Macon County GaArchives History - Letters .....Mary Crawford Bryan's First Letter To Aileen B. Massee November 2, 1943 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Meredith Clapper http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00012.html#0002801 November 19, 2005, 5:16 am Book Title: These are letters from Mary Crawford Bryan (1865-1950) to Aileen Billings Massee (1879-1978) about the Bryan family genealogy. I’ll put explanations in [ ]. Tuesday 3 p. m. Nov. 2, 1943 My dear Aileen, Your letter, written yesterday, was handed to me at noon today & I will do my best to answer your questions as correctly, as I am able to remember the things you ask about. 1st I was just two years old & Bert was about 3 months old when my grandfather died in Nov 1897 so I can have no personal “recollection” of his appearance, though from pictures & from “stories” as well as from the hat and the “overcoat”, that my grandmother kept at the head of her bed for some years after he left her, I have a very clear image of what he must have looked like at the time of his death. [Grandfather was Nathan Bryan. Her dates are incorrect—he died 29 Jan 1868. Her grandmother is Mary Lofley Bryan (1802- 1879) Bert is her Mary C. Bryan’s brother, Nathan Colbert Bryan (1867-1943)]. As I have “seen” him through the years his eyes were of a medium dark, brown hazel, very much like Aunt Susan's & Jasper's. In fact, (I think) Aunt Susan was very much like him both in features & in coloring, as well as in size. Not even my father, nor my Uncle John, who was much taller than my father, could wear that overcoat that had been worn by their father. It was much too “big” for either one. [Aunt Susan is Susan Bryan Massee (1828-1901). Jasper is her cousin Jasper N. Bryan (1863-1935). Her father is Jasper Newton Bryan (1840-1892). Uncle John is John L. Bryan (1822-1896)]. My “impression” through the years was that in his youth his hair was not “red” but of a light brown & that his “beard” matched his eyes & his hair. My grandmother, on the contrary, was small & rather fragile looking though not at all “fragile” in reality, but unusually wirey & active even in her last years. She was seventy six (76) when she died, after a very short illness (dysentery) and imprudent eating of barbecued pork before getting over that dysentery. When I knew her, her hair was grey but not really white as I have seen other kinds since then. I was told that it had been truly golden & very lovely. My most vivid memory of her is her eyes. They were large, clear & very bright & blue, a deep clear blue, very much like my father's and Jim's, both of whom had foreheads like hers & their eyes changed as her's did. At times, the blue was dark & at other times much lighter. [I do not know who Jim is.] I both loved & feared my grandmother's eyes. They seemed (to me) to know just about every thing, especially when I had something "on my conscience". She meant a great deal to me. I was twelve when she died, but even then I was impressed by her character. She was truly upright in every way. Cousin Mary Williams was like that sometimes "hard" but always strictly true & just, as far as it is humanly possible to be. [Mary Bryan Williams-dau of John L. Bryan & Elizabeth Potts Bryan 1853-1937] Little Bryan and his wife, Elisabeth, are both buried by Nathan & his wife & my father. The five graves are there side by side, in a row. Their graves were never marked, but as long as my father lived they were cared for & kept hilled up so you could tell exactly where they were. [Nathan’s parents Little Bryan & Elizabeth Magruder Bryan]. I sat under a large "Tree of Paradise" that grew at the foot of Nathan's grave, many many a time with my grandmother & listened to her stories of the past, that was very much alive to her, as long as she lived. Her mind was clear & bright to the last. I have often wished that I knew more of the “Lofleys” for she (my grandmother) was an “aristocrat” to her fingertips & much better “educated” than her husband. She was ( I think) some months older than he. He was “nineteen & one half” (19 ½) years old, when they were married, or so “Uncle Erastus”, his youngest brother, told me “once upon a time” after both of them had died. [Erastus Bryan youngest son of Little & Elizabeth Magruder Bryan (1829-1903)] Little built the house we lived in & he died in it. After his death Nathan & “Polly” lived there with Elisabeth till her death. Erastus & Uncle John were about the same age & they married sisters, Elisabeth & Serena Potts. Erastus (so he said) was only fifteen when he married. [Yes, born Oct 1829, he married Serena Minervia Potts 28 Jan 1845 Monroe Co., GA]. Grandmother's father, Pitman Lofley, died when she was little more than a baby & her mother married a man named Cummings by whom she had several other children. I think I once showed you an old handwritten arithmetic that once belonged to an John Pittman, an uncle of my grandmother's who was a school teacher & in it was recorded two births, one of them was Molly Lofley only daughter of Pitman Lofley & his wife Penelope. The other one was that of his own daughter, I forget the other name. Some years ago, I gave the book to the Historical Society at Winter Park as an antique. It was dated: "John Pitman his book, this January first 1700." They seemed to think it worth preserving. My grandparents lived in a sort of "half way house" between the Green Co. Bryans and the Alabama ones (I have been told) that it was