3.41: Nathan P. Bryan and William J. Bryan Collection 1899-1941

Containers:

Box-folder 1/44-47

Scope and content:

Accession number 2007M:006. Approximately 2 inches of correspondence (much of of it electrostaticly reproduced) publications, clippings, photos and artifacts produced by or concerning the brothers Nathan P. Bryan and William James Bryan. These materials are arranged in 4 folders and 1 oversize folder, the latter stored in the map cases.

Materials include: Correspondence and clippings primarily re death of Nathan P. Bryan and dedication of University of Florida Law School building in his honor, 1922, 1935, amd 1941; Excerpts from letters of William James Bryan to Janet Allen Bryan, 1899-1903; Photos and printed campaign literature, c. 1899-1935; Artifacts (brass and glass nameplates), c. 1935; 1895 law diploma from Washington and Lee University; Certificate of Presidential appointment to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, 1920, and newspaper article about Judge Bryan Simpson, 1978 (all artifacts but nameplates in oversize folder in map case).

Biographical / historical:

Nathan Philemon Bryan (April 23, 1872 - August 8, 1935) was born near Fort Mason, Orange County (now Lake County), Florida, the son of a planter, John Milton Bryan, and his wife, the former Louise Margaret Norton. . He attended the common schools but graduated from Emory College, Oxford, Georgia (now Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia), in 1893. He graduated from the the Washington and Lee University School of Law, Lexington, Virginia, in 1895 and was admitted to the bar that same year. Bryan began practicing law in 1895 in Jacksonville, Florida. He chaired the Board of Control of the Florida State Institutions of Higher Education from 1905 to 1909.

Bryan became a United States Senator for Florida by appointment on February 22, 1911. Shortly after that, the legislature elected him to that position as a Democrat on March 4, 1911. He served as Senator until March 3, 1917, having been an unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1916. He chaired the Committee on Claims in the Sixth-third and Sixty-fourth Congresses. He declined the appointment as Governor General of the Philippine Islands by President Woodrow Wilson in 1917.

Bryan returned to the practice of law and also became a trustee of Emory University. On April 23, 1920, Bryan was nominated by President Woodrow Wilson to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, to a seat vacated by Robert Lynn Batts. He was confirmed by the United States Senate and received commission the same day. He held this position until his death.

Nathan's brother, William James Bryan (October 10, 1876 – March 22, 1908), was also born in Orange County Florida. In his short life, he was a politician, attorney, prosecutor and a Democratic U.S. Senator from Florida.

Bryan attended public schools, graduating from Osceola High School of Kissimmee, Florida. He gained admission to Emory College in Oxford, Georgia (forerunner of today's Emory University) at the age of 16, graduating with a B.A. degree in 1896. Following graduation, Bryan taught school for one year and worked on a plantation for another, all the while studying for law school. Bryan then enrolled in the Washington and Lee University School of Law in Lexington, Virginia, from which he graduated in 1899. He was admitted to the bar that same year and began the practice of law in Jacksonville, Florida.

In 1903 Bryan married Janet G. Allan. The couple had two children.

In 1902 Bryan was elected as Duval County solicitor in its Criminal Court of Record. He was re-elected to this office in 1906, remaining in that capacity throughout 1907.

The day after Christmas 1907, Bryan was appointed to fill a vacancy in the Unites States Senate. About a month after his arrival in the nation's capital, Bryan was stricken with typhoid fever, an illness which caused his premature death on March 22, 1908, at the age of 31. Bryan was buried at Evergreen Cemetery in Jacksonville, Florida.

(Adapted from Wikipedia visited on 10/27/2016.)

Access and use