A.J. Wright (1819-1889) originally from Newton County, Missouri married Elizabeth Nutt, a sister of Jesse, Jake, Abe and David Lee Nutt. He and Elizabeth migrated to Johnson County (now Hood) along with numerous relatives sometime around 1860. Many of these earliest settlers squatted on the land that would later become Granbury and eventually purchased their homestead properties from Milam County. He was engaged at various times in cotton farming, stock raising, cattle drives and the mercantile business. At the outbreak of the Civil War Wright returned to Missouri and served as a captain in the Confederate Army. He survived the war and returned to Texas and when Hood County was organized in 1866, Wright was elected sheriff. However, state authorities under the Military Government of Reconstruction would not permi a former Confederate officer to serve in elected office, but tradition states that the appointed sheriff named A.J. Wright his chief deputy and promptly went back to farming. In 1867, Wright’s first wife Elizabeth Nutt Wright died and he married again in 1871 to Miss Margaret Bond, It was at this time that Wright hired local builder William Trawick to construct a stone house on the outskirts of town. He retired and moved to Coleman County sometime before his death in 1889.
