Page 89 - The Ancestry of Francis Bryan (1770-1863)

puncheons, putting the flat side up to hold his plate and food. I can't recall the other furnishings which he contrived for his cabin, only I remember as my mother described it that it was very primitive.
It is not known who Frank Bryan married, but there is a tradition that he married a sister of Daniel Boone's, but from the dates I have it seems that Daniel Boone was of an earlier generation than Frank Bryan, as the record states that Daniel Boone married Rebecca Bryan, from the Yadkin River settlement in 1756, which fact put him in an older generation."
W.E. Cox then goes on to recount a story which he says was told to him by Frank Bryan, Jr., around the year 1895-1900. During the Revolutionary War, Alex Sutherland and one other "it was either a Cox or Osborne" deserted from the British Army eventually settled in Elk Creek, Virginia, "only eight or ten miles from where Frank Bryan had pitched his cabin". In time Frank Bryan's sister Elizabeth became the wife of Sutherland. W.E. Cox comments that
"I am anxious to know how this story fits into the missing two mentioned in William Jennings Bryan's family as given in the book 'The First Battle' ... my recollection has been that Frank Bryan, Sr., and his sister Frances [sic] fit well into the vacant place in the William Jennings Bryan story."
Based on all of the above sources, I think it is clear that the connection to William Jennings Bryan was little more than wishful thinking. However, we can create a time line of Francis Bryan's life.
Francis Bryan, born in 1770, came to Elk Creek in Grayson Co., VA, "as a boy" (say, 1775-1780). His sister married Alexander Sutherland about 1784. It's said that Francis worked at Blair's Forge on Chestnut Creek. According to "Early Development and Growth of Galax, Virginia" by C.L. Martin, Thomas Blair settled on Chestnut Creek in 1782 and constructed the furnace and ironworks in 1788. Francis would have been 18 years old, so he was probably hired, not bound out.
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