This is a brief biography of my third great-grandfather, Jesse Bryan, Jr.  He 
was born in the Marion District of SC in 1784, the son of Jesse Bryan, Sr. and 
Mourning Smith. He married Elizabeth Johnson about 1807 in SC and the marriage 
produced nine children who lived to adulthood. Elizabeth was the daughter of 
Samuel and Mary Johnson of Marion District, SC. The Bryan surname has many 
variant spellings including Bryant, Briant, and Brian but for uniformity, the 
"Bryan" variation will be used for all names in this article. 

W. W. Sellers wrote a book called The History of Marion County, South Carolina 
and in it, he describes the Jesse Bryan family. All the children of Jesse, Sr. 
and their spouses are listed and the author says that Jesse, Jr. "went west." 
That seems strange until we realize that Alabama and Florida were "the west" in 
the early 1800s. 

The Creek Indians who had occupied the land of South Alabama for hundreds of 
years had been defeated by General Andrew Jackson. A treaty was signed in 1814 
in which the Creeks surrendered all their land in what is now South Alabama to 
the United States. This opened up the land to white settlers however, many 
Indians continued to live in the area. The Alabama Territory, with the present 
day boundaries of the state, was created on March 3, 1817 and became the 22nd 
State in the Union on December 14, 1819. 

A few years later-probably around 1821-1822-Jesse left SC and traveled to West 
Florida and possibly Louisiana before settling near Rose Hill in Covington 
County, AL sometime in the 1820s. Family tradition holds that he knew Andrew 
Jackson and possibly served with him during the West Florida Indian Wars and 
thus became familiar with the area.

During the 1824-1826 time period, Jesse was in West Florida. In a land 
transaction dated January, 1824, he identified his residence as West Florida. In 
1826, he was living in the area near Oak Grove (about 7 miles southwest of 
Laurel Hill) because he was named as a judge to oversee the elections held in 
October, 1826 to elect members of the Legislative Council for the Territory of 
Florida. This was designated as Barrows Ferry precinct because there was a ferry 
across Yellow River at that point near where Highway 2 crosses the river today.

The family lived for a time near the lake that came to be called McDade's Pond 
and is now called Lake Jackson located at Florala, Alabama. When they first 
arrived, they were the only white settlers in the area. frame.  According to a 
family story passed down by Jesse's daughter Elizabeth, they lived among some 
friendly Indians who would take the children hunting with them and show them how 
to hunt.  They would indicate what time of the day they would return by pointing 
to the place in the sky where the sun would be when they got back.  They told 
them stories of how an extinct race of giant Indians who hunted with spears once 
lived in the area.  This might be dismissed as legend except for the fact that 
Brewer's "Alabama" makes note of a discovery of an Indian burial site on the 
Conecuh river that had giant skulls.  They estimated that the size of the 
individual must have been 8 or 9 feet tall.  Another similar story is told in 
The History of Walton County by John L. McKinnon. In 1861, the Walton Guards 
were stationed at The Narrows at Camp Walton near present day Fort Walton Beach. 
They discovered some huge mounds in the area and excavated some of them to find 
great skeletons of men in perfect preservation...they were mostly all giants and 
warriors, killed in battle. So maybe there is a grain of truth in the family 
legend!

Elizabeth also told stories of panthers chasing some of the family as they were 
riding on horseback while they were in Florida. 

Jesse's sister, Mourning Bryan, married Jonathan Harrellson and they lived in 
south Walton County, Florida in the early 1820s before moving to Covington about 
1845. 

Jesse's father, Jesse, Sr., died in Marion, SC in 1822. However, his estate was 
not settled until 1845 because of a challenge to the will by family members. 
Jesse, Jr. received as his portion of the real estate settlement, two negro 
slaves. One was named Will and was valued at $250 with the notation that Jesse, 
Jr. took him when "he went west." A second slave named Simon was valued at $550. 
The two were valued at $800 and his portion of the real estate settlement was 
$601.40. Jesse Jr. paid the difference of $198.60 to other heirs.

Jesse was a prosperous farmer and accumulated considerable wealth for his time. 
He purchased a total of at least 660 acres of land in the county in the 1830s-
primarily from federal land sales at the minimum established price of $1.25 per 
acre. By 1850, he had 11 slaves and was the owner of a 300-acre plantation 
having 100 acres of improved land. He owned livestock valued at $875 which 
included 9 horses, 1 mule, 8 working oxen, 24 milk cows, 70 other cattle and 100 
head of hogs. In 1850, his plantation produced 700 bushels of Indian corn, 2 
bales of ginned cotton of 400 pounds each, 100 bushels of potatoes and other 
produce. By 1860, the value of his real estate was $3000 and his personal estate 
value was $18,275, which included the value of his 14 slaves. 

The Bryans are said to have constructed the oldest water mill in the Rose Hill 
community. Located on Stewart Mill Creek four miles northeast of the old Rose 
Hill School, it was built about 1830. The rocks, parts of the old wheel, and 
parts of the old house could still be seen as late as 1950. Jesse served as 
Justice of the Peace for Beat No. 4 (Rose Hill) in 1836 and again in 1844. He 
was Vice Justice of the Peace in 1837. In 1843, his home was established as one 
of the voting precincts in Beat No. 4, Covington County. Jesse was probably 
instrumental in persuading his nephew, Elder Giles Bryan, to leave his home in 
the Marion district of SC and exercise his gifts of ministry in the new 
settlements. Giles became a very well-known Primitive Baptist Preacher in 
Covington and Coffee Counties, Alabama. 

