Kin and Konnections: A Family History Blog

John H. Bryant, Contractor and Builder, Bloomington, Illinois The following biography is listed in the Portrait and Biographical Album of McLean County, Illinois, published in Chicago in 1887 by Chapman Brothers:  JOHN H. BRYANT, contractor and builder, having his office at the intersection of Northeast and Douglas streets, Bloomington, may be properly numbered among the pioneer settlers of Illinois, as he came here in 1837 with his parents, being then a young child. He was born in East Cambridge, Mass., Dec. 3, 1833, his parents being Eben and Martha (Brown) Bryant, natives of Wakefield and Charlestown, Mass. Eben Bryant was a farmer by occupation, and emigrated from the Bay State to Illinois in 1837, settling in Pike County, upon 160 acres of wild land, which he improved and cultivated and occupied until his death; which occurred in 1866. The mother survived him twelve years, dying at the old homestead in 1878. They were the parents of five children, four now living, as follows: ...

A note I wrote on 29 October 2002 for my ancestor John Henry Bryant in my family tree: The biography from the Portrait and Biographical Album of McLean County is one of my favorite finds.  I was in the Los Angeles Public Library on a weekend in September 2000.  I thought I had just about tapped out all of the resources the library had to offer for my genealogical research.  Boy, was I wrong.  When I pulled the old crumbling book from the shelf, I looked up the family names from McLean County: Bryant, Champion, Burwell, Ingersoll.  I was elated to find good old John H. Bryant.  I realized I had seen the biography earlier that year when I first started my research but had dismissed it because I didn't recognize the family connection.  This linked our Illinois Bryants back to Massachusetts and to the ancestor, Abraham Bryant, that came from England to America.

I found a pair of Burwell sisters in the DAR [Daughters of the American Revolution Lineage Books] that I believe are my great-great-grandfather John W. Burwell's sisters. From Volume 14, p. 122 (for the year 1896): Miss Nettie B. Burwell ID No. 13326 Born in Illinois Descendant of John Burwell, of New Jersey. Daughter of Moses T. Burwell and Isabella Goodfellow, his wife. Granddaughter of John Burwell and Missouri Thorp, his wife. Gr.-granddaughter of Jonathan Burwell and Mary Comer, his wife. Gr.-gr.-granddaughter of John Burwell and ___ Lyons, his wife. John Burwell turned out in Capt. Stephen Baldwin's company, Col. Sylvanus Seely's regiment of Morris county militia, 1780, at Connecticut Farms, N.J. He died 1825. Mrs. Mary Alice Burwell Burns ID No. 13327 Born in Illinois. Wife of Luther Burns. Descendant of John Burwell. Daughter of Moses T. Burwell and Isabella Goodfellow, his wife. See No 13326. I believe that these women are John W.'s sisters for several reasons:...