Willis O. Bryant

Squire Bates Bryant, son of Willis Bryant and Bardny Bates, with his family

Here is a summary of Willis O. Bryant's family:

Willis b. 1800-02 in Buckingham co, Va. m. Bardny Bates ca 1823 d. 1851-3 in Pulaski Co, Mo.[1]

Bardny Bates b. ca 1803 in Ky m. ca 1823 d. 1858-9 in Pulaski Co, Mo (Probable DOB of 1803-5 based on research below)

1. William b. ca 1824 in Ky m. Rachel Self ca 1844 d. ca 1858-9.[2] (Possibly named for William Price, Willis' brother)

2. David P. b. 1827 (probably in Mo.) m. Mariah (possibly Bridges) ca 1849 d. bef. 15 Sept 1862.[3] (Named for his uncle, Willis' brother)

3. James Madison b. ca 1829 in Mo m. cousin Elizabeth Higgins (Daughter of Willis' sister Nancy S.) 14 Sept 1848 in Hendricks Co., Ind. d. 1858-9 [4]

4. Rhoda B. b. ca 1834 in Mo. m. Robert B. Hawkins in 1852 or early 1853 d. 28 Jan 1858 (Named for Willis' mom) [5]

5. Jasper A. b. ca 1837 in Mo. m. Susannah ca 1858 d. aft. 1860[6]

6. Squire Bates b. 7 Oct 1841 in Mo. m. Nancy Matilda Jane Hart 13 July 1866 d. 22 Feb 1920 in Phelps, Mo. (Named for brother of Bardny.)

Willis in Missouri

Willis and his 3 older brothers did a reconnaissance trip from Ky to Mo in 1822 or early 1823. His oldest brother, David P., died on the trip and was buried on the Gasonade River--or died shortly after his return to Ky. (His death in 1823 is proven but the location is uncertain due to conflicting family stories.) Willis returned to Ky for a short period of time where his likely first son William was b. ca 1824.

Soon thereafter, Willis migrated to Missouri with his newlywed sister (Millie W.) and her husband (William Adams). They were almost certainly accompanied by a group of neighbors[7] from Washington Co, Ky. The move probably took place ca Aug 1825. Milly's daughter reported that her parents didn't stay long because "there was so much chills and fever and snakes there." The Adams family had already moved on to Illinois by 1826, when their first daughter was born in Illinois.

Willis was listed enumerated on a 1828 list of Gasconade Co. residents. The list was partly intended to identify men who had been promised land by the Daniel Boone family for working their Missouri mines.[8]

Willis and Bardny lived in Crawford Co. at the time of the 1830 census and in Pulaski Co. for the 1840 and 1850 censuses. Due to the flux of emergent counties, they probably lived in exactly the same place. Initially, Willis acquired 40 acres in Sec. 11 T37-N R10-W 5th PM Meridian. There is no record of when the land was acquired, but it was platted in 1837. In 1831, he purchased an adjacent 80 acres, which was listed in the Jackson Abstract in 1839 and platted in 1841. The location of these properties, including Bryant Cemetery, is near the Casconade River just northwest of Jerome, Mo. This area became part of Phelps Co, Mo. in Nov. 1857.

Willis' brother Richard B moved to Mo. ca 1835. In the 1840 census, the brothers were listed about 3 pages apart. Sometime in the 1840s, Willis purchased another 40 acres about 1.5-2 miles south southwest of his original homestead. In 1850, the brothers were living next door to each other in Dist. 72 of Pulaski. Richard B. died in 1855.

Due to multiple fires in the Pulaski courthouse, there are a lot of holes in data. One consequence is that we can't pinpoint the year Willis died. Most likely it was before 1854, because there is no probate record for him in extant county records for 1854-1859. Sadly, Willis was probably dead by the time his only surviving brother, William P., finally made a brief move to Missouri in 1856-7.

Bardny died after Nov. 1857 (no probate record for her in Pulaski) and before 1859 (claim filed against her estate in the Phelps Co.) The claimant appears to have been James Pryor Harrison, a local physician. That gives us an estimated DOD of 1858-9 for Bardny. Interestingly, two other members of the Bryant family died 1858-9, pointing to a possible epidemic. (There was a worldwide influenza epidemic from 1857 to 1859.)

Both Willis and Bardny were almost certainly buried at Bryant Farm Cemetery. A 1942 survey of the cemetery listed 13 graves with inscribed headstones plus an additional 8-10 graves with unmarked stones. The earliest surviving headstone was for their daughter Rhoda Bryant who died in 1858. Marked graves from the 1860s: a young woman who may have been a daughter of Robert B. Duncan, Sarah H. Small, and Martha E. Jones. In the 1870s, three Cases were buried in the cemetery plus Rhoda's husband and the father-in-law of Squire Bates. In 1885, a gravestone was erected for a son of Squire Bates. The last surviving marker was 1896 for the wife of Squire Bates.

