Bienville Parish, Louisiana - The Lost Scrapbook

At least two letters from Georgia Ann Frances "Fannie" Bryan Pittman Wimberly, pictured above, were said to be in the lost scrapbook. In one of those letters, written on 21 January 1862, to her sister Catherine Amanda Bryan Watts and sister-in-law, Alice Mary Wimberly Bryan, Fannie writes of her visit to New Orleans to visit her husband, James "Jim" Pittman. Below are my two favorite excerpts from that letter. 

"The place all the time seems like it is tearing up from bottom to top. All seems confusion. I have not been in the streets yet. I recon I will see the elephant sure enough when I go."

"Oh my sakes, you just ought to see the Madam" She is one of them you read about I think she beats all I've seen yet."

Copies of Georgia Ann Frances' letters and others were sent to me by researcher Julia Brittain in the 1990s. Marguerite Cook Clark's collection of family information and photos, first accessed in 2014, also contained copies of some of the letters and newspaper clippings that are said to be in the scrapbook. 

Josie Bryan Cook (1856-1941)
William Bryan Trott (1905-1985)

At the New York Public Library, in the year 2000, I found Vera Wimberly's Wimberly Family History which contained transcriptions of many letters written by or to my Bryan family members. According to the Wimberly book, the scrapbook was compiled by Josie Bryan Cook and eventually passed on to her grandson William Bryan Trott. Mr. Trott was in possession of the scrapbook when Vera Wimberly made copies of the letters and other items for her book published in 1979. William Bryan Trott died in 1985.

A few years after accessing the Wimberly book, a visit to the genealogy room in the Central Library at Conroe, Texas was an opportunity to look at Vera Wimberly's files, but no new information was found. 

I have written countless letters and emails and made faraway trips to libraries and homes of distant cousins in hopes of finding the scrapbook. Vera Wimberly used items relevant to the Wimberly family in her book. What else was saved in that scrapbook? 

 

Known Items in the Lost Scrapbook

(as described by Vera Wimberly in the Wimberly Family History)

A 1932 obituary, for John L. 
Wimberly is found in the Wimberly
book and said to be in the scrapbook. 
This copy of the obituary appears to
have been made from a scrapbook. It
was found in the collection of 
Marguerite Cook Clark. 

Two letters written in 1858 and two in 1860 from E. A. Bryan to Alice Mary Wimberly Bryan.  Elizabeth A. Bryan (nee Mercer) was the widow of Simeon Baker Bryan, Reddick Bryan's son from his first marriage. 

A 1904 obituary for Mrs. Sarah M. Bryan (nee Wimberly)

Obituaries for Reddick Bryan, who died in 1864, and his wife, Elizabeth Regan Bryan, who died in 1877

Receipts to James Bryan for bills he paid related to the death of T. H. Wimberly.  

A letter from Georgia Ann Frances Bryan Pittman Wimberly to Josie Bryan Cook written in 1899

An obituary for Frances Louisa Thomas Wimberly - 1903 

A celebration of the wedding anniversary of Josie Bryan and Joseph W. Cook

Letter from Josie Bryan Cook to Lucy Wimberly Getty, daughter of Charles Perry Wimberly, dated 1938 - Josie writes about the old letters and her grandson's (William Bryan Trott) interest in the letters and family history. 

Letters from the War

John L. Wimberly Senior is the 
man on the left; the others are unknown. 

1861  J. S. Pittman to Alice Mary Wimberly Bryan 

1862  J. S. Pittman to Alice Mary Wimberly Bryan 

1862 To Alice Mary Wimberly Bryan and Catharine Amanda Bryan Watts from Georgia Ann Frances "Fannie" Bryan Pittman from New Orleans

1862   Dear Sisters from T. H. Wimberly  at Corinth Camp

1862   T. H. Wimberly to Dear Brother

1862   David Wimberly to Thomas Wimberly - tells of the death of David's son, Noah Washington Wimberly

1862   J. A Monroe (Jack) to John L. Wimberly - to tell of the death of Lawson Wimberly in Hinds County 

1863   Hugh A. Wimberly to his sister, Alice Mary Wimberly Bryan

1863   A letter written by Joseph Bryan to his sister-in-law, Alice Mary Wimberly Bryan 

1865   Charles Perry Wimberly to brothers, Thomas Henry Wimberly and John Lawson Wimberly - tells of their brother's (Hugh A. Wimberly) death.

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.

Diana

© 2022 

Georgia Ann Frances Bryan, photograph, no date; scanned image, from the privately held photo collection of Diana Bryan Quinn, Virginia Beach, VA, 2022. 

Vera Meeks Wimberly, Wimberly Family History, Ancestors, Relatives, and Descendants of William Wimberly, Pioneer from Georgia to Louisiana 1837 (Houston Texas: D. Anderson, 1979).

John L. Wimberly [obituary], newspaper clipping, 15 February 1932, unidentified newspaper, from the privately-held collection of Marguerite Cook Clark (1913-1989), Waynesville, North Carolina, 2021. Obituaries were accessed and scanned at the home of Marguerite Cook Clark's daughter in Alpine, Texas on April 28, 2014, September 14, 2014, and November 9 to 11, 2016. Used with permission. 

Photograph of three soldiers, ca.1861; scanned image, from the privately held photo collection of Marguerite Cook Clark (1913-1989), Waynesville, North Carolina, 2021. Photos were accessed and scanned at the home of Marguerite Cook Clark's daughter in Alpine, Texas on April 28, 2014, September 14, 2014, and November 9 to 11, 2016. Used with permission. 

William Trott and grandmother, Josie Bryan Cook, photograph, abt. 1908; scanned image, from the privately held photo collection of the Frye Family, San Francisco, 2019. Used with permission.