ignorant to the fact that my great grandfather had been abusive and that I would more than likely find more evidence of his abuses but incest was not on my radar. After all, nobody in my family ever iterated such a story. Nobody spoke of a daughter. Nobody spoke of sexual abuse. As the paper trail mounted and names began to turn into relationships that then turned into evidence of my great grandfather’s sexual abuses of his own daughter, I found that I needed to piece as much of this puzzle together as possible to better process the information.
When I first saw this article, my heart dropped. Could this be my Vasper Leo Wright? The initials were right, the location was right, but I had never heard even a whisper of such an incident. To my knowledge, Vasper had all boys, not that that precludes such an incident, but I needed to know more, so I continued looking on newspapers.com.
The Paper Trail
The next article I found was “Two More Writs,” published 23 Aug 1946 in the Raleigh Register. I knew there was a verdict, and he was sentenced to five to 10 years for incest of his daughter…. [2]. His daughter…This information really made me question whether I had the right individual as I never heard mention of a daughter. As annoyed as I was that no article spelled his name out, I was even more troubled when I found the victim’s name in the next newspaper article I found.
The next article I found was “Writ of Error in Criminal Course Granted” published in the Beckley Post Herald on 22 Nov. 1946 made my heart leap. If this was, in fact, my ancestor, the conviction must not have been uphold. Not being an attorney, I did not fully understand what this statement meant a Writ of Error was accepted by the court for review but still must be argued to the appellate court to see if the claims can justifiably overturn a guilty verdict. This article would present me with V.L.’s daughter’s name, Iris [3]. A quick cursory search of her name on newspapers.com did not return anything of note.
I needed to know if this was my great grandfather and his daughter, Iris, a name I had never heard. The first thing I did was complete a thorough google search of the court case. I submitted a request for records from the Raleigh County Criminal Court Clerk’s office but received no response as of writing this on October 18, 2023.
A few years after stopping and starting this particular research again, I took the time to complete a google search and there was a hit. I learned through the process that every writ of error that is granted goes through the appellate court’s process. I was able to find a document on Vlex, State v. Wright 9907, 43 S.E.2d 295 that explained each argument in the writ of error and why it was not substantial enough to overturn the guilty conviction. It also gave some insight into the particulars of the case. From this document, we learn that Susie Wright, sister-in-law to Vasper, writes a letter to the police department alleging V.L. Wright was having intercourse with his daughter, Iris Wright. This piece of information would be pivotal to linking V.L. Wright and Iris to Vasper Leo Wright and a once unknown daughter, Iris Wright [4].
TThe infographic above organizes the information found in this document as it pertains to the case. Iris testified that on the day of questioning, she was 15 years old. She further testified that he had sexual intercourse several times with her over a period of approximately 2 years. It appears that they did not have stable living conditions as they had lived in Fayette County, McDowell County, Mercer County and Raleigh County during this period. The two advocates in Iris’s corner were her Aunt Susie Wright, Vasper’s sister-in-law, and Mrs. Wood who owned a boarding house in Kaymoor where Vasper and Iris stayed for a month in 1944. Mrs, Wood testified that Vasper and Iris roomed together and one of the “beds would be wet and that ‘the doors were locked.’” After Susie received a summons from the state, her husband asked who she would be swearing for and stated he would burn the summons. He then burnt the summons and proceeded to beat her. If Susie is Vasper’s sister-in-law, then she must be married to Vasper’s brother if this was, in fact, vasper. According to the summary, there were a number of witnesses who testified to the good character of Iris [4].
As for the arguments on behalf the defendant, Maude Rierson, defendant’s sister, and Leo Wright, his son, testified that on the night Mrs. Wood testified to the wet beds, Maude was sleeping in the bed with Iris and Leo was in bed with Vasper. I knew Vasper had a son named Leo so this further peaked my interest. At this time, I had never heard of Maude Rierson but now had another possible person to track down. The defense also had a number of people testify on the defendant’s behalf [4].
Understanding the Appeal
When I first began reading about the Writ of Error and Appeal, the language in the articles led me to believe, in my plebian eyes, that his case was overturned. Verbiage like granted and affirmed out of the context of the documents were positive in nature. However, after reading through all the documents, I realized the original conviction was upheld and V.L. Wright was guilty of incest [4]. V.L. Wright was to complete his time in the W.V. State Penitentiary for no less than 5 and no more than 10 years.
Putting it All Together
Having never heard the names Iris, Susie or Maude, I was not sure that V.L. Wright was Vasper Leo Wright. While the location and time period of the incidents fit well enough into the framework of the Vasper Leo Wright I had grown to know, nothing outside of this court case had relayed information about a daughter or a convicted sexual assault. Why would I have so many stories about his abuses, but this was hidden? Would a separate lines be drawn between sexual, emotional and physical abuses?
