New headstone spurs gravesite tribute to early son of Islip

In the winter of 1863, a 21-year-old farmer from Islip traveled to New York City to enlist with Union forces. 

The farmer, Frederick Wright Jr., whose father and brother also fought in the Civil War, marched on Richmond, Virginia. with his regiment, helped pursue Confederate troops and aided in the capture of critical supplies during the war, said Islip Town historian George Munkenbeck. 

Wright survived the war but 130 years after his death in 1889, his grave at Bay Shore’s Oakwood Cemetery remained unmarked — a problem recently remedied by the Historical Society of Islip Hamlet. On Sunday, the group held a ceremony at the cemetery to commemorate the placement of a military headstone for one of Islip's early sons, complete with Civil War re-enactors and Wright family descendants.

Rob Finnegan, a registered historian and a member of the historical society, discovered Wright's gravesite while conducting an ancestral search of Frederick Wright Jr. for research on a book on the Wright family of Islip.

Last year's publication of a series of letters on the historical society website, penned by Wright's father to his wife while serving in the Union army, sparked renewed local interest in the family's history. The letters were discovered in a shoebox in Rhode Island and according to historians, are a unique find that offers insight into the daily life of a soldier in service with the 2nd New York Cavalry.

Paul Perryman and his sister Claudia Kepner, both descendants of the Wright family, "donated the letters to the historical society. So as a result of that, we were doing research to publish a book on the Wrights … and we found out that he was buried here, but there was no marker,” Finnegan said. 

In May, Finnegan applied to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for a military headstone, which was placed at Wright's grave in mid-October. Finnegan verified the location with Town of Islip records as part of his research preceding the application process. 

The Historical Society of Islip Hamlet has embarked on a mission to restore the headstones of other Wright family members in Oakwood Cemetery, many of whom are buried without markers, Finnegan said.

The society is applying for grants to reconstruct and stabilize the headstones of Phoebe Wright and Frederick Wright Sr., as well as other historic headstones that have broken over the years at Oakwood Cemetery. 

“And if we find someone who is buried here that doesn’t have a marker, we'll certainly go through the same process that we did with Frederick Wright Jr.,” he said.

There are a number of reasons why gravestones might fall into disrepair over the years, said Catherine Romano, president of the Historical Society of Islip Hamlet. 

“What tends to happen in cemeteries is, as families age out and the maintenance of cemeteries was evolving in priority, sometimes the stones get destroyed by" weathering, or they might fall into disrepair as descendants move from the area, she said. 

“It’s really important to pay attention to history because when you lose [it], you lose a whole story of why we are, who we are, where we are,” Romano added. “I think that’s really important.”

Paul Perryman drove nearly four hours from his home in Rhode Island to be at the ceremony. He said he hadn't been aware of this chapter in his family history until maybe around 2015.

“It's pretty cool. And there's a lot of people who really do care about the history of things. We don't want that to fade away,” he said.

By Brianne Ledda

brianne.ledda@newsday.com

Brianne Ledda covers the Town of Islip for Newsday. She previously covered Southold and Greenport for The Suffolk Times and is a graduate of Stony Brook University.