Moses Austin Bryan Papers

Finding Aids

San Jacinto Museum of History

Albert and Ethel Herzstein Library

Manuscript Collections

Finding Aid

MOSES AUSTIN BRYAN PAPERS

1814-1930 (Bulk: 1836-1889)

Manuscript Collection: MC060

Size: .8 linear feet

Boxes: 2

OCLC No: 49802680

Acquisition: Mr. and Mrs. Paul G. Bell, 1986.

Restrictions on Access: None

Terms Governing Use: Open for research by appointment.

Processed by: Melissa Calderwood, 2002.

Publication Rights: Copyright has not been assigned to the San Jacinto Museum of History. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Library Director. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the San Jacinto Museum of History as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the researcher.

Citation: [Identification of Item], Moses Austin Bryan Papers, MC060, San Jacinto Museum of History, Houston, Texas.

Creator Sketch:

Moses Austin Bryan was the third son born to James and Emily Austin Bryan, the daughter of Moses Austin and sister of Stephen F. Austin, in Herculaneum, Missouri, on September 25, 1817. After the 1822 death of James Bryan, Emily Austin Bryan married James F. Perry. Emily Bryan and her children moved to Potosi, Missouri, where Moses Austin Bryan attended school until the age of eleven. Employed in Perry and W.W. Hunter's store until December 1830, Bryan accompanied Hunter to Texas and worked in the San Felipe store of W.W. Hunter and Stephen F. Austin.

In 1832, at the age of fourteen, Bryan began service as Stephen F. Austin’s secretary when he accompanied Austin to Saltillo, Mexico. Bryan and Austin boarded with one of the legislators, Don Jesus de la Grande, and it was there that Moses Austin Bryan learned to speak Spanish. In 1835 Bryan clerked in the Austin colony land office and in the fall again served as Austin’s secretary during Austin’s brief tenure as commander of the Texas army.

Bryan enlisted in the Texas army as a private shortly after the fall of the Alamo and participated in Houston’s retreat. He served at the Battle of San Jacinto as third sergeant in Captain Moseley Baker’s company, as an aide-de-camp on the staff of Thomas J. Rusk, and as an interpreter for the meeting between Sam Houston and Antonio López de Santa Anna. In 1839, President Mirabeau B. Lamar appointed Bryan as secretary of legation under Anson Jones, minister from the Republic of Texas to the United States. Bryan served as a member of the 1842 Somerville [Somervell] Expedition. During the Civil War, he enlisted in Third Texas Regiment, rising to the rank of major. In 1873, Bryan helped organize the Texas Veterans Association and served as its secretary until 1886.

In 1840, Bryan married Adaline La Mothe of Rapides Parish, Louisiana; she died May 30, 1855. They had four sons and two daughters. Bryan married Cora Lewis, daughter of Ira Randolph Lewis, in 1856; they had four sons and one daughter. Moses Austin Bryan died in Brenham at the home of his son, Beauregard, on March 16, 1895, and was buried at Independence, Texas.

Bibliography:

“BRYAN, MOSES AUSTIN.” The Handbook of Texas Online. http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/BB/fbrar.html

Dixon, Sam Houston and Louis Wiltz Kemp. The Heroes of San Jacinto. Houston: Anson

Jones Press, 1932.

Scope and Content Note:

Correspondence, financial records, legal documents, printed materials, creative works, memorandum and notes, surveyor’s field notes, and photographs record the life of Moses Austin Bryan (1817-1895). The correspondence documents Bryan's travel to Washington, D.C. as secretary of legation (1839), communications with James F. Perry at Peach Point, Brazoria County, Texas, regarding personal financial matters (1832-1852), and service in the Somerville Expedition (1842). Communications from J. Hampton Kuykendall (13 letters) reveal Bryan’s interest in published accounts of Texas history. General correspondence within the Austin-Bryan-Perry family illuminates family business in the 19^th century. The financial and legal documents (1814-1908) outline Bryan's expenditures and payments of debt, and include estate and probate documents of Emily M. Bryan Perry. A bound journal illuminates Bryan's financial transactions from 1845-1881. Printed materials include several pamphlets from the Texas Veterans Association (1873-1899). Bryan’s record of historical events in early Texas is outlined in a handwritten historical account of 1835-1836 and the typed "Reminiscences" (1889) which speaks of his service with Austin and involvement in the Texas army. The papers also include memorandum and notes and surveyor’s field notes. The collection contains four photographs of Texas veterans.