Who exactly was Bardny?

No doubt, Bardny was one heck of a woman. In 1850, there were 4 young females in Pulaski Co who appear to have been named for her. The youngest was her granddaughter Bardney A. Bryant (infant) by son James M. Next was a Bardney M. Duncan (10) living in a Jackson household. John Burrell Duncan and his wife Polly Bates had a daughter named Bardney M. Duncan (11). Finally, there was a Bardny Bates (18) living with a brother of John Burrell Duncan.

John Burrell Duncan m. Polly Bates

Some people have glanced at the naming pattern above, noticed that the Bryants had a young Thomas B. Duncan living with them in 1850 (in addition to two other children that were not theirs), and abruptly decided that Bardny was a Duncan--specifically a sibling of John Burrell Duncan. However, we can rule that out for 3 reasons: 1) The father of John Burrell Duncan left a will that listed all daughters by their married names. Bardny Bryant was not listed. He did include a "Bardney M. Duncan," suggesting a daughter who was a child or an unmarried woman. By process of elimination, this was the girl living in the Jackson household. 2) Bardny Bryant stated that she was born in 1803 in Ky. (A son confirmed her POB in 1880, 1900, and 1910.) This Duncan group was in SC at that time. 3) The oldest son of Willis and Bardny stated that he was b. in Ky ca 1824. This Duncan group was in Mo at that time; they never lived in Ky.

Clearly, the Bryants had a relationship with John Burrell Duncan. (After all, Thomas B. Duncan was one of his younger siblings; they were about a generation apart.) The relationship can be explained by the fact that Bardny was a Bates and so was the wife of John Burrell Duncan. Both were daughters of Matthew Bates.

The Matthew Bates Family

We believe the data robustly supports that Bardny was born a Bates, sister of Polly. Here's the proof: The Bates family was in Ky by 1802-3, because a son Larkin was born then. In the 1820 census, Matthew Bates and his sons (James and Squire) were ennumerated very close to Widow Rhoda Bryant and her unmarried children, including Willis. Matthew and his wife Judith Earle had one girl under 10 and 2 girls 10-15 (1805-1810). Trees show only 3 daughters. The oldest was Elizabeth who married John Sprowls in 1816, so she was not listed in the 1820 census. That means all of the Matthew Bates trees are missing one daughter of approximately Bardny's age. Furthermore, we know the Bryants and Bates family were close for these reasons: 1) In Washington Co, Squire Bates provided security for the marriage of one of Willis sisters. 2) Also in Washington Co., Vicey Bates, daughter of Matthew, married William Mann, who was related to the Bryants by marriage. 3) Nancy Bates, daughter of Squire, married John Bluford Mann Jr., the son of Sarah Bryant Mann. 4) Matthew and James Bates moved to Mo about the same time as Willis and were listed with him in the 1828 Gasconade tax list. In fact, a group of neighboring families (see footnote 7) all appear to have moved to Mo. together. 4) Willis and Bardny named a child "Squire Bates Bryant," for a Bates that never moved to Missouri; in fact, the naming occurred about 15 years after Willis left Kentucky. All this comes close to meeting the genealogical proof standard that Bardny was a Bates.

Neighbors John Duncan and Nancy Bradford

Nonetheless, this is a good time to rule out other possibilities. In the 1830 and 1840 censuses, Willis and Bardny were ennumerated next door to a completely different John Duncan[9] who married Nancy Bradford. (Plat maps show that this John Duncan; his brother, Robert B. Duncan; and Willis had land adjacent to each other.) John Duncan and Nancy Bradford named a son "Willis." What's more, Willis was one of several witnesses to John Duncan's will. So was Bardny a Duncan after all? No, and here's why: 1) The use of "Bardny" was associated with the first Duncan family and 2) This John Duncan was also b. in SC. True, one family story did suggest that he lived in Lexington, Ky, prior to moving to Mo, but the story was riddled with errors and cannot be considered credible without collaborating evidence. Even if it were true, Lexington was at least 60 miles from Rhoda Bryant's home in Washington Co, Ky. 3) It was common practice among neighbors to name children after each other and to sign each other's will.

