Before the whole family moved to the Black River Country of
upstate New York in 1802, Captain Charles Wright’s sons, Charles Wright Jr.
aged twenty-six, and Tryrannus Augustus Wright, aged twenty-two, went first the
previous year, possibly to scout out a location for the family to live. In History of Lewis County, New York: with
illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and
pioneers by Benjamin F. Hough 1883, page 209, it is stated:
Of these children, Charles Wright
Jr., and Tyrannus A. came to the town of Denmark, Lewis County, in May, 1801,
from Colebrook, Conn. They came down the Black river from the High falls on a
raft, landing at the mouth of Deer river, then followed a line of marked trees
through the wilderness to their future home, situated a mile west of what is
now the village of Copenhagen. In the autumn of that year, they went back to
Connecticut, and in the following spring, with their parents and all of their
brothers and sisters, returned again to Denmark. They started from Colebrook
about the first of March, making the entire journey in four weeks with a sled
drawn by two ox teams. The entire family lived and died in the town of Denmark,
with the exception of Chester, who moved to Ohio.
Also accompanying them was Captain Charles’s brother Freedom
and many of his family members.
Captain Charles became part of the local militia in his new
home. He, and probably some or all of his sons, became embroiled in some
trouble with the military authorities. Hough, (pages 178 and 179), describes
the situation as follows:
In 1806, most of a militia
company at Copenhagen, failed to appear at a training, on account of some
grievance at the change of their captain, and were accordingly summoned to a
court martial, to be held at the inn of Andrew Mills, half a mile south of the
village, in January following. Their numbers inspired confidence in the belief
that the proceedings of the Court might be embarrassed or interrupted, and they
agreed upon a course of proceeding, perhaps natural, under the circumstances of
time and prevailing customs. Procuring a keg of spirits at a distillery, they
marched to the court, and then went up for trial, assigned whimsical reasons
for delinquency, alleging the want of decent clothing, short funds, the
existence of various infirmities, and other frivolous causes, tending to throw
ridicule upon the court, and rendering it necessary to order the arrest of the
greater number of the party. The prisoners were confined in the room over that
in which the court martial was held, and finally by their boisterous conduct,
compelled an adjournment without trial.
Hough continues:
The offending parties were
indicted for riot, and their trial came off at Doty’s tavern, in Martinsburgh,
but resulted in acquittal. The rioters had in the mean time prepared a song, The Keg and the Law, which recited
minutely the transaction, and when the county court had adjourned, after the
trial, this song was sung in the court room with great force and effect. The
presiding judge is said to have jocosely remarked, that if this had been sung
during the trial, witnesses would have been needless, as it embodied every fact
in the case. One year after, the anniversary of their acquittal was celebrated,
by an address, and the well remembered song was repeated. It was written by
Charles Wright, and a friend has furnished us with a written copy, as taken
down a half a century after, from the memory of one of the party. It consists
of twenty-four stanzas, and is entirely destitute of rhyme, poetical measure or
literary merit, although it might appear quite different in its appropriate
tune, now forgotten, or so changed as not to be applicable to the subject.
Would that I had a copy of The Keg and the Law! I would like to be the judge of its “literary
merit”. If you, gentle reader, have any idea if it is extant somewhere, I would
be grateful for this information.
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