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Below is a family biography included in The History of Washington County, Arkansas published by Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1889.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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Javan Bryant, M. D., of Evansville, was born in Spartanburgh, S.C., November 5,1839, the son of Reuben and Sarah (Kirby) Bryant, both natives of South Carolina, and the mother of Scotch descent. The Bryant family were of the original Brittons, and came to America about four generations back. Reuben and Sarah (Kirby) Bryant were married in their native State, and both were professing Christians, he a member of the Baptist and she a member of the Methodist Church. He was a well-to-do farmer, and died in his native State at the age of sixty-eight. The mother died at the age of forty-eight. In their family were two children, a son and a daughter. The father had previously married a Miss Dillard, who bore him five children. His second marriage was to Miss Kirby, and after her death be married a Miss Harvey, who bore him one child. The eldest of the second set received his education in the high­school at Glenn Springs, S. C., and at the age of eighteen began the study of medicine, which he continued until twenty-one years of age, when he graduated at the Medical College of the State of South Carolina, and afterward located in Spartanburgh County. In 1861 be married Miss Susannah N. Littlejohn, also a native of South Carolina, who bore him five children-three sons and two daughters. Dr. Bryant practiced his profession in Spartanburgh County until May, 1862, when he enlisted in Company I, Thirteenth South Carolina Infantry, Confederate States Army, serving as a private several weeks, when he received a commission as assistant surgeon, which position he held until the surrender of Johnston. His chief service was hospital duty at Richmond, Va., Raleigh, Wilmington and Kittrell’s Springs, N. C. He surrendered at Thomasville, N. C., and afterward returned to Spartanburgh County, where he continued his practice. In 1879 he and family moved to Hot Springs, Ark., where his wife, who was an invalid, hoped for recovery. The same year they located at Evansville, Washington County, and here his wife died in July, 1888. She was a member of the Missionary Baptist Church, as is also Dr. Bryant. Dr. Bryant represented Spartanburgh County in the State Legislature of South Carolina during the sessions of 1868-70. He has been a very close student all his life, and his special diversion is language, being able to speak and read, more or less fluently seven different languages and he is deeply interested in the improvement and propagation of Volapuk. In 1878 he took an eundem at the Atlanta, Ga., Medical College. Dr. Bryant is a member of the Washington County Medical Association, hasa practiced medicine twenty-seven years, and is accounted a skillful physician, receiving a liberal share of the patronage. He is a contributor to periodical literature, both medical and literary.

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This family biography is one of 300 biographies included in The History of Washington County, Arkansas published in 1889.  For the complete description, click here: Washington County, Arkansas History, Genealogy, and Maps

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