Clippings from The Baylor County Banner Seymour, Texas - January 11, 1923

When looking for my family in the Baylor County Banner, I usually took a partial photo of the front page of each of the papers I read so that I could match the photos that followed to that issue. This week's front page photo shows you the headlines Baylor County citizens saw that day.

My grandparents, Redic E. Bryan and Myrtie Hairston, and my great-grandparent's, Phillip A. Hairston and Lodema Criswell, moved to Baylor County in 1905. My father, Whit Criswell Bryan, was born in Seymour in 1920. He was the youngest of seven children born to Redic and Myrtie. Redic and Myrtie died in the 1920s and my father moved, along with his sisters, to Borger, Texas. 

In April 2019, I visited the Texas State Library and Archives to read Baylor County Banner issues that could not be found online or on microfilm. I photographed articles with information about my father's family who lived in Seymour. While sorting through my family finds, I realized I had photos of articles that might interest others looking for family. I have pictures of numerous articles from 1923 and a few from other years. I will post as time allows. 

Thank you to Matt Gwinn at the Baylor County Banner for giving me permission to post these clippings.  

Mrs. Pistole was my father's teacher. Click here to
learn more about her. Click here to see her in a photo
taken of her and many students in 1911. 

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

© 2020

Sources

Harrison, O. C. The Baylor County Banner. (Seymour, TX.), Vol. 28, No. 16. 11 Jan 1923. Print. Accessed 15 April 2019.

From the Files of Marguerite Cook Clark: A Letter from Tulette Bryan to Thomas Jefferson Martin

               Ringgold, La. 
               February 6th 1918

Dear Uncle Tom
We received your card yesterday. I had mailed you a note yesterday too. I intended to write you this morning but I had head-ache and was unable to write. 

Mama says she don’t remember the year that Pa joined the church but he joined the same year that you did. 
He was born July the 23rd 1851. 

Married May 14th 1874. 
Died November 28th 1917. 

Hope you and Aunt Laura are feeling better by this time. 
Albert was here today and said Little Rupert was better. 

Alma’s folks are all well of the measles at last. 

Come to see use when you can. We are so lonely. 
But I am so glad that we have someone to stay with us and can stay at home. 

Tulette Bryan 

Tulette Bryan wrote this a few months after her father, Augustus Reddick "Bud" Bryan, died. It is presumed that she was living with her mother, Erie Ontario Nix, and her younger sister, Alice. Her sister, Alma, was married to Andrew Wimberly Lawson and had seven children. Sadly, Alma died soon after this letter was written, on March 23, 1918. 

Albert Bryan and his son Rupert were also mentioned in this letter. Albert was raised by Tulette's parents as his parents died when he was only two-years-old. 

Tulette wrote the letter to Thomas Jefferson Martin who was married to Laura Frances Bryan, sister of Tulette's father. 

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

© 2020

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.

Wimberly, Vera. Wimberly Family History: Ancestors, Relatives, and Descendants of William Wimberly, Pioneer from Georgia to Louisiana, 1837. Houston, Tex.: D. Armstrong, 1979. Print.

Friday's Photo: Charles William Giddens

By enlarging the photo and doing a little research, I can see that the symbol on his hat contains two rifles - the symbol for the Infantry. The number at the top is 15, and the letter at the bottom center of the rifles is E. Charles William Giddens served in Company E of the 15th Regiment in the United States Infantry from March 1911 to March 1914. He was somewhere between the age of 18 and 20 when this was taken. 

Charles William Giddens - Age 4
Click here to see more about
Charles. 

Charles William Giddens was my grandmother's older brother.  He led quite an interesting life. He was born on December 2, 1892, in Crew, Virginia, to Charles Allen Giddens, from North Carolina, and Mary Lucy Glynn, from Vermont. His parents met in New York City, where Charles was a milkman, and Lucy was a house servant. When Charles William was born, his father was a merchant in Crew.  The family left Crew and moved to Phillipsburg, New Jersey, where by 1898, his father had a dry goods store on South Main Street. 

I assume Charles attended school in Phillipsburg or Easton, Pennsylvania, until at least the eighth grade. On the 1910 census, his occupation was listed as a laborer. The next year, 18-year-old Charles William Giddens joined the United States Army, where he served in the Infantry. He completed his time and returned to Phillipsburg working as a machinist for at least three years. During that time, he joined the National Guard across the river in Easton. 

