From the Files of Marguerite Cook Clark: A Young Crowd in Bienville Parish

This photo, found in the Marguerite Cook Clark Collection, shows a group of young people in the late 1800s or very early 1900s. The location is not written, but the names lead us to Bienville Parish. For some of these young people, more can be found in Marguerite Cook Clarks file's and I will post that information in the next week or so. 

I've enlarged the faces (to the best of my ability) and they are posted below. 

Jessie Huckaby and John Wimberly

Hugh Lawson and Josie Allums

Henry Wimberly

Allen Woodard

Mary Huckaby

Belle Stevens (Lawson)

Matt Allums

? Allums

Will Huckaby

Ida Stevens (Lawson)

If you want to know more about the families I research, click here to like my Facebook page where you will see each post and other genealogical finds. 

Diana

© 2018

Source
Family photographs and documents from the collection of Marguerite Cook Clark. Accessed April 28, 2014, September 14, 2014, and November 9 to 11, 2016. Used with permission.

#52ancestors Post Sixteen: A Dust Storm in Borger, Texas

On the back of the photo is Dust Storm - Borger, Texas 1936. Dad and his sisters lived in Borger, Texas during the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. 

In the Dust Bowl states (Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma), farmers lost livestock and crops were ruined. Dust filtered into homes and buildings making it hard for some to breathe. About 2.5 million people left those states - most headed west. 

One of the largest dust storms of 1936 in Borger occurred in April of that year. Could this be a photo of that storm? Who would have left the house to take the photo?

Dust Storm in Texas 1936 · Fri, May 8, 1936 – Page 12 · The Hearne Democrat (Hearne, Texas) · Newspapers.com

I never asked Dad about the dust storms. He moved to Borger in 1929 and left in 1940. He must have grown up living with the dust.  

If you want to know more about the families I research, click here to like my Facebook page where you will see each post and other genealogical finds. 

Diana

© 2018

Sources

Dust Bowl - Facts & Summary - HISTORY.com.Web. 19 Apr. 2018. <https://www.history.com/topics/dust-bowl#section_6>.\

Family photographs and documents from the collection of Diana Bryan Quinn.

#52ancestors Post Fifteen: Tax Records Helped Me Find Hairston Family

Phillip Hairston and Lodema Criswell Hairston with daughter, Myrtie.
Tax records show Phillip Hairston and his family were
in Erath County by 1884. 

This week's writing prompt is taxes. Taxes have helped me find family. 

I have been looking for connections between John L. Hairston and his said to be family for years. Every six months or so, I look for Hairston family members at Ancestry.com, newspaper sites, FamilySearch.org, Google and other appropriate sites. Content is constantly added and you never know what new information you will find. 

Since beginning my research, I have always known John L. Hairston was in Hinds County, Mississippi in 1850 and 1860. I have land records placing him in Georgia in 1838  but was unsure about the time between 1838 and 1850. 

A few years ago, I found tax records at FamilySearch.org showing John L. Hairston was in Hinds County, Mississippi by 1847. AND, other Hairstons listed with him were two men, Robert and Vincent/Vinson Hairston, I had been researching as I thought they might be brothers of my John L.  This put me a little closer to finding family. 

Samuel B. Hairston is another thought to be brother of John L. Hairston. Although thought to be in Alabama from the end of the Civil War until his death, he was found in Falls County, Texas tax records (with his children) in 1887 and 1888. 

Oral family history indicates John L. Hairston left Mississippi for Texas after the Civil War, first stopping in Arkansas. John L. Hairston cannot be found in the 1870 census but tax records show he was paying taxes in Falls County in 1868. 

It is said my great-grandfather, Phillip A. Hairston, and his family left Falls County in 1883. Finding Phillip A. Hairston on the Erath County, Texas 1884 tax rolls proved this family story. 


If you want to know more about the families I research, click here to like my Facebook page where you will see each post and other genealogical finds.
 

Diana

© 2018

Sources

Family photographs and documents from the collection of 

"Mississippi, State Archives, Various Records, 1820-1951." Database with images. FamilySearch. http://FamilySearch.org : 14 June 2016. Mississippi Department of Archvies and History, Jackson.

"Texas, County Tax Rolls, 1837-1910." Database with images. FamilySearch. http://FamilySearch.org : 21 July 2016. Citing Comptroller's Office. State Archives, Austin.

From the Files of Marguerite Cook Clark: Reuben K. Bryan

Reuben K. Bryan was the son of John Wesley Bryan and Francis Elizabeth "Lizzie" Sheffield Bryan. He was born August 24, 1897 and died on October 8, 1980. 

Reuben Bryan is one of many descendants of Reddick and Elizabeth Regan Bryan. His grandfather was their son, Tillman Bryan. 

