Traveling on South Street in Coventry, about two hundred yards past the homestead of Nathan Hale, one catches sight of a granite marker on the left hand side of the road. This marker, erected in 1937 by George Dudley Seymour, recognizes the homestead of Asher Wright.

Asher Wright was the fourth son of Nathaniel and Irene (Sprague) Wright who owned the 80-acre farm abutting the property of Richard Hale, the father of Nathan Hale. Asher Wright was born in August of 1754 and Nathan Hale was born in June of 1755. Being close both in age and proximity, they grew up as boyhood friends, playmates and schoolmates.

Following the beginning of the Revolutionary War, Asher was recruited by Nathan Hale and presumably went off with him as a member of his company, going on to New York in April of 1776. Asher Wright replaced Hale's first waiter or orderly who had fallen ill of a fever. Asher continued in the role of orderly until the time that Hale entered upon his fateful spy mission. After a few days of anguishing suspense for Asher, Nathan's capture and fate became known; a crushing blow, but Asher "carried on" and it is recorded that he took part in the Battles of White Plains (October 28, 1776) and Trenton (December 25, 1776). It was in February 1777, that Asher was discharged from any further military service.

Following his return from the War, "acquainted with grief," Asher sustained his earthly pilgrimage some sixty-eight years longer. "Poor Asher," as he was known, represented a tragic if obscure figure in the countryside. The tradition is that Asher could rarely be induced - and then never without weeping - to speak of his friend. It is with some pleasure that one reads that Nathan Hales' family always befriended Asher.

Asher Wright passed away on June 20, 1844 at age 90. Asher had never married and was laid to rest only a few yards beyond the grave of his friend Nathan in the Hale cemetery in Coventry. Their graves lay in sight of the "Great Pond" where as boys they so often swam and fished together.

Following the death of Asher, his one-half share of the homestead was conveyed to his niece, Betsy Lincoln. Betsy passed away in 1851 and the property where Asher was born, raised and lived passed through a number of different owners. In 1914, the Honorable George Dudley Seymour of New Haven purchased the Hale farm and surrounding property that included the Wright homestead. When George Seymour passed away in 1945, his last will and testament called for the distribution of a large portion of his property to the State of Connecticut. Much of this land today comprises the Nathan Hale State Forest.

References:
Documentary Life of Nathan Hale, by George Dudley Seymour, published in 1941
Willimantic Chronicle, dated January 26, 1938

Webmaster's Addendum: Recently (Dec. 2022) it was brought to our attention that the term "grave" in the fifth paragraph above (beginning with "Asher Wright passed away on June 20, 1844 at age 90."), while correct symbolically or emotionally, is in fact a misnomer. Hale was indeed hanged for espionage, but he was buried in an unmarked grave. His body has never been found. An empty grave cenotaph (a monument to someone buried elsewhere) was erected by his family in Nathan Hale Cemetery in South Coventry, Connecticut. It's the grave cenotaph which Asher's grave is near.