Clippings from The Baylor County Banner Seymour, Texas - January 4, 1923

My grandparents, Redic E. Bryan and Myrtie Hairston, and my great-grandparent's, Phillip A. Hairston and Lodema Criswell, moved to Baylor County in 1905. My father, Whit Criswell Bryan, was born in Seymour in 1920. He was the youngest of seven children born to Redic and Myrtie. Redic and Myrtie died in the 1920s and my father moved, along with his sisters, to Borger, Texas. 

In April 2019, I visited the Texas State Library and Archives to read Baylor County Banner issues that could not be found online or on microfilm. I photographed articles with information about my father's family who lived in Seymour. While sorting through my family finds, I realized I had photos of articles that might interest others looking for family. I have pictures of numerous articles from 1923 and a few from other years. I will post as time allows. 

Thank you to Matt Gwinn at the Baylor County Banner for giving me permission to post these clippings.  

This is the only clipping naming my family.
Buster Bryan was my Dad's older brother.
His name was Hairston Albritton Bryan.
He was found often in the 1923 issues as he
was a senior at Seymour High School. 

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. 

Please note that the comments section of this blog page has been disabled due to a large amount of spam being posted.

Diana

© 2020

Sources

Harrison, O. C. The Baylor County Banner. (Seymour, TX.), Vol. 28, No. 15. 4 Jan 1923. Print. Accessed 15 April 2019.

Friday's Photo: The earliest photo I have of my grandmother - Enhanced!

This is the earliest known photo of my grandmother, Edith Giddens. She told my mother she was 16 years old. This was probably taken in or very near Phillipsburg, New Jersey. My grandmother's sisters, Elizabeth and Florence, are on the back row. 

Katherine and Anna Butler were probably the daughters of Charles Butler and Catherine Kelly, also of Phillipsburg. 

The faces are difficult to see so I enlarged and cropped it to create the photo below. Better but not very clear. As My Heritage is offering their photo enhancing services free until September 10, my next step was to try both enhancing and colorizing the photo. 

The girls in the front row, Anna and Edith, look improved. The women in the back continue to be fuzzy. 

Simeon Baker Bryan, son of Reddick Bryan, did not move to Louisiana with family. He remained in Georgia.

My grandfather, Redic E. Bryan, wrote the portion of
this list in black ink sometime before his death in 1929. 

This paper, found in Terrell Bryan's family bible, lists members of the Reddick Bryan family as known by my grandfather, Redic E. Bryan. With the exception of Baker Bryan, other family members had been found in numerous family and government documents. It was said that Baker remained in Georgia when the rest of the family moved to Louisiana. 

In 2004, after quite a lot of research, I was able to conclude that Baker Bryan was actually Simeon Baker Bryan. You can see my search documented on my Rootsweb page at this link.

Simeon Baker Bryan was the second known son of Reddick Bryan and his first wife whose name is unknown. A birth date of January 19, 1817 was found in a transcription of Reddick Bryan's family Bible.  And, the same date was seen in another Bryan family Bible published in 1843 and found in the Marguerite Cook Clark collection. It is thought that Baker was born in North Carolina.

Copied from a Bible published in 1843. One of several Bibles saved by
Marguerite Cook Clark and her family. 

In 1836, Simeon appeared as Simon B. Bryan on list of the names of those in the Georgia Militia who marched from Houston County on the 27th, May 1836 to rendezvous at Columbus, Georgia on June 2, 1836. "Creek War" was indicated on his military record. Simeon's brother, James Bryan, and step-brother, Span Regan were also on the list. 

Simeon B. Bryan married Louisa Smith on May 20, 1838 in Houston County, Georgia. His name is written as Simeon on the actual marriage record but in Jordan R. Dodd's Georgia marriages : early to 1800 : a research tool (found at Ancestry.com), his name is transcribed as Simon. 

In Houston County, on February 1, 1839. it was reported that Simeon B. Bryan's wife, Louisa, died. Her parents were listed in the obituary as Needham and Ardelia Smith and it was written that the "marriage took place in May last and in the fall afterwards her husband's father and brothers emigrated to the far west, in the State of Louisiana."

A portion of a Georgia map found at the Library of Congress website and published in 1854.

In the 1840s and 1850s, I have seen Simeon Baker Bryan in Lee, Clay, Early, Baker, Dougherty, and Calhoun Counties. After looking at old maps and understanding the formations of each county, it's easy to see how he could have lived in the same area for most of his life but shows up in records from several different counties. 