Reuben was a mechanic in Shreveport. The picture below was published in 1952. Click on it to see a larger version at Newspaper.com.

If you want to know more about the families I research, click here to like my Facebook page where you will see each post and other genealogical finds. 

Diana




© 2018

Sources

Family photographs and documents from the collection of Marguerite Cook Clark. Accessed April 28, 2014, September 14, 2014, and November 9 to 11, 2016. Used with permission.

#52ancestors Post Fourteen: Monte DeRay Bryan

This week's writing prompt for #52ancestors is The Maiden Aunt. The Cambridge Dictionary defines maiden aunt as an aunt who is not married and is no longer young. My father's two sisters, Monte DeRay Bryan and Myrtie Marie Bryan, were my maiden aunts. I wrote about both of these aunts in 2014 and chose to write about DeRay today as I have additional information to share. 

My aunt went by her middle name, DeRay. Dad sometimes called her DeeDee and we knew her as Aunt DeeDee. DeRay was born in Erath County, Texas on March 11, 1904. She was the second child born of Myrtie Hairston and Redic Bryan. Her family moved to Baylor County in 1905. She spent most of her childhood in Baylor County. 

In addition to school activities, DeRay was an active member of the B. Y. P. U. (Baptist Young People's Union), the Woodmen Circle, and a member of the Baylor Bridge Club.

DeRay graduated from Seymour High School in 1920. The photo above was found in her high school yearbook. 

She attended Simmons College in Abilene for one year. At the beginning of her second year, she accepted a job teaching for the Corn community in Baylor County. I wonder if this was out of financial need or obligation. Would she have earned a degree if given a choice?

DeRay taught in the Corn community, in Seymour, and in Lamb County, before settling in Borger, Texas where she taught until 1941. 

According to History of Hutchinson County, Texas: 104 years, 1876-1980, DeRay arrived in Borger, Texas in 1927. This was shortly after her mother died. After her father's death in 1929, her siblings joined her and she was the primary wage earner. 

Dad (Whit Bryan) and his sister, DeRay - about 1942

DeRay continued her education by attending classes in the summers and served in several leadership roles before leaving teaching due to financial needs.

DeRay was active in her church, a Red Cross Volunteer, and served as an election official. 

DeRay never married. I know about two serious boyfriends. One died while he and DeRay were dating and I only have little information about the other. 

DeRay had more family obligations than most young women her age. By age 25, both of her parents died. My father, her youngest sibling, was only eight years old. She became his guardian and with little money, and the help of her sister, Marie, cared for my father until he joined the Navy in 1940. 

Whit sent flowers to his sisters for Mother's Day when
stationed at Pearl Harbor during WWII.
This was such an appropriate gesture and the fact this
card was saved showed how much it was appreciated. 

For more about DeRay, check my 2014 post - 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: #3 Monte DeRay Bryan.


If you want to know more about the families I research, click here to like my Facebook page where you will see each post and other genealogical finds. 

Diana

© 2018

Sources

Family photographs and documents from the collection of Diana Bryan Quinn

#52ancestors Post Thirteen: The Giddens Home in Phillipsburg, New Jersey

310-312 South Main Street, Phillipsburg, New Jersey
1975

310-312 South Main Street -  City Directories indicate that 310 was the store, while 312 may have been the upstairs residence.

Last week's writing prompt for #52ancesters was "The Old Homestead." I have always been interested in family homes and have written about the homes of several families I research. This building above is the childhood home of my grandmother, Edith Giddens. She and her family lived in the rooms above her father's store in Phillipsburg, New Jersey. 

Charles Giddens was born
in 1865 in Sampson
County, NC.

Mary Lucy Glynn was born in
1865 in Putney, VT. 

Photos seen in the post Friday's Photo: Inside the House show the inside of the Giddens home in the early 1900s.  The photos above, taken by my mother, show the outside of the store as it looked in 1975. 

Charles Giddens came to Phillipsburg with his family in 1894 after living in Crewe, Virginia for three years where he owned a store.  Charles, his wife (Mary Lucy Glynn Giddens) and their children were living on 182 West Mercer Street while he was working as a laborer. 

By 1898, Charles Giddens had a dry goods store at 322 South Main and his family was living at 75 Mercer Street. 


In 1906, his store was described as a clothing and dry goods store at 310-312 Main Street and his family lived upstairs. By 1908, his store was described as an "Outfitter to Men and Boys, Clothing, Hats, Shoes, and Haberdashery." 

My grandmother,
Edith Giddens.

Charles Giddens continued to run the store until he divorced his wife and left for St. Louis, Missouri in 1922. Lucy rented out the store to John and William D. Myers (Myer Brothers Clothiers) for $80 monthly and continued to live upstairs with daughter, Edith. Son, Warren, and his wife, Calla, were living with Lucy and Edith just prior to Lucy's death in 1926. 

