Washington Co., AR - Biographies - Javan Bryant *********************************************** This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by: The Goodspeed Publishing Co Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgenwebarchives.org *********************************************** Javan Bryant, M. D., of Evansville, was born in Spartanburgh, S. C., November 5, 1839, the son of Reuben and Sarah (Kirby) Bryant. both natives of South Carolina, and the mother of Scotch descent. The Bryant family were of the original Brittons, and came to America about four generations back. Reuben and Sarah (Kirby) Bryant were married in their native State, and both were professing Christians, he a member of the Baptist and she a member of the Methodist Church. He was a well-to-do farmer, and died in his native State at the age of sixty- eight. The mother died at the age of forty-eight. In their family were two children, a son and a daughter. The father had previously [p.920] married a Miss Dillard, who bore him five children. His second marriage was to Miss Kirby, and after her death be married a Miss Harvey, who bore him one child. The eldest of the second set received his education in the high school at Glenn Springs, S. C., and at the age of eighteen began the study of medicine, which he continued until twenty-one years of age, when he graduated at the Medical College of the State of South Carolina, and afterward located in Spartanburgh County. In 1861 he married Miss Susannah N. Littlejohn, also a native of South Carolina, who bore him five children-three sons and two daughters. Dr, Bryant practiced his profession in Spartanburgh County until May, 1862, when he enlisted in Company I, Thirteenth South Carolina Infantry, Confederate States Army, serving as a private several weeks, when he received a commission as assistant surgeon, which position he held until the surrender of Johnston. His chief service was hospital duty at Richmond Va., Raleigh, Wilmington and Kittrell's Spring, N. C. He surrendered at Thomasville, N. C., and afterward returned to Spartanburgh County, where he continued his practice. In 1879 he and family moved to Hot Springs, Ark., where his wife, who was an invalid, hoped for recovery. The same year they located at Evansville, Washington County, and here his wife died in July, 1883. She was a member of the Missionary Baptist Church, as is also Dr. Bryant. Dr. Bryant represented Spartanburgh County in the State Legislature of South Carolina during the sessions of 1868-70. He has been a very close student all his life, and his special diversion is language, being able to speak and read, more or less fluently, seven different languages, and he is deeply interested in the improvement and propagation of Volapük. In 1878 he took an ad eundem degree at the Atlanta, Ga., Medical College. Dr. Bryant is a member of the Washington County Medical Association, has practiced medicine twenty-seven years, and is accounted a skillful physician, receiving a liberal share of the patronage. He is a contributor to periodical literature, both medical and literary.