Richard T. O'Bryan
SOURCE: The Goodspeed Publishing Co., 1889
Contributed by Michael Brown
18 Oct 1998
----------------------------------------------------------------------
CRAWFORD COUNTY
page 1181
Richard T. O'Bryan, was born in Smith County, Tex., in 1848, and is a son of
Arnold and Mary (Shepherd) O'Bryan. The father was born in Chatham [p.1181]
County, N. C., in 1807, and was a son of William O'Bryan, a native of North
Carolina, born about 1773. In 1810 he went to Wilson County, Tenn., and he died
in Hickman County in 1828. He was a soldier in the War of 1812, and his
father, William O'Bryan, was a brother of Daniel Boone's wife, Rebecca. Our
subject's grandmother, Sophia Thomason O'Bryan, was born in North Carolina, and
died in Maury County, Tenn., in 1816. She was the mother of six children, of
whom Arnold O'Bryan was the second. He went with his parents to Tennessee when
three years old, and was reared in Maury County, ten miles south of Columbia.
In 1833 he left Tennessee, and came to Arkansas by boat and on horseback. He
located in Crawford County, and was engaged by the Government to deal corn and
beef to the Indians the first winter, and in the winter of 1834 to deal
rations to the Cherokee and Creek Indians. July 6, 1837, he married Elizabeth
Shepherd, who was born in Fluvanna County, Va., in 1820, and bore him eight
children: Elizabeth Ann, died in 1855, aged seventeen; William D.,
accidentally drowned in Lee's Creek in 1858, aged eighteen; James A.; Mary
Ellen, wife of George Yount; Richard T., John C., Robert S., and Sarah C., wife
of Thomas R. Daniel, of Van Buren. After his marriage he farmed for seven
years near Rudy Station, and then went to Fannin County, Tex. In 1846 he moved
to Smith County, and in 1851 located near Sugar Loaf Mountain. Sebastian
County. In 1853 he settled near the county seat of Crawford County, where he
owned about 500 acres. He is one of the pioneer settlers of the county; for
two years served as deputy sheriff, and in 1837 as constable. He lost his wife
January 12, 1886, and now lives in Logtown. August 14, 1834, he was
commissioned by Gov. John Pope captain of the militia of a Crawford County
regiment, being the first man appointed to that position. He is a Republican,
cast his first presidential vote for Jackson, and his wife was a member of the
Christian Church thirty years. Our subject made his home with his father upon
the farm until of age. In June, 1870, he married Miss Ann E. Williams, a
native of Texas, who died in 1872. The next year he married Addie T. Hanson,
who was born in this county, and is the mother of two children: Nettie and
Bulila. Mr. O'Bryan is a well-to-do citizen of Van Buren Township. He has
eighty acres of land, and is engaged in the grocery and liquor business in
Logtown, which business he has conducted three years. He is a Republican, and
for two years was marshal of Van Buren. His wife is a member of the Christian
Church.