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| Elizabeth Span Regan Bryan - Obituary |
| A copy of this obituary was sent to me by Julia Brittain, a descendant of Elizabeth's son, Tilman C. Bryan. Copies of this obituary and other Bryan records are in a vertical file compiled by Vera Meeks Wimberly at the Genealogy Library, Montgomery County Memorial Library, Conroe, Texas. |
| OBITUARY Died February 12th at 9 o’clock p.m. at the residence of J.B. Bryan, her son, Mrs. E. S. Bryan, aged 78 years. The subject of this memoriam was born in North Carolina and moved to Georgia at an early date, and from there to Bienville Parish, La., where she has been all the while doing all she could in behalf of Christ. She has been a member of the M. E. Church for may years. She was kind and lenient to all; did all she could both by words and actions, for those whom she thought loved Jesus. She was confined in bed nine weeks, during which time she had all the attention and all that human hands and hearts could contribute. She loved God and all his people and had unlimited faith in Jesus. She suffered very much at times, while at others was easy. She had been in delicate health for several years, but by the kind care of her family, she survived until the 12th of February 1877, when the lamp of existence went out. On the following morning we saw the cold form as it lay in the arms of death, a large family and a large circle of friends to morn her loss. She was buried at the Bryan grave yard at Liberty Chapel Church, were, after the burial services, we heard the heavy sound of sod die out as though at a distance, and the sobs of the family and friends as they gave her a fare well adieu. She is gone, gone! Gone to that fairer and better land where there is not more sickness, sorrow nor pain. <signed> Roger Lawson |
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| Elizabeth Span Regan Bryan - Obituary |
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This obituary, published in the New
Orleans Christian Advocate, was sent to me by my first cousin, Jackie Skinner. Elizabeth Span Regan Bryan was my great-great grandmother.
MOTHER ELIZABETH SPAN REGAN died at the residence of her son, Joseph Bryan, in Bienville Parish, La., on the twelfth of February 1877. Mother Bryan, the daughter of Joseph and Doratha Regan, was born near Lumberton, Robinson County, NC., October 29, 1794. She was converted in early life, and attached herself to the Methodist Church; was married to Joseph Regan November 11,1814; moved to Gregg County, Ga.where she was left a widow with two sons, Sept. 11, 1821, she married Redric Bryan, who also had two sons. From Houston County, Ga., they moved to Louisiana, and settled in Claiborne parish, where they lived happily and usefully together, aiding in the support of the gospel, the building up of society, and sustaining camp meetings, until the twelfth of January, 1864, at which time she was again left a widow. She still considered it her duty to do what she could in the Master's kingdom; and though the field of her usefulness was chiefly confined to her own large family, she
wielded an influence for good which will be felt through time, the extent of which eternity alone can reveal.
Her house was the preacher's house, where they always received an old fashioned Methodist welcome. Being the daughter of a Methodist preacher, she both reverenced and loved the men of God. It was a source of evident gratification that she once entertained Bishop Morris on one of his overland trips to Texas. During her last illness she requested her friends not to pray that her life might be prolonged, but that her end might be peaceful. Rarely has a family of children, themselves the heads of families, been blessed with the privilege of witnessing such a manifestation of the power of Christ to save.
Called together on the saddest occasion that ever congregates a family (to witness a mother's death,) they saw how perfectly the grace of God could enable the true believer to triumph over physical suffering, and received her godly admonitions and prayers of faith. For nine long weeks she seemed to
exist in two worlds. Hope ever brightening, she was eager to depart and to be with Christ. She called her children, one by one, and requested them to say they would met her in heaven, and exhorted them not to make the promise werely to gradtify a dying mother, but to weigh well their words. Her mission on earth ended, the remainder of her days were spent in prayer and praise.
NOTE: Elizabeth Span Regan first married her cousin, Joseph Regan. Her second marriage was to Reddick Bryan (not Redric). Lumberton is in Robeson County, NC, not Robinson County. She settled in Twigg County, GA, not Gregg County.
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Bryan Family Documents
Louisiana State Flower, the Magnolia, from Juelie's State Flower Garden of Gifs
Background from