The Adam Bradford Family

Okay then, could Bardny have been a Bradford? Nancy Bradford was the daughter of Adam Bradford, another early settler in the area. Adam had moved to Washington Co, Ky by 1805, and married his second wife there on Feb. 24. In 1810, the Bradfords lived close to the Bates family. In 1820, Adam was in Bradfordsville whereas the Bryants and Bates probably lived about 10 miles away near the road to Campbellsville. This was too far for the typical courtship of those days. Yes, there might be enough room in the Bradford tree[10] to theoretically insert Bardny, but Willis was much more likely to marry someone who lived in the 'hood and was a family friend.

(A special thanks to two Duncan researchers--Mary Ann Dobson, whose life work has been documenting Duncans in the US, and Elinore Olsen, who has spent decades trying to unravel the Missouri Duncans.)

Other unknowns in the Willis and Bardny household

In 1840, there were two additional people living with the family: a young woman (DOB 1810-1820) and a girl (DOB 1830-1840). In 1850, the girl was listed as "Kensady M." (DOB 1837) at the very tail end of Willis' household--following Thomas B. Duncan and Richard K. Bailey. This suggests that she was not a daughter of Willis and Bardny. Perhaps, the young woman in the 1840 census (no longer living with Willis in 1850) was her mother.

Who was this woman? Willis' brother, Richard B., had 3 girls with his first wife, Nancy Rice. We don't know their names or what happened to them, but we do know that all had DOBs potentially matching the mother of Kensady. ("Cansada," according to descendants.) Richard B. moved to Mo. ca 1835, shortly after his second marriage. One of Richard's daughters appears to have gotten pregnant out of wedlock. This could have exacerbated conflicts with her stepmother, causing her to move in with Uncle Willis and Aunt Bardny before the 1850 census.

We have found no marriage record, but descendants say Cansada married William Henry Morrison and had a son, James Pryor Morrison.[11] In 1860, there was only one household in the area that matches. It was headed by a John Barnett and had a John H. Morrison (24) and a James P. Morrison (2). Both were born in Mo. Cansada was not listed, having presumably died.

A descendant of James Pryor Morrison wrote a family history that has several significant errors, including the suggestion that Cansada was the daughter of Willis and Bardny. Even so, the anecdotes are interesting. Here's one paraphrased with the known errors eliminated:

William Henry Morrison [appears to have been John H.] married Cansada M. Bryant and had one son, James Pryor Morrison, who was born in 1857. Cansada died when James was only one year of age. William Henry Morrison [John H.?] practiced medicine and helped both armies during the Civil War. One day, when his father was at war, James' stepmother jerked him and broke his arm. James ran away to his relative, Squire Bates, a wealthy landowner and farmer on the Gasconade River near Jerome.

Here's another anecdote as written: "When James was nine years old and on his way to school he met his father returning from war. He gave James money to buy a new pair of boots, telling him he was going to northern Missouri to buy a farm and then come back for him. He disappeared and no one ever heard from him. The family thought someone killed him for his money."

Another child living in Willis' household in 1850 was Richard K. Bailey. By googling this site, you'll find numerous connections between Baileys and Bryants. A couple of them definitely trace back to the William Bailey Sr. family of Buckingham Co, Va so it's possible Richard K. Bailey is a descendant. The only likely candidate for his father in the 1840 Pulaski census was Allen K. Bailey b ca 1814 in TN. He had 2 boys under 5 in the 1840 census but only one was ennumerated with him in 1850. yDNA testing of this Bailey family will determine if it's related to the Baileys of VA.

[1] Willis' DOB is based on all censuses from 1820-1850. In 1820, his DOB was 1802-1804. Willis was alive in the 1850 census but dead before the 1860 census. He probably died before 1854 because there are probate records for Pulaski from 1854-9 (in which he was not listed) and Bardny, his heir, died by 1859.

[2] A death certificate for their son William Allen stated that his mother was Rachel Self. William fits the oldest son in Willis' 1830 Crawford census. He also fits the single man living near Willis in the 1840 Pulaski census. William and Rachel had 5 children: Bethel (1845), Clarinda (1848), S. Elizabeth (1852), William Allen(1856), and Mary M (1858). These DOBs are based on the 1850 and 1860 censuses; in the latter, Rachel was ennumerated as "Bryan." There is a lot of data (DOB, POB, proximity to Willis in 1840 census, "Allen" being an RIC name, etc.) to support that William was the son of Willis. However, in 1860, Bethel was living with John Weaver Bryan(t)--a different Bryant family with no known connections to the RICs. This is a strong reason to consider that William might, instead, have been the son of Moses A. Bryant. But William's POB and his location in 1840 do not match up with this family, and Moses had only 3 sons prior to 1830, all of which are accounted for. DNA testing could resolve his paternity.