I had never been able to find Vasper and Annie on the 1940 Census. His son’s Leo and Percy were listed as “inmates” at the Mercer County Poor Farm. Now, I had another name to attempt to use, Iris. Low and behold, Iris Wright is located in the 1940 census living with John W. Bailey, Annie M. Bailey and Ralph B Baily. Her relation to the head of household is listed as niece. She is 9 years old and had an estimated birth year of 1931, which makes sense as to why she was not listed on the 1930 census with Leo and her parents. I knew Vasper’s children were taken for nonsupport, so it was not surprising child services would try to place with relatives before sending the children to an orphanage or other such care facility [5]. Even today, kinship care is preferable to group home placements.
John W. Bailey and Annie M. Baily would seemingly be her aunt and uncle as she is listed as being a niece of the head of household on the 1940 census [5]. I was perplexed because the only Annie in Vasper’s line was his wife, Annie Thorn and I was unaware of a connection to the last name Bailey. How could the above be related? I began my search by going to Ancestry.com and putting in everything I knew from the 1940 census [5]. Since Ancestry does not allow you to create a tree within a tree without a relationship established, I initially set the fabricated relationship as being Vasper’s grandfather, which was obviously not true but allowed me to attach this information to the tree within Ancestry. Once filled in and attached, I removed this relationship, leaving this as a floating branch of the tree with the hopes that finding the relationship between the Bailey’s and Vasper would add another evidential piece that would either prove or disprove my hypothesis that V.L. Wright was Vasper Leo Wright and Iris was Vasper and Annie’s Daughter.
Based on the information above that was gathered from U.S. Federal Censuses from 1900 to 1950 [5,6,7,8,9,10], the only piece of negative information about this being the correct John W. Bailey was found in the age discrepancy of a John W. Bailey in the 1930 census [6]. I believe it to have been an error on the census takers’ part as all other census information corroborates a date of birth for John W. Bailey within 1 year of 1865. How were John W. Bailey and Annie related to Iris though?
I went to the website that houses old vital records for the state of West Virginia and attempted to find the surnames of John’s two wives. I entered Bailey for the groom’s last name and Martha for the bride’s first name. Sure enough, there she was, Martha E. Murphy. Now, it was time to see if any further information could be gleaned off this record. According to the Marriage license John W. Bailey married Miss Martha E. Murphy on 1st September 1884 in Wyoming County, West Virginia. Unfortunately, their parents were not listed on the marriage license [11].
Annie’s and John’s marriage record lookup was not as simple. I put in the information I knew about each of them and found no marriage on the West Virginia site or on Ancestry.com. After looking back at the census data, I realized I either had her maiden name or, more than likely, her name from her first marriage as her children kept the Hicks last name in the 1930 census [6]. I tried the bride’s first name, "Annie" and added the last name Hicks and started a new search. None of the indexed responses fit the known information.
I then went back to Ancestry.com and added the last name hicks as another husband to Annie and searched the marriage database and received an index hit that looked promising. From that information, I was able to go back to wvculture.org/vrr and look up the last name hicks with a marriage in Mercer County. I noticed Annie’s name was different on this record as being recorded as "Anna" but the location and marriage date made sense based upon what I knew about John W. and Annie Bailey from the census records.
Chas Hicks married Anna Hall in mercer county in 1910. The link on wvculture.org/vrr took me to a Register of Marriages. The register dated their marriage as 12 September 1910 [16]. Anna Hall was listed as being 19 on this date, having been born around 1890. Checking back with her age based on the 1940 and 1950 census’s, we see that she was born around 1890, which fit [9 and 17]. The location also fit.
Chas Hicks married Anna Hall in mercer county in 1910. The link on wvculture.org/vrr took me to a Register of Marriages. The register dated their marriage as 12 September 1910 [12]. Anna Hall was listed as being 19 on this date, having been born around 1890. Checking back with her age based on the 1940 and 1950 census’s, we see that she was born around 1890, which fit [5 and 7].
Now, it was time to do some more digging and see how the pair were related to Iris Wright if, in fact, I even had the right people. The information on the Wright side lined up so well with the court document, but I still sought more collaborative evidence. I began my investigation into linking John W. Bailey and “Annie Hall” with the Wright and Thorn Families. After researching census data, birth, and death records, there was no immediate recognizable relationship between John W. Bailey and Iris Wright. There was no evidence of John W. Bailey being related to the Wrights or Thorns.