My grandmother, Edith, inherited and sold the building. 

Other posts about homes of families I research can be found by clicking on the links below. 

These posts, Looking for the Murray Family Home in County Clare and The Irish Uprising: The Quinn Home, are about my husband's Irish families' homes. 

Friday's Photo: Borger, Texas and Family Photos: The House in Seymour – Part I are posts about my father's homes in Texas. 

The Bryan Log Cabin in Bienville Parish was the home of my great-grandparents, Reddick and Elizabeth Regan Bryan. 

If you want to know more about the families I research, click here to like my Facebook page where you will see each post and other genealogical finds. 

Diana

© 2018

Sources

Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1821-1989 (Beta). Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.

Family photographs and documents from the collection of Diana Bryan Quinn. 

#52ancestors Post Twelve: The Bryan Cemetery in Bienville Parish - History, Photographs, and Disrepair

Whit Criswell Bryan, my father and great-grandson of Reddick and Elizabeth Regan Bryan, in the Bryan Cemetery, Bienville Parish, Louisiana.
September 1981

Reddick Bryan purchased 400 acres of land in the vicinity of the Bryan Cemetery in 1839 - Township 15-N, Range 9-W, Section 25. He was considered one of the early settlers in that area. John Knight purchased land to the west several years before and land to the south was purchased by John Fuller. Eventually, William Wimberly and later, James Bryan, would own land to the north of the cemetery. Son, Joseph Bryan, purchased land to the east around 1850.

Click here to see the Bryan Cemetery on Google Earth. 

The earliest marked burial in the Bryan Cemetery of Bienville Parish is that of Reddick Bryan who died in 1864. Was this the earliest grave or just the earliest stone marker surviving?

As in most old cemeteries, there are probably unmarked graves.  Elizabeth Regan Carr (daughter of John and Martha Regan) wrote in a pension request that husband, John Carr,  was buried in the Bryan Cemetery. His grave is not marked. There are several Bryan family members with no known burial locations. 

Another descendant of Reddick and Elizabeth Bryan remembers a black iron fence around the cemetery with graves around the fence. She remembers many unmarked graves and tells of a road crew destroying graves while putting in a road. 

Bryan Cemetery 1981

Note the gravestones behind the chainlink fence in the cemetery photo. This is a second cemetery, the Iverson Cemetery. African-Americans are buried in this cemetery. Was this always two cemeteries?  I have seen reports of burials in the Iverson Cemetery as late as 2010. In obituaries, the Iverson Cemetery has been referred to as the Iverson Cemetery, the Bryant Cemetery, and the Bryant-Iverson Cemetery. 


In 2007, while visiting the Bryan Cemetery near Ringgold in Bienville Parish, I was told that the cemetery was cared for by the Iverson family. I later determined that Iverson is the surname taken by many of those who were once enslaved by the Bryan family. Read more of what I learned about the Iversons by visiting Slavery and the Bryan Family, Records of Slavery found in North Carolina, Georgia, and Louisiana.

In 1957, cemetery markers in the Bryan Cemetery were transcribed by Mrs. Alex Bloch and Mrs. Ina Cook Bryan. A copy of this transcription was found in my father's notes. Fifteen persons were identified as buried in the Bryan Cemetery. This included two Iverson family members. 

My father completed a survey in 1981. He did not have the two Iverson family members in the survey, but William R. Bryan passed away after the 1957 survey and was added to my father's list. Dad's list identified 14 people buried in the cemetery. 

Dad's map of the Bryan Cemetery.
For an unknown reason, the Iverson Cemetery is labeled King Cemetery. 

Today, at Find A Grave, 18 individuals are listed as buried in the Bryan Cemetery. If you go to the site, 19 individuals are listed; however, Georgia Ann Frances Bryan Pitman Wimberly is added twice. The stones for John Regan and his wife, Martha Davis must have been added after Dad's visit in 1981. The two Iverson graves for Charles Iverson and Walker Iverson are included on the site. 

Charles and Walker Iverson are also included at Find A Grave for Iverson Family Graveyard African American Memorials.  I don't have photos of these Iverson's graves, but do know Charles was most likely enslaved by the Bryan family. A Charles remained with Elizabeth Bryan after Reddick’s death. Charles is probably the child of Mourning Iverson who also remained with Elizabeth. In 1880, Charles Iverson was living in Bienville Parish with his family which included his 75-year-old mother, Moarning Iverson. Walker Iverson, born in 1874 was too young to be enslaved, but his father, Miles, was probably enslaved by the Bryans. 

Other known persons buried in the cemetery are listed below. 

Reddick Bryan and his wife, Elizabeth Regan Bryan, are my great-great-grandparents.  