[3] The source that Mariah's surname (Bridges) is a supposedly a probate record that we have not verified. We have part of the probate record for David P. Bryant. It indicates that he died before 15 Sept 1862. The record also indicates that he inherited a 1/4 interest in Willis' land.

[4] Interestingly, James M. went to visit his Uncle William Price and Aunt Nancy Bryant Higgins in Hendricks Co, In. There he met Nancy's daughter, Elizabeth Higgins. They married 14 Sep 1848 in Hendricks, then returned to Pulaski Co, MO. James Madison died ca 1858-9. Elizabeth Higgins Bryant then returned to Hendricks, IN and was ennumerated next door to her mother in 1860. Daughter Bardny Ann Bryant b. 1850 married W. H. Bryan 1 Dec 1870 in Hendricks, Ind. Son Thomas Bryant b. 1853 married a Wilson. The Bryant siblings moved to Nebraska by 1880. Elizabeth and James M. had a third child: Nancy E. b. ca 1858. Since Nancy E. was b. ca 1858 and Elizabeth was a widow by 1860, James M. died 1858-9.

[5] In 1850, Rhoda was living with her parents. A few households away was Robert P. Hawkins, a widower with an infant. Thus, the first child of Robert P. Hawkins could not have been hers. However, the three other children born before her death were hers: Perry David Hawkins, John Pinkney Hawkins, and Rhoda Jane Hawkins. (Whoever filed the 1926 death certificate for Perry David Hawkins erroneously stated that his mother was born in Tn.)

[6] Several points: 1. The 1860 census shows the name of Jasper's wife as "Susannah." Some Ancestry trees identify her as Elizabeth Sally. This is incorrect. The marriage certificate for Elizabeth Sally was to Andrew J. (no doubt Jackson) Bryant in Benton Co. The names don't match plus Benton Co. was some distance from Pulaski. 2. One online source reported that Jasper Bryant married Susannah Brittian in 1859. The source appears sketchy. We investigated nonetheless. There was a Brittian family in Pulaski in 1850, but they lived a long way from Willis. The family did have a daughter named Susan, but her DOB was 5 years younger than Susannah's. There were no Brittians in the same census district with Jasper and Susannah in 1860. It's possible but not likely that Susannah was a Brittian. 3. In the 1860 census, Jasper and Susannah had an unnamed 8-month-old girl. Also, living with them was a Robert Hudgins and his family. This raises the question as to whether Susannah may have been a Hudgins, as Susannah was a common name in the Hudgins family. One tree says this Robert Hudgins was b. ca 1817 in Washington Co, Ky. It's unclear how this was ascertained but trees do show his father as a William Hudgins, who was incidentally living next door to Josiah Bryant and other allied families from Va. in Green Co, Ky in 1810. This makes it likely that William was a son of Drury Hudgins and Lizzie Murray. Many trees show this but they also show William Hudgins b. in 1784 in TN, which is highly improbable, given Drury's active legal record in Cumberland in the 1780s. The POB for William Hudgins (aka William David Hudgins) is probably from some old genealogy someone put together a long time ago, and like much research then (and now) was flawed. yDNA could easily settle this matter and so could atDNA--with more effort.

[7] Some of the neighboring families from Washington Co., Ky that were listed in the 1828 Gasconade tax list include: Bates, Bryant, Arthur, Coppedge, Eades, Brown, and Vest. Adam Bradford lived about 10 miles away, but he also moved to Missouri from Washington Co, Ky. (In the 1810 census for Washington Co, Adam Bradford lived close to Matthew Bates. In 1830, he was listed next door to a George Rice from Washington Co, a relative of the Bryants.) In addition to the above names, the 1828 Gasconade tax list included 4 Pryors (John, Robert, Daniel,William). They could be Puryears, as Pryor was a common spelling back then.

[8] See this link for a fascinating (but unverified) history of the Boone family in Mo. and an early history of this part of Mo: http://www.mogenweb.org/dallas/Missouri_land_history.html

[9] In the 1830 census, 37 households away from Willis Bryant were two other John Duncans, living next door to each other. One was the father of John Burrell and the other was the father of John who m. Nancy Bradford. By process of elimination, they appear to be first cousins, making their children second cousins.

[10] According to the 1820 census, Adam and Frances had two girls b. 1805-1810. The oldest, who could have been born as early as year-end 1805, is a reasonable fit for Bardny, since her DOB may well have been later than 1803. Also, trees for the Bradford family do not show all the children who were cited in the 1820 census. Interestingly, Adam Bradford had a son named "Moses Jasper" b. 1833, and Bardny named a son "Jasper A." in 1837.

[11] Pryor was a variation of Puryear, a family closely affiliated with the Bryants.