Children of James and Mary (nee Goodge) Bryan

Samuel, Mary, R. Alsinas, and William Bryan

Samuel Bryan, son of James and Mary (nee Goodge) Bryan, was born August 23 , 1841, near Uniontown, Pa. In 1862 or 1863 he enlisted as a private in the 15th Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers of the Civil War. He was promoted to a noncommissioned officer rank about a year after entering the service. A photograph of Samuel shows the stripes of a corporal or sergeant on his coat sleeve. It is stated that he had gone thru the battle of Five Forks, Dinwiddle County, West Virginia battle ground, and with several other soldiers, was covering the battle field for wounded soldiers, when a southern soldier, on the other side of the battle field, together with squad men, picked up a rifle from the ground and shot Samuel, of which was a violation of the common military law of alienation's and men. Samuel's body was brought to his home, then near Dawson, Pa., and buried in the Bryan Church cemetery beside his parents.

Samuel W. Bryan was one of 634 soldiers in the 5th corps to die on April 1, 1865 at the battle of Five Forks, VA. His military record states he served with DISTINGUISHED SERVICE. Enlistment date 22 August 1862. Unit Numbers: 2145 2145 Service Record: Enlisted as a Corporal on 22 August 1862 Enlisted in Company E, 155th Infantry Regiment Pennsylvania on 22 August 1862. Killed Company E, 155th Infantry Regiment Pennsylvania on 01 April 1865 in Five Forks, VA. Samuel enlisted for 3 years right when the company was formed. His Company engaged in 79 named battles before being mustered out. Samuel W. Bryan was killed in his 77th battle. The Civil war in Virginia ended just 8 days later when General Lee surrended at Appomattox on April 9, 1865.

Mary Bryan OberMary C. Bryan, daughter of James and Mary Goodge Bryan, was born about 1843. Her gravestone inscription gives her date of birth as 1848, but it was guessed at or was hearsay, for on that date, 1848, Mary's mother would have been 48 years old, and there is at least one brother younger than Mary and maybe two, the nature of which sets up a biological factor that would dispute the correctness of the 1848 date. So the writer has with reason adopted the earlier date as nearer correct. Mary died in 1918, age 76 years, and is buried beside her husband in the cemetery at Alverton, Pa., about four miles from Scottdale, Pa., the place of her last residence.

Mary and her sister Maria were inseparable. Remaining at home after their father died, they chose to never leave their mother during her life. After the mother died they lived in or near Scottdale, Pa., three or four miles from the farm home, which at that time had been sold. It may have be en the late nineties that one John Ober, ex soldier, ex postmaster and general merchant of Alverton, Pa., a town four miles from Scottdale, came to the latter place one day to inquire about getting a housekeeper. It is stated that one of John's friends jokingly told him that if he was looking for a wife instead of a hired housekeeper he might get on of the Bryan girls. John laughed and said that might be a good idea. The Bryan girls were visited, but they had their home and did not care to break it up, and they would not separate. John, then, spoke of taking the younger girl as wife if she would care to consider such a plan. After several buggy rides John's courting came to an end when Mary agreed to marry, but on the condition that her sister Maria be allowed to live with her during the latter's life. John willingly agreed to this contractual arrangement. Mary and John were married sometime in the late nineties (about, 1897), and the girls, the younger being over fifty and the older being in her sixties, disposed of their Scottdale property and moved to Alverton, where they lived until their deaths.

John Ober was a widower with several grown children, married and living near Alverton. His first wife was Catherine (family name not known), who was born January 12, 1850, and died April 23, 1885. John was born in 1846 and died in 1926. He is buried beside his second wife, Mary, in the village cemetery, their graves being kept by the cemetery association under a perpetual agreement. John was a veteran of the Civil War, serving in Company F., 28th Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers. He drew a government pension which was sufficient to provide for him and wife in their declining years.

During the last years of Mary's life she sat in a wheel-chair, in which, by some help from John, she managed to do nearly all of her housework. Her ailment, results of a stroke, left her unable to walk, but otherwise she was normal in health and suffered no other ill effects than being unable to walk. Mary was the last member of the James Bryan branch of the Bryan family to marry and one of three of the children to survive after 1917.

R. Alsinas Bryan, son of James and Mary Bryan, was born about 1843 or 1844, near Uniontown, Pa., and died April 11, (or within a day of that date) , 1916, in the State Hospital (emergency case), at Nevada, MO., and an undertaking establishment gave him a decent burial in the city's Deep Wood Cemetery. He is said to have died of chirresis of the liver, and at his death to have been without any known funds. Alsinas is said to have married a woman named Susie (last name forgotten) of Nevada, Vernon County, MO. daughter of a family of several children, all very poor and in need of assistance. It is thought that his wife Susie survived him. Alsinas' first name may have been Robert , but no facts support this statement. His interment came to forty-five dollars.

William Bryan, son of James and Mary Goodge Bryan, was probably born in 1839 or 1840, and died when quite young. But he may have been born at an earlier date, his position in the Bryan family of births has been put last for convenience. There may have been another son born and died young, but this is not definitely known.

This completes the history of the Bryan family from James Bryan, the first, and his son James Bryan, the second, who married Mary Goodge, sister of Catherine who married one William Cotton and sister of John Goodge, mentioned frequently in this hosiery.

The name of James Bryan, the first, his Christian name is referred to, was given the writer by his father James Hamilton Bryan, and this is all that is known about him, exception that he was married and was the father of a large family, the names of which have been recorded in the first part of this narrative, and that he is supposed to have lived in Virginia and to have migrated to Maryland, near Cumberland, or to Pennsylvania, near Uniontown.

Whatever the connection may be between James Bryan, the first, and Morgan Bryan of Winchester, Virginia, is not definite. James Bryan, the first, may have been a son of Morgan or a son of any one of Morgan's sons who married and had issue of sons.

[TREE] [PREVIOUS] [HOME PAGE] [SEARCH]

Brought to you by Karen Wunderlich Stezowski. Visit other sites I've designed from my Home Page