Nathaniel Moreland Brian, M. D., Winn Parish, Louisiana Contributed by Greggory E. Davies 120 Ted Price Lane Winnfield, LA 71483 Nathaniel Moreland Brian, M. D. ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** One of the busiest physicians and surgeons in Grant Parish is Doctor Brian, whose name is at Montgomery and whose practice extends over a large section of the country. He is a comparatively young man, physically equal to the heavy demands made upon his strength and energy and has a reputation for skill and ability that would gain him prominence in his profession in the larger cities. He was born at the Hargis Post Office, near Montgomery, in Grant Parish, January 12, 1889, son of Rev. Iley M. and Kate Eulalie Traylor Brian. His father, a native of South Carolina, was a child when his parents, Mr. and Mrs. William Brian, moved with their family to East Feliciana Parish, Louisiana. Iley M. Brian finished his education in the Louisiana State University and entering the Confederate Army was in active service until the Battle of Shiloh, where he was wounded in the right thigh and was a prisoner of war for six months. After that wound, he walked with a slight limp the rest of his life. He taught school after the war and at the age of twenty-six became a minister of the Baptist Church and thereafter did missionary work, organized congregations and built churches in many parts of Louisiana, including Boyce, Pollock, Montgomery, and Winnfield. After a long life of earnest labor and devotion to the church and humanity, he died at the age of seventy-eight. His last church work was done at Verda in Grant Parish. He was a Mason and was active in public affairs, serving three terms on the Grant Parish police jury, being president during his last term. His wife died in November, 1919, at the age of sixty-eight. She was a college graduate, had been a teacher and was active in church affairs. Rev. Iley Brian had a brother, Morgan Brian, who served as district attorney at Winnfield; another brother, Dr. F. N. Brian of Alexandria; and a sister who first married Robert Milling of Shreveport, and later became Mrs. E. W. Teddlie. Rev. Iley Brian and his wife's children were: S. M., a physician for the Tremont & Gulf Railroad at Winnfield; E. A. Brian, postmaster at St. Maurice in Winn Parish; Homera, wife of C. C. McGinty, a railroad man living in Arkansas; Rena, wife of O. D. Hastings of Montgomery; Eagar, wife of C. R. Rhinehart, of Alexandria; Odette, wife of R. L. Barker, of Houston, Texas; D. A. Brian, now with the Standard Oil Company of Houston, Texas. Nathaniel Moreland Brian, was educated in several different schools, attending the Boyce High School and the Louisiana Industrial Institute at Ruston. For two years he was a teacher, and also worked as manager of the grocery department of the Balls Lumber Company store at Pollock. Largely with money earned and saved, he entered the Memphis Hospital Medical College at Memphis, was graduated in 1911 and subsequently in 1914 took postgraduate work in the polyclinic at New Orleans. Doctor Brian did his first work as an industrial citizen for the Dixie Lumber Company. He was then at Clarence, in Natchitoches Parish, practiced at St. Maurice and from there moved to Montgomery. The good work he did in these different communities has made his service in demand by his old patients so that even yet he looks after practice at Clarence. He is chairman of the local School Board and a member of the Health Board and held similar positions at St. Maurice. Doctor Brian married sisters, Claudia and Eunice Gardner, daughters of W. D. Gardner. By his first marriage, he had two children, Nathaniel M., Jr., and Mabel Esteele. The two children of his second marriage are Iley and Francis. Doctor Brian is a Baptist, is a member of Phoenix Lodge No. 38, Free and Accepted Masons at Natchitoches, belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and the Louisiana State Medical Society and is former president of the Red River and Natchitoches Medical Society. (The above was extracted from "A History of Louisiana", by Henry E. Chambers, published 1925. Submitted by Greggory Ellis Davies, Winnfield, Winn Parish, La.)