11. Texas Pioneers

Long settled by Spain and Mexico, Texas became a more appealing frontier to Americans after President James Polk signed legislation making it a state on 29 Dec 1845. Meanwhile, smallpox and other diseases were beginning to subdue the fiery Commanches. John Bryant Jr's grandson Laban had arrived in Texas by 1850. Anthony’s grandson, Anthony Murray (photo above), arrived ca 1851-1853. Two of Austin’s grandsons (James Madison Bryant and Peyton Harrison Bryant) followed ca. 1854-5.

All of them initially settled on the south side of the Red River—the boundary between Texas and Oklahoma—in a row of three counties: Lamar was the farthest east, Fannin was in the middle, and Grayson held the west. It’s uncertain whether the descendants of the different Rock Island Creek Bryants knew their second cousins who were living in neighboring counties.

Before leaving Green Co, Ky, Anthony Murray had been a constable.[1] He settled on the eastern edge of Grayson County near Kentucky Town, which became a booming hamlet, although Indian raids continued to threaten settlers. Two of the letters Anthony wrote to friends and family still survive. The first was dated May 10, 1854 and was addressed to John Bloyd, Esqr, Green Co, Ky:

I received your kind letter dated Apr. 15th, which informed me that you and family was as well as usual and all went to the

election, which I was truly glad to hear. I wrote to you and also to Robert Graham, informing you of the sad and meloncholy

and the heart tendering event that took place on the 24th of March last [1853], the death of my wife [Clarissie Sympson].

I have met with difficulties and troubles I have thought sufficient to brake the heart of any man but this last affliction was

greater than all. To be left in a distant country with my little children is almost too much for a poor frail human nature to endure…

Anthony explained that typhoid fever had taken not only Clarissie but also a local doctor, one of his children, and a negro. He said, “Tell Jessie [his brother] I want him to write to me often. A letter from any of you affords me a world of pleasure. I live about 12 miles from old Collins McKinney[2] , he is now about 90 years of age and he is a pretty pert old man…I have 400 acres of as rich and pretty corn as I have ever saw in my life. The land about Lexington, Ky can’t beat this part of Texas…I have about $500.00 worth of cattle eating grass on the paries. You can tell them [folks in Kentucky] that any working man can do better with 3 months labor than in Kentucky on 12 months hard toil."

Anthony Murray’s sentiments about being able to get ahead in Texas were reiterated in a biographical sketch later written about his second cousin Laban Bryant:

He settled in Fannin county, and, with no capital but two willing hands and a large invoice of hope, he set about in the then

sparsely settled county to make a living for himself and family. He worked as a day laborer when he could get work to do,

and by industry and economy, managed to make a living, save a little ahead, and purchased a small place of his own after

a year or two's residence. This he improved and added to by subsequent purchases, sold and bought again, buying and selling

and exchanging as suited his convenience, until to-day he is the owner of six hundred acres, lying three mile north of Honey

Grove, in the "black waxy belt", and as good land as can be found anywhere in Fannin county. Four hundred acres of this he

has in a splendid state of cultivation, and the remainder in pasturage and hay land. He has always been a fancier of good

stock, and has at all times had some around him -- cattle, horses and hogs -- being now, also, interested in the Honey Grove

Land and Cattle Company, which has extensive interests in western Texas.[3]

Three decades passed before Anthony was reunited with his brother, Jesse Puryear Bryant, who had founded two churches and married hundreds of couples back in Kentucky. Click here for details. Finally, in November of 1877, Jesse obtained a letter of dismissal from South Fork Baptist Church. He packed his belongings and family (Mary Margaret, Jesse Ray, Sam, Bluford Emmett, Thomas, and baby Bruce born Sept 1877) into a covered wagon. After 49 days on rough rutted roads, the family arrived at Anthony’s home in January 1878. Jesse preached his first Texas sermon at the Kentucky Town Baptist Church on March 9, 1878.

On Oct 24, 1878, Jesse purchased 425 acres at the western edge of Grayson Co. near Sadler. He later sold 80 acres of the property to H. B. Sanborn, a promoter of barbed wire who had begun accumulating land in the area for several years. His ranch near Sadler was the first in Texas to be entirely fenced with barbed wire, contributing to the decline of open range operations. Jesse moved his family to another nearby property adjacent to the Sadler Cemetery.

Brothers Jesse and Anthony had a friendly rivalry. A Kentucky visitor and relative, T. J. Poteet,[4] said that he heard Anthony introduce Jesse as follows: “He is Baptist and Democrat. You can judge his intelligence accordingly.” Anthony Murray was a Republican and Methodist.

Jesse continued to serve as a minister until his death on May 8, 1886. He was buried in the rear of Sadler Cemetery in Grayson Co, sharing a marker with Rosa L. Bryant.[5]

Anthony was appointed judge of Grayson Co and served two years. He also served as a delegate to the convention that framed the Constitution of Texas and made an unsuccessful race for Congress on the Republican ticket. During the Civil War, he was a staunch opponent of succession. His 1889 biographical sketch (see footnote 2) stated: “…he now owns 1000 acres and has one of the finest farms in the State, with a large, handsome dwelling and various other improvements and adornments and where he makes a specialty of raising mules.”

Anthony died in 1889 on his farm, killed by a runaway team of mules hitched to a wagon. For more about Anthony Murray click here

Only one child of his first marriage to Clarissa Young survived into adulthood—David E. Bryant. Anthony had more children with Susan Brinkley, originally of Tennessee: Charles W. Bryant, Columbus B. Bryant, and Mary Bryant. (Another son, James Monroe, went to Centre College in Danville, Kentucky where he died.)

[1] According to the Kentucky State Register for the year 1847.

[2] See this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collin_McKinney

[3] Excerpt from "Biographical Souvenir of the State of Texas.” Chicago: F.A. Battey and Company, 1889.

[4] Obit of a likely descendant: Dr. T. J. Poteet, 69 years of age, died at his home at Hodgenville Saturday of a heart attack. He was a prominent physician there and landowner for 45 years. A native of Green County, he is well known here and is the brother of Mrs. Cora Moss here. Besides his wife, he leaves three other sisters: Mrs. Henrietta Risen, Hooker, Okla.; Mrs. Frank Risen, Cave City; and Mrs. D. E. McClure, Elizabethtown. ~The News-Journal, Thursday, May 30, 1946

[5] Over 125 years later, Jesse Puryear Bryant's gravestone, made of sand cast zinc, still looks new. These markers were made by the Monumental Bronze Company of Bridgeport, CT, between 1874 and 1914. They are in cemeteries of that period all across the U.S. and Canada. They were sold as more durable than marble, about a third less expensive and progressive. Jesse's marker prominently displays a protractor, a freemasonry symbol.