Arthur A. Wright was born around 1845 in Ohio to Daniel H. Wright and Susan Porter. His father was a carpenter who owned $1,000 of real estate and $300 of personal property by 1860. He grew up and attended school in Freedom, Ohio. He enlisted in the Union army on May 2, 1864, and mustered in as a private in Company G of the 150th Ohio Infantry later that day. He died of disease in Washington, D.C., on August 21, 1864.