Simeon married Elizabeth Ann Mercer, daughter of Silas Mercer and Ann Thompson sometime in the 1840s or early 1850s. No record has been found. E. A. Bryan wrote letters to family in Louisiana referring to Reddick Bryan and his wife, Elizabeth, as Pap and Ma. In Georgia probate records, Elizabeth A. Bryan is the wife of Simeon Baker Bryan. 

Administrators bonds, indicated that Simeon B. Bryan died in Calhoun County, GA prior to October 27, 1856 when Elijah Padgett applied to be administrator of the estate of Simeon B. Bryan. No record of his burial has been found. 

This post has been added to The Reddick Bryan Family - A Timeline.


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

© 2020

Sources

Bonner, William G. Bonner's pocket map of the state of Georgia. New York: J.H. Colton & Co, 1854. Map. https://www.loc.gov/item/91685221/.

Dodd, J. R. (1999). Georgia marriages: Early to 1800: A research tool. Bountiful, UT: Heritage Quest.

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, September 14, 2014, and November 9 to 11, 2016. Used with permission.

Holcomb, Brent. Marriage and Death Notices from the Southern Christian Advocate 1837 to 1860. 1979. Print. 

Louisiana Bible Records (1950), Louisiana DARGRC report S1v25. 1950. Accessed at the DAR library in Washington DC by Diana Bryan Quinn on July 7, 2010.

Quinn, Diana Bryan. My Search for Baker Bryan. 2005. Web. 
http://freepages.rootsweb.com/~bryanquinn/genealogy/BryanSimeonBaker.htm. Accessed 5 Aug. 2020.

Quinn, Diana Bryan. Moments in Time, A Genealogy Blog: #52ancestors Post Eleven: The Bryan Family Bible. 2018. Web. https://momentsintimeagenealogyblog.blogspot.com/2018/03/52ancestors-post-eleven-bryan-family.html. Accessed 5 Aug. 2020.

Wimberly, Vera. Wimberly Family History: Ancestors, Relatives, and Descendants of William Wimberly, Pioneer from Georgia to Louisiana, 1837. Houston, Tex.: D. Armstrong, 1979. Print. 

Friday's Photo: Giddens Family Buried in Easton Cemetery - Easton, Pennsylvania

My great-grandmother, Mary Lucy Glynn Giddens (aka Lucy May) is buried under
the stone for "Mother." The stones on the left and right are family stones. 

My grandmother's family lived in Phillipsburg, New Jersey just across the Delaware River from Easton, Pennsylvania. When I was young, my grandmother, Edith Giddens Davis, talked about walking across the bridge to go to school in Easton. Several of her family members are buried in the historic Easton Cemetery. 

Easton Cemetery has been in operation since 1849 and there are over 29,000 graves. Checkout The Historic Easton Cemetery.org to see beautiful photos of this cemetery, to learn about the history, and see photos of notable residents. 

My great-grandmother, Lucy Glynn Giddens, was found as Mary L.
on the Putney, Vermont birth record. She was Lucy on her marriage
license to Charles Giddens and found as Lucy M. Giddens on all
records following their marriage in 1891. Lucy was first buried
in the Phillipsburg Cemetry and later moved to the Easton Cemetery.

This stone is to the right of Lucy M. Giddens' stone. I assume that my grandmother moved
these graves to the Easton Cemetery as well. Georgie Giddens died on July 27, 1900.
He was just a year old. John Lewis Giddens died at two-months old in June 1902. 

This stone is to the left of Lucy Giddens's stone. Florence I. Samer was the daughter of Charles and Lucy Giddens.
More can be found about Florence and her family by clicking here. 

Warren Giddens, son of Charles and Lucy Giddens is buried in the Easton Cemetery beside
his wife Calla Male. I don't know the location of this grave in regards to his mother's grave.
Warren's obituary and a photo of his family can be found by clicking here. 

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

© 2020

Sources

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

"The Historic Easton Cemetery." https://www.thehistoriceastoncemetery.org/. Accessed 7 Aug. 2020.

Quinn, Diana Bryan. "Mary Lucy Glynn."  Ancestry.com. Facts https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/45260559/person/6487535112/facts?indiv=try&h&db. Accessed 7 Aug. 2020.