a stopping place for the kinnery going to & from the other two places. Bert was named for one of these frequent visitors, one Colbert Bryan who had no children of their own. One James Bryan who never married but who was quite wealthy, had a sister to whom he was devoted & who married a man named Whitfield. The Whitfields lived in Alabama & owned large tracts of land & a wonderful mansion in that state. From that family there were two Generals Nathan Bryan Whitfield & his son, another Nathan Bryan Whitfield, also a General, but I do not know in what wars they fought. The error in Mabel's genealogy came from the fact that there were two men named Nathan Bryan living in M.Ville (sic-Marshallville) at the same time. They were related but I do not know just how. One was called War Mouth Nathan, because he had a mouth shaped like a war mouth perch (so I have been told). He was there when my father & mother were married, but he moved away soon afterward, he & all of his family. There have of late years been several write-ups of that old Whitfield place in Alabama. It is (or was) unoccupied & going to ruin the last I saw about it. The Judge of the State Supreme Court at present is one James Bryan Whitfield. Ruby Carson dedicated her History of Florida to him. I am sure that those Alabama Bryans were rather closely related to our grandfather Nathan & that as long as he lived some of them of the Green & Jefferson Co. relatives kept in touch with him. I often wish I had paid more attention to those old stories, but at that time they interested me very little. Calvin Bryan's widow, Emma, is a descendant of one of my grandmother's half sisters, who lived on the other side of the river. I forget her name, but my father & mother often spoke of her. She had several children, was a widow & supported those children by opening a school for colored children. [John Calvin Bryan (1857-1929) m. Emma Josephine Windham (1863-1959) dau. of Thomas John Windham (1835-1914) & Frances Emily Mathews (1844-1902).] Aunt Fanny McDowell! The name has just come back to me. I often heard it in my extreme youth. Papa applauded her grit & common sense. He said that had the South taken over the education of "The Negro" & had not left it to "The Yankees" things would have been better than they were-after the war. [Frances Emily Cummings Mathews McDowell 1817-1910]. I suppose you knew of the death of Loach, Calvin's daughter in Atlanta. Joe Massee was her physician. He admired her very much. [Myra Loach Bryan 1890- 1943 dau. of John Calvin Bryan & Emma Josephine Windham Bryan & Joe Massee (1899-1988) son of Jasper Cortenus Massee (1871-1965) & Mary Ola Oliver (1876- 1932) ]. The other daughter Bess is a nurse at North Ga College, Dahlonega, where the govt has a training unit. I had a letter from her, recently. [Elizabeth Melissa Bryan 1888-1974 dau of John Calvin & Emma Bryan] Virginia & Harris have been in Dallas, TX for about a year. Harris has a job that pays him quite a good salary, some three hundred dollars a month, I believe. Virginia's health is not at all good-she is constantly under the care of some doctor. [Virginia Elizabeth Bryan (1905-1978) wife of Harris H. Richard (1902-1966). She’s the writer’s niece.] When they were in Winter Haven for a short time a year or so ago, she was so very thin, that I was troubled about her. Bert is a full Colonel now & he is station at Fort Lewis Washington. He has been there since Pearl Harbor. [Bert Nathan Bryan (1900-1964) son of Edgar C. Bryan & Bessie V. Candler]. Edgar's son, Jim, was inducted into the navy last July, immediately after his graduation from high school the last of June. He is, not yet, eighteen. He is in V-12 in training at some college in Connecticut. [Don’t know who Edgar & Jim are]. Edgar is in charge of production at one of the big G.E. plants up there in which big bombers are being made. I am truly glad that Syd appreciated what you have done running down all those dates & etc. I only wish I could have helped. [Sydney Hoke Bryan (1884-1966) son of Jacob N. Bryan & Ida Hodges Bryan]. I hoped to get this letter off on tonight's mail, but company came in & prevented. I hope you & Dave are well and are as happy as any one can be in these trying days. [Aileen’s husband Dave Massee]. Berta's oldest daughter, Joan, is an Ensign in the Waves & married to a Lieut. in the navy. At present, both are stationed in Miami. The other two girls are in school in Tallahassee, one a Senior & the other a Sophmore. [Joe Berta Bryan m. Paul K. Weaver. Had 3 daughters Joan, Mary Ruth, and Beatrice.]Joan graduated there in 1940, at the same time that Gene's Nathan's daughter did. Gene is in Miami also. She is a private secretary to the Vice President of the Embry, Riddle Aviation, Co. [I don’t know who Gene is]. Your cousin, Mary C. Bryan Additional Comments: Mary Crawford Bryan is the daughter of Jasper Newton Bryan (1840-1892) and Amanda Fitzpatrick (1838-1904). She was b. Dec 1865 Macon Co., GA. Never married. Was a school teacher. She died June 1950 Osceola Co., FL & is buried at Rose Hill cemetery in Kissimmee, FL. She wrote 3 surviving letters to Aileen Massee about the Bryan family genealogy. Aileen was married to Thomas Drew Massee. Thomas Drew Massee's grandmother was Susan E. W. Bryan daughter of Nathan & Mary Lofley Bryan. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ga/macon/history/letters/marycraw269ms.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/gafiles/ File size: 11.4 Kb