Reddick Bryan 1793 - 1864
Elizabeth Regan Bryan 1798 - 1877

Georgia Ann Frances Bryan Pitman Wimberly, daughter of Reddick and Elizabeth Bryan outlived both husbands; James S. Pitman was killed in battle in 1863 and Ezekiel Wimberly died in 1897. 

Georgia Ann Frances Pitman Wimberly 1839 - 1908

Tillman Capers Bryan and his wife, Mildred Rebecca Manning Prothro Bryan, are buried in the cemetery. Tillmon was the son of Reddick and Elizabeth Bryan. In my father's notes from the 1981 visit, he wrote, In the Bryan Cemetery there is a broken cast-aside stone (Masonic Symbol) T. C. Bryant b. 9-13-1820 d. 6-16-1899. This marker is not over a grave, but leaning against the fence. 

Tillman Capers Bryan 1830 - 1899
Mildred Rebecca Manning Prothro Bryan 1839 - 1912

These graves are that of the children of the younger Tillman C. Bryan (son of the elder Tillman Bryan and his wife, Mildred) and his wife Mary Elizabeth McDowell. 








William Rufus Bryan, son of Tilman and Mildred, and his wife, Margie Pate are buried in the cemetery. Chester, only 8 days old, is said to be the child of William and Margie.

William Rufus Bryan  1876 - 1960
Margie Pate 1883-1906
Chester - 8 days

Mrs. W. E. Smith (Mary Mildred Prothro) and Richard Prothro are the children of Edward H. Prothro, son of Mildred Bryan and her first husband Hartwell Prothro. 

Edward H. Prothro  1855 - 1885
Richard H. Prothro -  Died as an infant in 1880
Mary Mildred Prothro Smith 1876 - 1912

John Regan, his wife, Martha Davis, and their daughter, Marie are buried in the Bryan Cemetery. John was the son of Elizabeth Regan Bryan and her first husband, Joseph Regan. 

Marie M. Regan 1882 - 1884
John Regan 1816 - 1882
Martha Ann Davis Regan 1818 - 1899

This week's writing prompt for #52ancestors is misfortune, defined by Google's Dictionary as an unfortunate condition or event. When I visited the cemetery in 2007, I was surprised the stones had remained intact in this isolated cemetery. However, a few months ago, I received these photos from another Reddick Bryan descendant showing the unfortunate condition of the Bryan Cemetery. There was a bad storm last year and a huge tree fell and damaged the fence.  It is possible this is what damaged Reddick's and Elizabeth's cemetery stones. 

Elizabeth's stone looks as if it can be repaired.

Can Reddick Bryan's stone be repaired? 

Here are some questions. 

Are other cemetery stones damaged?

Should these be repaired or replaced? 

What do other communities do about small isolated cemeteries such as this one? 

If you are reading this and live near the cemetery, would you mind taking photos to share? 

Are there businesses near Ringgold that repair cemetery stones?

Is anyone currently maintaining the grounds?

I will post this on my Facebook page and also in two Facebook Groups; Living Histories of North Louisiana Families and History of Bienville Parish. If you have suggestions, please comment or send me a message. 

If you want to know more about the families I research, click here to like my Facebook page where you will see each post and other genealogical finds.  

Diana

© 2018

Sources

A Footstep In Time. Infant Son of T. C. & Mary E. Bryan. Find A Grave. 2008. Web. 24 Mar. 2018. <https://www.findagrave.com/user/profile/47345816>.

A Footstep In Time. Lorena Bryan. Find A Grave. 2008. Web. 24 Mar. 2018. <https://www.findagrave.com/user/profile/47345816>.

Brittain, Julia and McMichael Frances. "Descendants of Reddick Bryan." Houston, Texas.

Collins, Nancy. John Regan. Find A Grave. 2008. Web. 24 Mar. 2018. <https://www.findagrave.com/user/profile/47113696>.

Collins, Nancy. Martha Ann Davis Regan. Find A Grave. 2008. Web. 24 Mar. 2018. <https://www.findagrave.com/user/profile/47113696>.

Family photographs and documents from the collection of Diana Bryan Quinn.

Family photographs and documents from the collection of Marguerite Cook Clark. Accessed April 28, 2014 and September 14, 2014. Used with permission.

First Landowners Project (HistoryGeo.com). Web. 6 Jan. 2018. https://www.historygeo.com/

Mary Mildred Prothro Smith (1876-1912) - Find A Grave Memorial. 2008. Web. 24 Mar. 2018. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/31366744/mary-mildred-smith 

Memorials in Bryan Cemetery - Find A Grave. 2005. Web. 25 Mar. 2018. <https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/67089/memorial-search?page=1#sr-31366516>

Quinn, Diana Bryan. Slavery and the Bryan Family: The First Ones. Blogger. 13 Feb. 2013. Web. 25 Mar. 2018. <http://slaveryandthebryanfamily.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-first-ones.html>.