Family/Spouse: TAYLOR, Ted (Rene). [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. TAYLOR, Jack D was born in 1929; died in 2009.
2. TAYLOR, Everett John was born in 1931; died in 2004.
3. TAYLOR, Frances was born in 1934; died in 2001.

Notes:

Birth: Jan. 14, 1880
Cocke County
Tennessee, USA
Death: Jan. 30, 1926
Cocke County
Tennessee, USA

Thomas Nelson "Tom" Bryant was a son of Ananias Bryant and Sarah Sisk of the English Creek Community, Cocke County, Tenn. He was a great-grandson of Tarlton Bryant, the first Bryant to settle in Cocke County (coming from South Carolina around 1805).

In 1904, Tom married Dollie Allen, daughter of James Allen and Matilda Finchum. Tom and Dollie lived at the Bryant home place on English Creek, which was owned at that time by James Breeden and his wife Cordelia, Tom's sister.

Tom died of pneumonia in 1926, leaving 8 children ages 2-19. Dollie died 5 years later.

Three of Tom's brothers, Addison, Judd and Lee, moved to Missouri. His other brothers were Daniel, Taylor, Joe and Elbert. His sisters were Lucinda (Mrs. Isaac Clevenger), Julia (Mrs. Luther Acton) and Cordelia (Mrs. Jim Breeden).

[Research by Gene Bryant, a grandson of Thomas Nelson Bryant]

Thomas married ALLEN, Dollie in 1904. Dollie (daughter of ALLEN, James and FINCHUM, Matilda) was born on 27 Sep 1884 in Cocke County, TN; died on 11 Apr 1931 in Greeneville, Greene County, TN. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Birth: Sep. 27, 1884
Cocke County
Tennessee, USA
Death: Apr. 11, 1931
Greeneville
Greene County
Tennessee, USA

Although I was privileged to share a half century with my maternal grandparents, I never had the honor of knowing my paternal grandparents, Tom Bryant and Dollie Allen. (I do remember my step-grandfather, Campbell Gray, whom Dollie married after Tom died.)

Only recently did I begin serious research on this side of my family, unfortunately after the passing of my father and his siblings robbed me of firsthand resources. I do have recollections of my father's references to his parents' death while he was still a boy. I've heard him and his sisters speak so enduringly of their mother.

Dollie Allen (her name at birth was Frances Sophronia) was born in 1884 in the English Creek Community of Cocke County, Tenn., a daughter of Jim Allen and Matilda Finchum. She married Thomas Nelson Bryant, son of Ananias Bryant and Sarah Sisk. Tom and Dollie lived at the old Ananias Bryant home place, which was owned by Jim Breeden and his wife Cordelia Bryant, Tom's sister. Tom and Dollie had 8 children, all living into their 70s and 80s and one (Seattle) to 96., in contrast to their parents' early deaths.

Tom died, age 46, of pneumonia. Dollie became a 41-year-old widow with 8 children, ages 2 (Ed) through 19 (Bart). Bart and Rene, 17, had already married and left home. Dollie and her younger children moved to the Eastport section of Newport.

Two years after Tom's death, Dollie married Campbell Gray. They had a son, "Junior," who died before his 2nd birthday.

Dollie had suffered from a chronic bowel disorder (possibly Crohn's Disease, which has afflicted other family members). After an extended illness and stay in a Greeneville hospital, she died at age 46.

Rene and Viola, who were married when their mother died, took in their teenage sisters, Beulah, Seattle and Ann. Ed (8) and James (10) moved in with their older brother Bart and his wife, Hassie.

Dollie's siblings included these sisters: Susan (Mrs. Sam Gregory), Kate (Mrs. Tom Bradley), Vade (Mrs. Eugene Corum) and Minnie (Mrs. Lewis Holt). Her brothers were Russell (half-brother), Alex and John. Dollie's obituary (inserted above in the column to the right) lists Jim Jr., who was in Oregon at the time of her death.
---Gene Bryant

Notes:

Ananias "Nias" Bryant was a prominent farmer in the Lower English Creek Community at the turn of the century (end of 19th, beginning of 20th). His farm, which straddled the creek, was part of a larger tract purchased in the early 1800s by his grandfather, Tarlton Bryant, who came to Cocke County from South Carolina soon after the turn of that previous century. Bryant-Sisk Cemetery, where Ananias and many members of his family and descendants are buried, was originally part of that property.

In 1867 Nias married Sarah Sisk, a granddaughter of Revolutionary War veteran Bartlett Sisk. Nias and Sarah were parents of a dozen children (7 buried near them in Bryant-Sisk). Three of their sons (Add, Judd and Lee) moved to Missouri, where they raised families.

"Ananias" is a biblical name, with 3 characters in the Bible named Ananias, including a disciple of Jesus Christ. The initial "S." was for "Sodie" (Sodi), an Old Testament name. Nias considered himself a follower of Christ. (See cutline under the PB hymnal photo to the right). Nias was an active Primitive Baptist at the time his denomination was beginning to consider less rigid interpretations of the Scriptures. His uncle Brummit Bryant had been a Primitive Baptist minister. Two of Nias's sons, Joe and Lee, became Primitive Baptist ministers. His grandson Dan Clevenger (son of Lucinda) became a founder of a spin-off congregation of the Big Pigeon Primitive Baptist Church.

Nias died at age 66 in 1916. Listed on his death certificate as undertaker was James Breeden, a son-in-law (husband of Cordelia). After Nias's death, James and Cordelia Breeden became owners his farm.

Nias had 7 siblings. His brothers were Aaron, Judd and Thomas. His sisters were Martha (died as a teenager), Emma (Mrs. Sam McNabb of Ark.), Julia (Mrs. Clinton Holloway) and Mary (Mrs. J.A. Clevenger).

BRYANT-SISK CEMETERY: In the late 1800s there were two Bryant cemeteries in the English Creek Community, both on Tarlton Bryant properties (about a mile apart). Tarlton had owned an Upper English Creek farm, his homesite left to son Brummit, and a Lower English Creek farm, left to son Hardy. The "Old Bryant Cemetery," the Tarlton Bryant Family Cemetery, was on the upper tract; the "New Bryant Cemetery" was created on the lower tract. The first burials in the new cemetery may have been a few slaves from the area. Sisk family burials may have preceded Bryants. These earliest graves were marked with fieldstones. The first chiseled inscription on a fieldstone was in 1878. The first incised lettering on a cut stone was in 1888. There is an engraved stone for Revolutionary War veteran Bartlett Sisk, who died in 1840, but his stone was placed there decades later, after his body was exhumed from the old Big Pigeon Primitive Baptist Church Cemetery and reburied in Bryant-Sisk. Hardy's sons Aaron and Ananias are buried there. A third son, Judd, is buried across the road in the Click-Hannon Cemetery. A third and more recent Bryant cemetery is the Will Tarlton Bryant Family Cemetery, also on the Upper English Creek tract.

[Research by Gene Bryant, whose father, James ANANIAS Bryant, was a grandson of Nias. Thomas Nelson Bryant, one of Nias's sons and James's father, was living at Nias Bryant's old home place when James was born.]

Ananias married SISK, Sarah about 1867. Sarah (daughter of SISK, Lawson and CLEVENGER, Sarah) was born in Jul 1851 in TN; died in 1916. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

James + FINCHUM, Matilda. [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]