According to the 1860 federal census, Julia Wright was born in New York in the early 1850s. In the 1860 federal census she was listed as a niece, living with William S. and Rebecca B. Hollensworth Cleggett and their family in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. Here all members of the family were identified as mulatto.
Julia was the daughter of Festus Wright, also born in New York. Her mother was Julia G. Hollensworth, a sister of Rebecca B. Hollensworth Cleggett.
The paragraph on the left hints at a tragic story: after the mother Julia G. died, it's likely the two other children, like Julia A., were sent to live with relatives. The 1860 Tioga County, New York federal census schedule (August 2, 1860) has a 40 year old Festus Wright living back in the Sawyer household without his children.
from Leroy W. Kingman, ed., Our County and Its People:
A Memorial History of Tioga County, New York
Elmira, N.Y.: W.A. Fergusson, [1897?]
In the 1870 census Julia is back in New York living with her father and his second wife Elizabeth. She attended Howard University and by 1880 was listed as a school teacher. Julia A. Wright's 1925 Cook County Illinois death record lists her as a black domestic worker living in Chicago.
