Anthony Murray Bryant

To understand the origins of Anthony Murray's name, follow this progression:

Gen 1: Sarah Murray who married John Bryant Sr. b. bef 1732 had a brother Anthony Murray.

Gen 2: Anthony Bryant b ca 1763 m. Rhoda (Anthony did not have a middle name. We know this for two reasons. First, there is no record of a middle name or initial in any of his Buckingham Co. land records or personal property tax records. Second, at the time Anthony was born, middle names were exceedingly rare.)

Gen 3: David P. Bryant b. ca 1789 m. Elizabeth Puryear.

Gen 4: Anthony Murray Bryant b. 1818 (In choosing this name for his oldest son, David Bryant was honoring both his father and the Murray family in general or his great uncle Anthony Murray in particular.)

Clipped from:

Grayson County; an illustrated history of Grayson County, Texas.

http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth24647/m1/32/

Excerpt from Oct. 23, 1889 Whitewright Sun about his death:

Judge Bryant had gone out from the house, a little after noon, to the barn where a young man was unloading some corn from a wagon; it seems considerable of the corn had fallen on the ground, so the judge told the young man he would drive the team up a little so he (the boy) could pick up the corn...The team started before he could get into the wagon...they ran out the gate into the pasture, running at full speed they came to a tree, and going one to each side of the tree, jerked the wagon with terrific force against the tree.

His left leg was mangled and the bones shattered in a horrible manner, from below the knee to the body. The young man, whom the judge thought to assist, arrived on the scene almost simultaneous with the collision. The wounded man told him to roll the wagon back, which were his last words.

Transcript from Historic Marker on A.M. Bryant homestead in Grayson Co, Tx:

A. M. BRYANT HOMEPLACE

A. M. Bryant (1818-1889) moved to Texas in 1853 with wife, Clarissa (Young), and four children. One died on the trip. Clarissa died in 1854. A daughter* died later both buried in the Kentucky Town Cemetery.**

The home was erected on this site in 1855. With his second wife, Susan (Binkley), of Sherman, he reared his son, David E. Bryant, and their three children Charles W., Columbus B., and Mollie.

David E. was Federal Judge of the Eastern District of Texas from 1890 - 1910. David's son, Randolph D. Bryant was judge of this same district from 1931 - 1951.

Charles W. farmed and was Mayor of Whitewright. Columbus B. was the first cashier and later President of the First National Bank, Whitewright. Mollie married William King, Postmaster, and President of the First National Bank.

A. M. Bryant farmed and accumulated 1000 acres of land. He also raised and marketed mules and died in a wagon runaway.

Active in Masonary*** and the Republican Party, he was against secession but loyal to Texas. According to local legend, his views caused a near encounter with the Quantrill gang, which was prevented by the intervention of his neighbors.

In August 1865, Gov. A. F. Hamilton appointed him presiding Judge of Grayson County and a delagate (sic) to the first Constitutional Convention of Texas held June 1, 1866. Later he was elected by the citizens of Grayson County to be a delagate (sic) to the second Constitutional Convention where he participated in two important decisions. He voted with the majority in a narrow vote of 37 to 27 against denying Confederate veterans the right to vote in elections, and he voted against splitting Texas into two or more states for which he was arrested by Union soldiers.

This marker was erected by C. B. Bryant III (b. 1925) great grandson of the above A.M. Bryant - ca. 2011

*Mariah

**Batsell Cemetery, not Kentucky Town

***Freemasonry