William Evermont Bryan
By Lillie Dale Baker Smith
During the gold rush in the year 1848, William
Evermont Bryan,
a grandson of Mary Boone Bryan, and his wife, Mary Gregg Herndon Bryan,
a daughter of Elijah and Catherine DeMoss Herndon, with their
three sons and one daughter, started for the golden west in a covered
wagon driving a team of oxen from Grants Lick. They were six months
on the road. Where they stopped along the route for the night, they
burned buffalo chips and on the next nights stop, they could see the
light from their fire of the night before. They sold a feather bead on the
way to buy provisions to eat.
They mined for gold and in a few years they
became very rich. William
later bought enough land for a farm for each of them, and at one time,
Mr. Bryan had 10,000 sheep.