Town Named for William Joel Bryan

The plaque calls Bryan a planter. The Handbook describes the plantation. In 1840 he married Lavinia Perry, his cousin by marriage, and settled at Durazno Plantation, an extension of Peach Point given to the couple on their wedding. It raised cotton and cattle and, by the 1850s, sugar, though it made only a single sugar crop between 1852 and 1858. In 1860 he owned thirty-eight enslaved people. The death of his young daughter Eliza led to the opening of Gulf Prairie Cemetery, where he was buried in 1903.

What the plaque says

Town Named for William Joel Bryan (1814-1903) Native of Missouri. Member of prominent family who were Texas statesmen, planters, developers. Grandson of Moses Austin, who obtained from Mexico charter for American colony in Texas, but died before making settlement. Nephew of Stephen F. Austin, "Father of Texas", who actually established the colony. Came to Texas with his mother, Emily Austin Bryan Perry, in 1831. During Texas Revolution, fought in Battle of Bexar, 1835. For 71 years was a planter on land near Peach Point, where the bachelor Stephen F. Austin had a room reserved for him in Perry Home. As eldest nephew, inherited family leadership when Stephen F. Austin died in 1836. Backed his brothers' careers, especially in the case of Guy M. Bryan, U.S. Congressman 1858-1860, and for many years a leader in Texas government. During the Civil War, cared for business interests of his 4 sons in the Confederate Army. At his own expense fed Confederate troops stationed near his plantation to defend the Texas coast. Backed construction of deep water harbor at mouth of the Brazos. During building of Houston & Texas Central Railroad, donated site for Bryan, which in 1866 became county seat of Brazos County. (1965)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum — 5.5 mi
  The library of the forty-first president on the Texas A&M campus, opened in 1997, where George and Barbara Bush and their daughter Robin are buried in a family plot on the grounds.
• Independence and Old Baylor Park — 25 mi
  A crossroads north of Brenham that was the richest town in Texas when it won Baylor University in 1845, refused the railroad, and lost the college to Waco and Belton in 1886.
• Navasota — 26 mi
  A railroad and cotton town where the La Bahia Road crossed the Navasota River, scarred by an 1865 explosion and yellow fever, and the home ground of the songster Mance Lipscomb.
• Fanthorp Inn State Historic Site — 27 mi
  A cedar-log dogtrot cabin of 1834 on the road through Anderson that grew into a seventeen-room inn and post office for travelers of the Republic, kept by one family until 1976.

More markers nearby

• Harvey Mitchell — steps away
• Brazos County Confederate Commissioners Court — steps away
• Brazos County — steps away
• John N. Johnson — steps away