Archivist's Note:

The Moses Austin Bryan Papers were donated to the San Jacinto Museum of History Association by Mr. and Mrs. Paul Gervais Bell (great-grandson of Moses Austin Bryan) of Houston. The papers were collected from a variety of sources by Bell.

MOSES AUSTIN BRYAN PAPERS, 1814-1930 (Bulk: 1836-1889)

Manuscript Collection: MC060

Size: .8 linear feet

Boxes: 2

Inventory

Series: Correspondence: Received

Location		Title	Dates
90	1	W.R. Baker	1866, 1872
90	2	E.T. Barstow	1858, 05/10
90	3	James Ross Brent	1882, 02/07
90	4	John Henry Brown	1846, 1874
90	5	Cora [Bryan]	n.d.
90	6	George H. Bryan	1840, 01/03
90	7	Guy M. Bryan	1875-1882, n.d.
90	8	Stephen A. Bryan	1863, 02/--
90	9	Robert F. Clement	1885, 08/31
90	10	J.F. Crosby	1879, 04/07
90	11	George L. Hammeken	1837, 08/22
90	12	John W. Harris	1841, 1866
90	13	C. Anson Jones	1877, 07/16
90	14	J. Hampton Kuykendall	1857-1858
90	15	Mirabeau B. Lamar	1838, 12/25
90	16	Mrs. M.A. Lewis	1877, 11/03
90	17	Wyly Martin	1835, 09/01
90	18	James F. Perry	1838-1845
90	19	Stephen F. Perry	1860, 09/05
90	20	Stephen S. Perry	1860, 08/--
90	21	J. B. Robertson	1882, 03/31

Series: Correspondence: Sent

90	22	Stephen F. Austin	1836, 12/19
90	23	Brazoria County citizens	1839, 07/16
90	24	John Henry Brown	1889, 07/--
90	25	Adaline Bryan	1842
90	26	Guy M. Bryan	1844, 1872
90	27	William Joel Bryan	1839, 04/16
90	28	James F. Perry	1832-1852
90	29	C. B. Shepard	1883, 02/24
90	30	Sidney Sherman	1859, 07/02
90	31	Unknown	[1842]

Series: Correspondence: Third Party, Bryan-Perry Family

Location		Title	Dates
90	32	Henry Austin to James F. Perry	1836, 12/26
90	33	G. Borden, Jr. to Stephen F. Perry	1850, 10/16
90	34	Cora Bryan to Jane Martin	n.d.
90	35	Guy M. Bryan to Beauregard Bryan	1894, 01/12
90	36	James Perry Bryan to sister [Mary Armintha Bryan]	1857, 03/10
90	37	Stephen A. Bryan to mother [Cora Bryan]	1862, 12/25
90	38	William Joel Bryan to Adaline Bryan	1842, 10/26
90	39	P.J. Fisk to James F. Perry	1841, 08/22
90	40	George L. Hammeken to James F. Perry	1842
90	41	K.K. Koontz to James F. Perry	1841, 02/15
90	42	James F. Perry to Guy M. Bryan	1853, 05/23
90	43	Stephen S. Perry to [ ] Bryan	n.d.

