#52Ancestors Week 7 Romance: Zaida Dent Wright

#52 Ancestors Week 7 Romance: Zaida Dent Wright

Of all the people I have researched for my genealogy, Zaida (Ida) Dent Wright probably had the most adventurous and exciting life.

Zaida was the daughter of Hinton P. Wright, my 3X great-uncle, an Atlanta attorney,  and Marie Louise Robinson, daughter of a wealthy plantation owner. The excitement started even before Zaida was born when 20-year-old Hinton Wright killed Marie Robinson's brother, Edwin, in a duel (illegal) outside the local church in Newnan GA in 1869. Somehow the death was ruled accidental and Hinton escaped without serious damage. The couple then eloped and married against her parents' wishes.   Zaida was born in Atlanta GA in 1871, followed by a brother, Albert Spaulding Wright, in 1873.

Hinton Wright, the son of a prominent judge, William Felix Wright, seemed to have a promising career and was highly regarded in Atlanta's legal community. However, his career went downhill with accusations of bribery and Hinton became a drunkard and lost his position in the community.

Marie finally divorced him and took a job as a writer with the Sunny South, a literary magazine.  She eventually became a travelling correspondent for the New York World, where she became a celebrated writer, renowned for her travels in Central and South America.   Her 1890 illustrated book on Mexico was especially famous.  She represented The World at The World's Fair and the Paris Exhibition.  In 1893, accompanied by her son and daughter, she returned to Mexico for a comprehensive study of the country.

Because of Marie's travels, her daughter was well educated, a graduate of Vassar and spoke several languages.  She was also considered quite a beauty.  She accompanied her mother on a trip to Salvador in 1894, where she won the heart of General Antonio Ezetta,

the brother of Salvador's president and later the newly elected president.  Atlanta was abuzz with the news of their engagement and the fabulous upcoming wedding.  The Atlanta Constitution burbled effusively about the gowns, the jewels, and the general social brilliance of the affair which would take place in St. Patrick's Cathedral with the Cardinal officiating.

But alas!  It was not to be.  Antonio's brother decreed that he should marry none but a native Salvadoran or live in exile.  The engagement was broken, the fabulous jewels returned.  The General died in Panama in 1897, still unmarried.

Ida went on to marry a Boston doctor, Walter Ernest Seymour in 1897.  That marriage ended in divorce.  She married a second time in 1906 to actor Aubrey Beattie, a native of Nova Scotia, by whom she had one son, Albert Aubrey Beattie.

In the meantime, in the last years of his life, Ida's father, Hinton Wright found religion and ended his life as a preacher denouncing the evils of drink.  He married a second time in 1888 to May Bowen and had a daughter Lucille with her.  He died at a revival meeting in Marietta GA in 1892.

Ida's brother Albert died in El Paso TX in 1894.  Her mother died in Sullivan County NY in 1914.

Aubrey Beattie achieved some success as an actor appearing on stages throughout the United States and even made a few films in the early part of the century.  Ida died in a boarding house in Brooklyn NY in 1937.  Her husband Aubrey died in the King's County Hospital in Brooklyn in 1944, his stage and film career largely forgotten.  Both are buried in Kensico Cemetery in Westchester County NY in a plot paid for by the Actor's Fund.

So a life that seemed full of adventurous possibilities ended rather quietly in Brooklyn.

#52Ancestors Week 5: Census--John Marshall Dent

#52Ancestors Week 5: Census

A census entry led me to a trip to Georgia.

Just about all my direct ancestors were born in Maryland going back to the 1700's.  So, when I was researching my grandmother's family and found a census entry indicating that my great-grandfather, John Marshall Dent Jr., was born in Georgia, at first I thought it was a mistake since his family was from St. Mary's County MD for many generations back.  How did he get born in Georgia?

His father, John Marshall Dent Sr., born in St. Mary's County MD in 1844, left Maryland for Virginia at the start of the Civil War and served in the 1st Maryland Cavalry.  He retained the title of Colonel for the remainder of his life.  After the war, Dent went to Georgia where his Dent cousin, William Barton Wade Dent, had settled in Newnan GA.  JM Dent Jr. practiced law and also edited the local paper, The Newnan Herald, from 1874 to 1877.

In 1873, JM Dent married Ida Elizabeth Wright, the daughter of Judge William Felix Wright and Elizabeth Caroline Dent (a daughter of the aforementioned WBW Dent.)  In 1874, my great-grandfather, JM Dent Jr. was born in Newnan.  A second son, William Francis Dent, was born there in 1875.  In 1877, JM Dent Sr. left Georgia and returned to St. Mary's County MD where he and Ida had eight more children.  Ida Wright Dent died in St. Mary's County in 1925.  JM Dent Sr. died there in 1929.

All of this was interesting enough to me that I decided to take a trip to Georgia to see Newnan for myself.

I visited the Newnan Herald where the staff very kindly helped me do a search of the microfilmed papers from the era when I thought JM Dent had been the editor.  We discovered his farewell editorial from 1877 as well as announcement of JM's marriage in 1873.