Jacob Hickman Bryan Biography


	This biography appears on pages 719-720 in "History of Dakota Territory" 
	by George W. Kingsbury, Vol. IV (1915) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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				JACOB HICKMAN BRYAN. 

	Jacob Hickman Bryan was living retired in Springfield, when he 
passed away September 28, 1914, after a lifetime of strenuous endeavor. 
He had been identified with South Dakota since November, 1868, having 
crossed the border from Sioux City, Iowa, on a Wednesday morning after 
the general elections of that year. He was born in Ashland county, 
Ohio, December 13, 1834, and lived there until he was eighteen years of 
age, when the family removed to Green county, Wisconsin. There he 
married Mary C. Hawthorn, whose father was at that time one of the 
wealthy men of the new state. From Wisconsin Mr. Bryan removed to 
Waterloo, Iowa, when that hustling little city was but a frontier 
village, and in 1868 he packed his belongings into a wagon drawn by 
oxen and moved on to the frontier. When he had crossed the border into 
South Dakota he settled at Elk Point, taking up a claim. He also opened 
a blacksmith shop and followed his trade until 1900, although he did 
not give his entire attention to that business, as most of the time he 
resided in Union county he held public office, serving either as 
principal or deputy for six years in the treasurer's office, seven 
years in the sheriff's, and for a number of years in the office of 
registrar of deeds. While connected with the latter office he made a 
set of abstract books and was engaged in that business as well for 
seven years before disposing of the books. With one exception he was 
employed in public work at the courthouse for more years than any other 
citizen of Union county up to the present time. For a number of years 
he lived retired in Vermillion, enjoying greatly his life of leisure 
won by many years of untiring labor, but had removed to Springfield two 
months prior to his death. 

	His first wife, who, as before stated, was in her maidenhood Miss 
Mary C. Hawthorn, died early in 1872. By that union he had the 
following children: Ida E., now Mrs. J. B. Clark, of Boston, 
Massachusetts; Alvin Edwin, known as Ed, who is a widower and resides 
in Stickney, South Dakota; Calvin H., a resident of Coquille, Oregon; 
and Lora M., now Mrs. J. H. Hopkins, of Woodward, Oklahoma. Mr. Bryan 
was subsequently married to Mrs. Charlotte A. Collins, and a daughter 
was born to them, Charlotte Adelaide, now the wife of Dr. Owen H. 
Williams, a sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this work. Mrs. Bryan 
was born in 1838, in the town of Spafford, Onondaga county, New York, a 
daughter of Joseph Elliott and Cynthia (Bisby) Cook, the former a 
native of New York and the latter of Ohio. In 1842 the family removed 
to Cass county, Michigan, which was then far out upon the western 
frontier. Here as a child Mrs. Bryan knew intimately the noted Indian 
chief, Peter Pokagon. She was married in the Wolverine state, near the 
town of Pokagon, to Edward Carleton Collins, who removed with his 
family to Elk Point, Dakota territory, then upon the edge of the 
wilderness. In migrating from Michigan the family went by rail to St. 
Joseph, Missouri, and by boat to Council Bluffs, where a relative met 
them with a wagon and conveyed them to their objective point— Dakota. 
So heavy were the roads at that time— April, 1864— that the journey 
from Council Bluffs to Elk Point consumed five days and only on one 
short stretch of road did the horses move faster than a walk. Mr. 
Collins was a pioneer preacher and his superiority above the average 
man being quickly recognized he was elected to both the council and the 
lower house of the territorial legislature in the '60s. His death 
occurred March 6, 1870. Of the children born to Mr. and Mrs. Collins, 
three survive. Edward Elliott now lives retired in Vermillion but was 
for many years active in the educational field and one of the best 
known school men of the state. For seven years he served as 
superintendent of the city schools of Vermillion, for six years was 
superintendent of schools of Clay county and for four years state 
superintendent of schools. Herbert Lycurgus is a blacksmith of 
Vermillion, having learned the trade from his stepfather, Mr. Bryan. 
Gerald Willard is a well known dentist of Vermillion. 

	Mr. and Mrs. Bryan bore their share of the hardships and dangers 
of the frontier when drought and grasshoppers worked ruin repeatedly. 
For seven seasons the pests devoured the crops and for three seasons 
left nothing in their wake. On several occasions they came in such 
clouds as to darken the sun. The following incident will serve to 
illustrate the hardships and difficulties of life in the west and the 
courage and grit necessary to persevere in the hope that eventually 
conditions would be easier. A grandson of Mr. Bryan was born in March, 
1881, during a raging flood. At that time the rising waters almost 
lapped the cabin floor. Within a few hours, however, Mr. Bryan had 
carried the young mother to a boat outside, a nurse carrying the child, 
and soon both were rowed to a safe retreat at the grandfather's home, 
which stood upon a mound well above the crest of the rising flood. The 
present generation knows only by hearsay of those early times and it is 
only by reminiscences of pioneers that they can in any way realize the 
sacrifices their fathers and mothers made and the dangers that they 
endured in order that their children might have a well developed and 
highly civilized state in which to live.