Lucien B. Wright. Among the men who have won leading positions at the bar of Creek County because of the possession of intellectual qualifications, logical understanding, keenness of perception and acquaintance with jurisprudence, is found Lucien B. Wright, junior member of the firm of Odell & Wright, at Sapulpa. Mr. Wright was born at Boonville, Cooper County, Missouri, December 22, 1871, and is a son of Thomas B. and Martha E. (Williams) Wright.

Joseph Wright, the paternal grandfather of Lucien B. Wright, was born in Tennessee, in 1799, and as a young man moved to Iowa, subsequently going to Missouri, where the rest of his life was passed. He had farms in various communities of that state, lived for a time in Chariton County, and finally went to Howard County, located on a New Madrid claim, and there died in 1879. Among his children was Thomas B. Wright, who was born in Howard County, Missouri, in September, 1841. He grew up as a farmer in Missouri and when the Civil war came on enlisted in the Union army as lieutenant in command of Company B, Fifth Regiment, Missouri Volunteer Infantry, in which he rose to regimental adjutant and established an excellent record as a soldier. At the close of his military service he took up the study of law, became a prominent legist of Boonville, Missouri, and for a number of years served as mayor and city attorney. He died in September, 1896, one of his community’s prominent and influential citizens. Mr. Wright married Martha E. Williams, who was born in Virginia, in August, 1843, a daughter of Dr. Gustavus A. Williams, a well known surgeon of his day, and a granddaughter of the. Hon. Jefferson Williams, who was for many years congressman from his district in Virginia. She was sixteen years of age when she accompanied her parents to Missouri and there the rest of her life was passed, her death occurring in August, 1909. Mr. and Mrs. Wright were the parents of two children: Lucien B.; and Alice, who is the wife of Schooling Chapline and resides at Kansas City, Missouri.

After graduating from the Boonville High School, in 1886, Lucien B. Wright entered Kemper Military School, at Boonville, completing his course there in 1888. He next became a student at Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Virginia, where he was duly graduated in 1890, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and, returning to his home, took up the study of law in the office and under the preceptorship of his father. In 1896 Mr. Wright was admitted to the bar at Boonville and there entered upon his career. He was successful in attracting to himself a very desirable practice, and also won the confidence of the public, his fellow-citizens electing him city attorney and justice of the peace on several occasions. Also, while practicing his profession, he acted as editor of the Boonville Advertiser for several years. In 1906 Mr. Wright left Boonville and spent one year in old Mexico, and in 1907 took up his residence in Oklahoma, at Tulsa. Soon, however, he changed his scene of activity to Sapulpa, where, in 1910, he formed a partnership with William H. Odell, under the firm style of Odell & Wright, which has since grown to be a formidable combination in legal affairs. The firm maintains offices in the First National Bank Building and carries on a general law practice, having on its books the names of many of the leading firms of the city. Mr. Wright is a man of strong, clear intellect and uses intelligibility and good sense in presenting his cases, and his tenacity of purpose and power of application have aided him signally in his work before the courts. While he has devoted himself whole-heartedly to his profession, he has found time to take an interest in political and public affairs, in connection with which he has been a member of the democratic county committee since his arrival in Creek County, was its chairman for several years, and in 1914 became the candidate of the democratic party for a seat in the Legislature, but failed of election because of the large republican majority in Creek County.

Mr. Wright was married in 1897 to Miss Elizabeth Surkey, a native of Marshall, Missouri, and they have two children: Catherine Elizabeth and Lucien B., Jr.