Page 87 - The Ancestry of Francis Bryan (1770-1863)

homestead; Aquilla, who removed to Ohio; and Francis and Elizabeth, about whom nothing is known. John Bryan, the second son, was born about 1790."
Around the turn of the century, the descendants of Francis Bryan, Sr., of Ashe/Alleghany Co., NC, latched onto the idea that he was the Francis Bryan mentioned in William Jennings Bryan's autobiography. But there is no evidence of a connection. The dates are not even consistent: William J. Bryan says that his ancestor, John Bryan "the second son" was born in 1790, and Francis Bryan of Ashe/Alleghany Co., NC, was born twenty years earlier, in 1770. Claims of relationship to famous people should always been taken with a grain of salt, and in his day, few Americans were as famous as William Jennings Bryan.
A family document entitled Ingalls_genealogy.pdf posted on the internet by
Richard S. Boswell, Jr., includes a transcription of a letter written in 1906 by Alexander C. Sutherland to Hon. William H. Bryan in which he speculates that his great-grandmother, Margaret Elizabeth Bryan (who married Alexander Sutherland of Grayson Co., VA), is the Elizabeth Bryan mentioned in The Last Battle. The letter also states:
"My great grandfather's name was Alexander Sutherland, I am a namesake of his. Francis Bryan, the brother of my great grandfather came and lived with them until he married. The country was full of game then, and he became a great hunter. I am not able to give the name of the lady he married. After he married, he settled in Ashe County, N.C. He raised a large family, I cannot state the number. I have seen two of his sons Thomas and Morgan. Morgan was a Methodist minister. They were quick spoken, energetic, resolute men. That is not surprising for old uncle Frank Bryan was the most through going man that lived in his day."
The Ingalls Genealogy document also has a letter dated July 16, 1956, by W.E. Cox, Sr., of Galax, Virginia, which provides further information about
75