Series: Correspondence: Third Party, General

Location		Title	Dates
90	44	Barnard Bee	1839, 01/14
90	45	Eliza Chester	1839, 01/20
90	46	John W. Harris	1841-1842
90	47	I.C. Hill	1883, 04/02
90	48	E. Samuel Howell	1836, 03/28
90	49	Jacob Lewis	1837, 09/04
90	50	L.H. McNeel	1838-1839
90	51	J.W. Morse	1844, 08/25
90	52	John Parker	1844, 05/11
90	53	R.R. Royall	1835, 01/14
90	54	Morgan L. Smith	1839, 01/16
90	55	D.B. [ unk. ]	1849, 08/10

Series: Financial

Location		Title	Dates
90	56	Bill of Sale	1844, 04/05
17.1A.F1		Financial Transactions	1845-1881
90	57	Promissory Note	182[5], 10/03
90	58	Receipts, Statements of Account	1814-1868
90	59	Receipt	1867, 05/27

Series: Legal

Location		Title	Dates
91	1	Agreements	1842-1866
91	2	Deeds	1844, 1871
91	3	Estate and Probate	1851, 1905-1908
91	4	Fraternal	1878, 07/29
91	5	Interrogatories	1845, 04/04
91	6	Summons	1858, 05/31

Series: Printed Materials

Location		Title	Dates
91	7	Broadside, “To the Voters of the Senatorial District Composed of the Counties of Harrisburg, Liberty and Galveston.”	1839, 08/--
91	8	Certificate, Texas Veterans Association	n.d.
91	9	Circulars	1836, 1851, 1859
91	10	Clippings, Newspaper	1895, 1930
91	11	Ephemera	n.d.
91	12	Gaceta, Del Gobierno Supremo del Estado de Coahuila y Tejas. (Gazette. The Supreme Government of the State of Coahuila and Texas) [SPANISH]	1833, 12/09
91	13	Invitation, Texas Veterans Association	1899, 04/20-21
91	14	Lithograph, portrait of Moses Austin Bryan	n.d.

Series: Printed Materials: Pamphlets: General

Location		Title	Dates
91	15	Letter to the Hon. Henry Clay	1837
91	16	Message of the Governor.	1883, 01/10

Series: Printed Materials: Pamphlets: Texas Veterans Association

Location		Title	Dates
91	17	Proceedings of the Convention of Texas Veterans…	1873, 05/13-15
91	18	Proceedings of the First Annual Meeting of the Texas Veterans Association	1874, 05/20-21
91	19	Proceedings of the First Annual Meeting of the Texas Veterans Association	1874, 05/20-21
91	20	Proceedings, Constitution, By-Laws and Addresses of the Texas Veterans	1883, 04/20-21
91	21	Address of the Hon. S.B. Maxey…	1884, 04/21
91	22	Proceedings, Constitution, By-Laws and Addresses of the Texas Veterans	1885, 04/20-21
91	23	Annual Address to the Texas Veterans Association	1886, 04/20-21
91	24	Proceedings, Constitution, By-Laws and Addresses…	1886, 04/20-21
91	25	Proceedings, Constitution and By-Laws of the Annual Reunion…	1887, 04/20-21
91	26	Proceedings, Constitution and By-Laws of the Annual Reunion…	1887, 04/20-21
91	27	Proceedings, Constitution and By-Laws of the Annual Reunion…	1889, 04/20-22
91	28	Proceedings of the Texas Veterans Association at the Annual Reunion	1892, 04/20-21
91	29	Proceedings of the Texas Veterans Association…	1895, 04/20-22
91	30	Proceedings of the Texas Veterans Association…	1899, 04/20-21

Series: Creative Works

Location		Title	Dates
91	31	Reminiscences of M. A. Bryan; 1835-36 historical account; written by Moses Austin Bryan	1889, n.d.

Series: Memorandum/ Notes

Location		Title	Dates
91	32	Various notes	1847-48, 1853

Series: Surveyors Notes

Location		Title	Dates
91	33	Surveying Field Notes	n.d.

Series: Photographic Materials

Location

Title

Dates

Photographs

Lancelot Abbotts, Chauncey B. Shepard, Texas Veterans Association Reunion at Brenham

Unidentified group (possibly Texas Veterans Association)

1889, 1891, n.d.