Elias + BRYANT, Lou Ella. Lou (daughter of BRYANT, Aaron and SISK, Nancy) was born about 1868; died on 24 Nov 1954 in Rural, Cocke County, TN. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Earl + SISK, Elizabeth. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Aaron + SISK, Nancy. Nancy (daughter of SISK, Lawson and CLEVENGER, Sarah) was born on 5 May 1849; died on 3 Apr 1888. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Birth: Dec. 22, 1817
Cocke County
Tennessee, USA
Death: Jan. 20, 1881
Cocke County
Tennessee, USA

Hardy was a son of Tarlton Bryant and Jane Henry. He married Lucinda "Cindy" Dillon in 1845.

The 1860 census listed James H. as age 43; wife Lucinda, 32; Martha, 17; Aaron, 13; Ananias, 11; Andrew, 8; Emaline, 5; William, 3; and Thomas, 3 1/2. Julia and Mary were born later. The handwritten "Andrew" may have actually been Addison (a reading error). There was a son William who married Susie Jones and moved to Texas. (The 1880 census listed a James Jr., but further documentation is unavailable.)

The 1850 census listed Nancy Lax, age 19, as living with Jame H. and Lucinda Bryant. Her identity is unknown, but she was probably a neice or other relative of Lucinda. Nancy Lax married Daniel Bayless Duncan, son of William Duncan and Elizabeth Bayless of the Bogard Community.

Hardy and Cindy lived in the Upper English Creek Community, but he and his sons farmed on land owned by Tralton Bryant in the Lower English Creek Community. The Bryants in the Bryant-Sisk Cemetery and adjacent Click-Hannon Cemetery are their descendants.

[Many Byant descendants of my father’s generation assumed that Hardy and Cindy were buried in the Bryant-Sisk Cemetery in graves unmarked or marked with fieldstones, as many are. But several researchers had placed their burials in the Tarlton Bryant Family Cemetery. On April 17, 2015, I searched the older abandoned family grave yard for evidence of unrecorded graves. I found a Freemasonry headstone for Hardy under thick underbrush and vines, partially hidden with soil and decaying vegetation. His name was not readable, but his birth and death dates were. Although in doesn’t show up in the photos I took and posted on this page, a faintly visible Masonic emblen covers the top third of his stone. The symbol appears to be almost identical to image I have added under his stone on this page. This emblem is fairly common on headstones of the late 1800s --Gene Bryant (great-great grandson of Hardy Bryant]


(Also part of the Hardy Bryant household was Amon, a slave raised as a child. According to a story handed down through generations, a slave trader once offered Hardy $1,000 for Amon, who heard the offer and began crying. Hardy reportedly said he would not sell Amon for any amount of money. Amon was still a young man when the 13th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution (abolition of slavery) was ratified. Hardy told Amon he was free to leave. Amon remained in the Newport area working as a hired laborer. He kept in close contact with his Bryant relatives. Although unconfirmed, Amon possibly could be buried in the Bryant-Sisk Cemetery.)

James + DILLON, Lucinda. Lucinda (daughter of DILLON, John and VINSON, Mary) was born on 25 Apr 1828 in Cocke County, TN; died in 1880 in Cocke County, TN. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Birth: Apr. 25, 1828
Cocke County
Tennessee, USA
Death: 1880
Cocke County
Tennessee, USA

Lucinda "Cindy" Dillon was the wife of James Hardin "Hardy" Bryant. She was the daughter of John Dillon and Mary Vinson. (John was a son of Thomas Dillon and Margaret Eagan. Mary was a daughter of William Vinson Sr. and Lydia Coleman of the Edwina Community in Cocke Co.)

U.S. and International Marriage Records
Name: Thomas Dillon
Gender: Male
Spouse Name: Margaret Eagan
Spouse Birth Place: VA
Spouse Birth Year: 1772
Marriage Year: 1793

U.S. and International Marriage Records
Name: John Dillon
Gender: Male
Spouse Name: Mary Vinson
Spouse Birth Place: TN
Spouse Birth Year: 1812

Most Dillon families left Cocke County for western states: Missouri, Kansas and Texas.

John Dillon's sister Letitia Dillon married Thomas Mantooth Jr. Their son Hugh, born and married in Cocke County, is buried in Kansas. John's sister Margaret "Peggy" Dillon married George Gray. He had 2 brothers, Thomas Jr. and James.

[Cindy's sister Julia Dillon married Elias Clevenger Jr.. Cindy's brother Calvin Dillon married Nancy Gray, daughter of James Gray Jr. and Syche Clevenger. Calvin and Nancy moved to Missouri. One of their sons, Thomas Jefferson Dillon, returned to Cocke County as a youth and lived with various relatives in the English Creek Community. Cindy's sister Lydia married Thomas Mantooth. Thomas and Lydia died on the same day in 1865 in Texas, both from accidental poisoning by a quack doctor. Thomas and Lydia's son Judge James Edwin Mantooth became a wealthy and prominent Texan.

Lawson + CLEVENGER, Sarah. Sarah was born in 1809; died in 1883. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]