After finding the last name Hall as indexed on the West Virginia U.S. Marriage Index, 1785 -1971, I was able to finally find the missing link. I already knew that Vasper’s mom’s maiden name was Mary Effie Hall, so I began looking even closer at her family. There she was in a census I had linked to Mary Effie’s Ancestry Profile. Anna Hall lived with Mary Effie Hall and her parents John and Rhoda Hall according to the 1900 U.S. Federal Census in Beaver Pond, Mercer, West Virginial. I finally found that extra bit of evidence I had been searching for. Annie M. Hall was Mary Effie’s sister, making her Iris’s Grand Aunt and Iris, John W. Bailey’s Grand niece [14].
V.L. Wright was, in fact, my great grandfather who had a daughter that he molested for no less than 3 years. Please see the relationship chart below based on Annie Hall’s relationship to Iris.
Iris was the daughter of my great grandfather, Vasper Leo Wright. Having been able to show this relationship via genealogical documentation, I was now curious to find out if there was anything I could find about her in her later years. Finding Iris - Her Later Years will be continued in Blog 7.
Sources
Sources
[1] “Vasper Indictment,” The Raleigh Register, Beckley, WV, 20 Jan 1946, News. Digital Images, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-raleigh-register/6779362/">https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-raleigh-register/6779362/), citing original p. 5.
[2] “Two More Writs,” The Raleigh Register, Beckley, WV, 23 Aug 1946, News. Digital Images, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-raleigh-register/25686749/), citing original p. 2.
[3] “Writ of Error in Criminal Court Case Is Granted,” Beckley Post Herald, 22 Nov 1946, News. Digital Images, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/article/beckley-post-herald-iris-wright/38862045/), citing original p. 1.
[4] Westlaw. State v. Wright, 130 W. Va. 336, 43 S.E.2d 295 (1947). Digital Copy. Accessed 5 September 2023.
[5] Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012. Year: 1940; Census Place: Beaver Pond, Mercer, West Virginia; Roll: m-t0627-04428; Page: 2A; Enumeration District: 28-23. Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1940. T627, 4,643 rolls.
[6] Ancestry.com. 1930 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2002. Year: 1930; Census Place: Beaver Pond, Mercer, West Virginia; Page: 14A; Enumeration District: 0012; FHL microfilm: 2342280. Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Fifteenth Census of the United States, 1930. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1930. T626, 2,667 rolls.
[7] Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2004. Year: 1900; Census Place: Barkers Ridge, Wyoming, West Virginia; Roll: 1776; Page: 9; Enumeration District: 0139 Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Twelfth Census of the United States, 1900. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1900. T623, 1854 rolls.
[8] Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006. Year: 1910; Census Place: Barkers Ridge, Wyoming, West Virginia; Roll: T624_1698; Page: 3a; Enumeration District: 0198; FHL microfilm: 1375711. Original data: Thirteenth Census of the United States, 1910 (NARA microfilm publication T624, 1,178 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C.
[9] Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Year: 1920; Census Place: Barkers Ridge, Wyoming, West Virginia; Roll: T625_1966; Page: 11A; Enumeration District: 169. Original data: Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920. (NARA microfilm publication T625, 2076 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C.
[10] Ancestry.com. 1950 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2022.National Archives at Washington, DC; Washington, D.C.; Seventeenth Census of the United States, 1950; Year: 1950; Census Place: Beaver Pond, Mercer, West Virginia; Roll: 3084; Page: 27; Enumeration District: 28-36 Original data: Department of Commerce. Bureau of the Census. 1913-1/1/1972. Population Schedules for the 1950 Census, 1950 - 1950. Washington, DC: National Archives at Washington, DC.
[11] West Virginia Register of Marriages [database on-line]. West Virginia Department of Arts, Culture and History Online Database Charleston, WV 2021. Accessed 5 Oct 2023 https://archive.wvculture.org/vrr/va_select.aspx.
[12] West Virginia Register of Marriages [database on-line]. West Virginia Department of Arts, Culture and History Online Database Charleston, WV 2021. Accessed 5 Oct 2023. https://archive.wvculture.org/vrr/va_mcresults.aspx?GroomsLastName=hicks& GroomsFirstName=&BridesLastName=&BridesFirstName=annie&County=All&Year=All&PlusMinus=Exact&Search=Exact&NumRec=25
[13] West Virginia Register of Marriages [database on-line]. West Virginia Department of Arts, Culture and History Online Database Charleston, WV 2021. Accessed 5 Oct 2023. https://archive.wvculture.org/vrr/va_view.aspx?Id=12146596&Type=Marriage.
[14] Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2004. Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Twelfth Census of the United States, 1900. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1900. T623, 1854 rolls.Year: 1900; Census Place: Beaver Pond, Mercer, West Virginia; Roll: 1766; Page: 11; Enumeration District: 0076
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