The children of Jesse Bryan and Elizabeth Johnson married into many of the 
pioneer families of Covington county whose names are still prominent in the area 
today. The children were: 
1. Celia, born 6 Feb 1808 in SC, died 5 Dec 1889, married William Hardy Dannelly 
about 1825. 
2. Sarah, born 18 April 1810 in SC, died after 1866, married first Thomas Elijah 
Chesher about 1830 and after his death about 1837, she married Bennett J. 
Boyett, Sr. Their son, William Burl Boyett, fought in the Civil War and was 
wounded in the Battle of Peach Tree Creek in Atlanta. I am descended directly 
from William Burl Boyett through his daughter Mary Jane who married Andrew 
Jackson Bryan; their son Jesse Oscar is my grandfather.
3. Tempie, born 20 April 1812 in SC, died 5 June 1890, married Alfred Holley in 
1835. Alfred Holley was the sheriff in Covington county from 1844-1847 and a 
state legislator prior to the Civil War. Although he owned 12 slaves in 1860, he 
was opposed to secession. During the war, Alfred Holley fled to Pensacola and 
aided the Union forces but his wife Tempie and two of their children remained in 
Covington County. Most of their possessions were confiscated by the Confederate 
forces. After the war he moved to Milton, Florida with his family and later to 
Pensacola, where he operated a general merchandise store until his death in 
1885.
4. Mary "Polly", born in 1813, died after 1860, first married John B. Sasser 
about 1835. After his death in 1843, she married William Peoples. 
5. Elizabeth, born 20 September 1814, died 13 June 1907, married William M. 
Sasser in 1832. He was the brother of John B. Sasser who married Mary Polly. 
6. Jesse Oliver, born 5 Jan 1818, died 18 June 1900, married Sara Ann Boyett in 
1843. Their son (my great-grandfather), Andrew Jackson Bryan, married his first 
cousin once removed-Mary Jane Boyett (see #2 above).
7. Avy, born 9 Jan 1820, died 15 June 1885, married Emmanuel Boyett about 1838. 
8. Susan, born 25 July 1826, died after 1870, married John Boyett about 1841. 
9. Telatha, born 30 Sep 1831, died after 1870, married William G. Williams, Sr. 
about 1848.

Four of the children married Boyetts, all of whom came from Georgia and who were 
possibly siblings or cousins, but the exact relationships have not been 
established. In addition to the families mentioned above, later descendants 
married into the Cauley, Butler, Prescott, Henderson, Harrellson and many other 
well-known families. 

Jesse died sometime between 1860 and 1870. Elizabeth lived with her daughter 
Telatha after the death of Jesse and died between 1870 and 1880. Family 
tradition records that Jesse's slaves carried his body over the fields to the 
burial grounds on his property. Those burial grounds later came to be known as 
the Williams Cemetery or Williams Burying Grounds after the property was left to 
Jesse's daughter, Telatha and her husband, William Green Williams. As of 2002, 
the cemetery is abandoned and the land is planted in pines. It is located in the 
SE corner of section 24, Township 6N, Range 17E, about a quarter mile west of CR 
43. Wooden markers mark a few graves and many more are identifiable by sunken 
areas. In addition to Jesse and his wife Elizabeth, others buried there are: 
William Green Williams and his wife, Telatha Bryan Williams; William Lloyd 
Butler, Sr. and probably two Butler infants; Roger and Nancy Moody who died Sep 
12, 1841 and Feb. 8, 1837, respectively; Roan Spicer and his wife Carolyn E. 
Thompson Spicer, members of the Chandler family and slaves of the neighboring 
families. An effort is presently underway by the descendants of these families 
to place an appropriate marker to identify the cemetery and those buried there. 

We can only speculate about many aspects of the life of Jesse Bryan, Jr. We have 
no photos or physical description of him. But, he most likely had a fair skin 
with a florid complexion and reddish hair much like many of his descendants. He 
was near 80 years old when he died, a ripe old age by the standards of the time 
in which he lived, and he died a wealthy man. He was a true pioneer. He left his 
home in South Carolina to come to a wild and unsettled area, bringing his young 
family with him. By 1820, Jesse and Elizabeth had seven children with the oldest 
being only twelve. Their eighth child, Susan, was born in 1826, probably near 
Oak Grove which is about 7 miles southwest of Laurel Hill. Transportation was by 
horseback, horse/mule/oxen-drawn wagon or walking. Roads were little more than 
Indian trails and there were no bridges over the creeks and rivers. Here in the 
year 2002, we can only imagine the primitive living conditions (by our 
standards) they must have had. Yet, they came and thrived in the new area. It 
makes me appreciate the hardy stock from which we come! The descendants of Jesse 
Bryan, Jr. and Elizabeth Johnson number in the thousands and I'm proud to be one 
of them.

Bob Bryan
22 May 2002

Sources: US Census, Tombstone inscriptions, Bureau of Land Management Records, 
Covington County Land Records, and the research of Gus and Ruby Bryan of Opp, 
Alabama who were the pioneers in researching the Bryan family in the Covington 
County area.