Kesiah (various spellings; pronounced Kah zi zah by one descendant) was born 13 October 1820. Throughout her life, Kesiah remained close to her brother, William Bryant b. ca 1820. Over multiple censuses, both stated they were born in Tennessee or Alabama. Aggregate data tells us that their mother was an unwed daughter of John Bryant Jr. and Judith Winfrey.
According to 3 DNA tests by descendants of William, their father was a Shelton. In the 1820 census for Lincoln Co, Tn, there was a Harmon Shelton living close to John Bryant Jr. and there were two Shelton households adjacent to John Bryant Jr. The Sheltons and Bryants migrated from Ky to Tn together and may have known each other in Virginia before that. John Bryant III married Letha or Letty Shelton, and there may well have been earlier Bryant-Shelton marriages. Both families also married Luttrells/Littrells. All lived in the Shelton Creek area of Lincoln Co, Tn.
It was common for women who had children out-of-wedlock to give their own surname to the children. (Kesiah did this when she had out-of-wedlock children.) However, there is another possible scenario. If the mother of William and Kesiah died very early, and the father couldn't take care of them, then John Bryant Jr. and Judith could have raised their grandchildren as Bryants.
Circa 1820, the extended family of John and Judith Bryant was shifting its nexus to adjacent Jackson County, AL. We estimate that John and Judith joined some of their children in AL by late 1820 or early 1821. While Kesiah and William may have been born in TN, they spent most of their early childhood in Jackson, CO, AL.[1]
By the 1830 census, John and Judith had moved their household back across the state border to Franklin Co, TN where they lived close to a Blakely family[2] Circa 1836-7, John and Judith returned to Jackson Co, AL. William Bryant either stayed behind or returned later and married Martha Blakely on 6 April 1838. In 1840, the young couple were still living in Franklin Co.; they had a boy and girl under five.[3]
About the time her brother got hitched, Kesiah made a fateful decision to marry John Luttrell (various spellings). At the time of the 1840 Jackson census, they had one boy (William) under five. The parents of John Luttrell are unknown. However, living very close to John and Judith Bryant was a family, showing Michael Luttrell as head of household.[4] [5] This could be the household of Michael Luttrell III, whose father, like John Jr., was a Revolutionary war soldier. He was in Illinois in 1830 but may have returned to Jackson. The Bryant and Luttrell families may have migrated together from VA to KY and definitely migrated together from KY to TN and AL.
Also proximate to John and Judith in Jackson Co. was a large Berry family. Starting in 1842, the Berry boys led migrations from Jackson Co, AL to Madison Co, AR. Based on Madison County tax rolls and the place of birth of their children, Kesiah and her brother William moved to AR ca 1844-5. William Bryant and Martha Blakely named one of their sons, John Berry Bryant.
The mystery of what happened to John Luttrell has been a central one for descendants of Kesiah. They presume he made the move to Madison Co, AR and then disappeared. He was certainly not living with Kesiah for the 1850 census. Their favorite hypothesis is that he was a Forty-niner, one of the roughly 300,000 men who rushed to California to dig and pan for gold. Some men from Madison Co did join the stampede to California and some died there. But the data suggest John Luttrell never made it to Arkansas.
Early Madison County tax records ran from the late 1830s to 1845 and then stopped for 20 years. The first Berrys arrived in 1842. William Bryant was listed in the 1845 tax list, indicating he arrived in the latter part of 1844 or the first part of 1845. John Luttrell was not on the list. Most likely, John had already abandoned Kesiah. Because her grandparents had died in 1842, Kesiah’s best chance of survival was her brother.
Kesiah and William lived in a beautiful part of the Ozark Mountains near War Eagle Creek with it's large mill and also near what is now Withrop State Park. But life in the Ozarks was a hardscrabble existence. Descendants believe that only Kesiah’s oldest son, William, was fathered by John Luttrell. Two of the children were supposedly fathered by a Berry; the rest had different fathers.
The 1850 census enumerated Kesiah’s household as follows: Kesiah Littrell 27 (TN), William Littrell 12 (TN), Robert Littrell 4 (AR), and California Littrell 1. The name “California” may be the reason why some have speculated that John Luttrell/Littrell joined the Gold Rush, but if family history is correct, California was not fathered by John Luttrell/Littrell and neither was Robert Littrell. In fact, the 8-year gap between the birth of William and Robert supports family lore about who fathered the children. It also supports the hypothesis that John Luttrell abandoned his wife and son in Alabama, not in Arkansas.
What happened to John Luttrell? First, let’s clarify who he wasn’t. Oddly, some people have tried to merge him with the John Luttrell of Randolph Co, AR by suggesting the latter was married to Kesiah. Yes, the two Johns were cousins of some degree but John Luttrell of Randolph Co, AR was about 10 years older. He arrived in Lawrence Co, AR before 1830 and was listed in the Randolph census in 1840. He died in 1843. Land records indicate that his wife was “Hannah.”
So what did happen to Kesiah’s husband? Here’s a possibility: In the 1850 census for Franklin Co, TN, there was a John Litterall b. 1818-1823 married to or living with a Catherine Almyra Couch b. 1825-1828 in TN. The couple were together by 1847 because the 1850 census listed a son William b. 1848 as well as James b. 1850. John Luttrell could have abandoned or divorced Kesiah for Catherine Almyra. (John and Catherine later lived in Lincoln County, TN next door to RIC James Bryant.[6])
In 1860, Kesiah was in the Marble district of Madison Co: Kizziah Litterell (AL) 38, Wm T Litterell (AL) 20, R C Litterell (Robert) 15 (AR), C M Litterell (California) 10, John B Litterell 8, and Malissa J Litterell 6. According to a family story, during a gathering on the Hunstville, AR town square, following the Civil War, a carpetbagger shot and killed William. In 1870, Kesiah was in the War Eagle District: Kesia 48, Califonia 21, John 17, Jane 16 (Malissa Jane), and Monroe 6. [7]
Kesiah died in 1874. The Huntsville Cemetery in Madison Co has a fieldstone next to this row of graves, indicating it was a family plot:
1) Frances E. S. Bryant 5 Oct 1844 to 29 Mar 1859. There was a girl named Cerilda b. 1844 in William Bryant’s household in 1850; she was not listed in 1860. Descendants say she was actually “Serilda.” Her name was probably Elizabeth Serilda Bryant and her nickname, “Frances.”
2) Mary J. Literal 11 Jan 1870 to 5 Feb 1870 (daughter of Robert and M. J. Literal—granddaughter of Kesiah)
3) Kesiah 13 October 1820 - 17 October 1874
4) William T. Literal (oldest son of Kesiah; executed by carpetbaggers)
William Bryant lived until 1899. An obit in the Springdale News on 17 March 1899 stated: "Uncle Billy Bryant, an old citizen of the county, died recently at his home near Dutton. The remains were interred in the cemetery at Huntsville.” His grave was marked with a fieldstone.
According to censuses, William Bryant was a tanner who married twice. A descendant provided this summary of progeny from his first marriage:
Children of WILLIAM BRYANT and MARTHA BLAKELY:
i. MARY JANE BRYANT, b. July 19, 1839, Franklin, TN; d. April 18, 1908.
ii. JOHN BERRY BRYANT, b. April 09, 1840, Franklin TN; d. December 25, 1932.
iii. MARTHA BRYANT, b. 1842, Franklin TN
iv. SERILDA BRYANT, b. 1844, Franklin TN
v. JAMES KNOX POLK BRYANT, b. 1846, Madison AR; d. July 09, 1886.
vi. AMANDA BRYANT, b. 1848, Madison AR
vii. WILLIAM BRYANT, b. 1851, Madison AR; d. November 23, 1934
viii. DANIEL JEFFERSON BRYANT, b. Dec. 17, 1856, Madison AR; d. April 14, 1909
ix. BULGER BRYANT, b. 1859, Madison AR
x. THOMAS BRYANT, b. February 1860, Madison AR
xi. SUSAN BRYANT, b. March 27, 1863, Madison AR; d. Feb 07, 1936, Boston, Madison AR
More on the Parents of Kesiah and William
The cemetery book for Madison Co, AR has a notation for Kesiah, indicating that she was from Jackson Co, AL and her father was a “William Bryant.” After many phone calls, we located the source of that information. The source was one of the volunteers who wrote the cemetery book, not a descendant of Kesiah or William. The volunteer stated that the name "William Bryant" had been inserted based on a hypothesis, not based on facts or on family stories.
Her hunch was right about Jackson County but not about Kesiah's parentage.
[1] This could explain why Kesiah and William waffled in later censuses, uncertain whether their place of birth was TN and AL.
[2] It’s possible that Blakelys and Bryants knew each other from Buckingham Co, Va.
[3] Adjacent to them were the households of Thomas Farris and John Farris. In 1850, an Isaac Farris lived next door to William Bryant in Madison AR. Isaac may have been in Tishomingo, MS in 1840 as was John Bryant III.
[4] Luttrell researchers appear to have overlooked this listing; on Ancestry, he was incorrectly transcribed as Michael Lathers. Michael himself was missing from the 1840 enumeration. There is data indicating that he went to IL with his father but he was not listed there in 1840 so he may have returned to Jackson Co, AL and died there. Some speculate that Elizabeth, the wife of Michael Luttrell Jr., was Elizabeth Shelton born abt. 1800. If so, she was the daughter of Jarmon Shelton and Martha Winfrey, sister of Judith Winfrey Bryant. Elizabeth Luttrell married Joseph Wham in Marion Co., IL. On 15 SEP 1842.
[5] There is another clue to the parentage of John Luttrell. Apparently, he had a brother, Shelton Littrell who married Francis Blakely 23 Jan 1842 in Franklin, TN. Francis was the sister of Martha Blakely.
[6] The Bryants had other links to Couches, dating back to Buckingham Co, Va. Also, an RIC Bryant boy was living with a Couch family in 1850 in Lincoln Co., Tn.
[7] The household of Kesiah was badly mistranscribed on Ancestry and may be difficult to locate.