This home was built for the family of Isaac Newton Bryson Sr in 1885.
Isaac Newton Bryson, Sr. was born on a farm near Yorkville, South Carolina on February 13, 1809 to John and Elizabeth (Craig) Bryson. He had four siblings: William (1801-1864), Mary Erwin (1805-1874) wife of John Venables, Catharine (1813-1893) wife of John Brown, and Martha Jane (1819-1873) wife of Price J. Yates. He came to the Louisiana area with his parents in 1816, before the town was actually established. His family ran a farm outside of town and after his father died, he ran the farm for ten years. In 1831, he came to Louisiana to work in the store of Campbell and Burbridge. After three years of working there, he went into business with John L. Williams. Williams & Bryson was a general mercantile business. Williams died about eighteen months into their business venture, but the business continued to operate under the same name for several more years. In 1838, he went into business with William C. Hardin and Julius C. Jackson. They operated under the name I.N. Bryson & Co. Julius Jackson left the business soon after, but the company remained active until 1855. December 24, 1848 he married Elizabeth Shelton Baird (1833-1924) daughter of Thomas Jefferson and Catharine M. (Jones) Baird. They had four children together: Orpheus Climenus (1850-1902), an attorney; Isaac N. Jr. (1853-1938), owner and editor of the Louisiana Press Journal; Ora B. (1855-1925), and Mary “Mollie” Finley (1857-1936). During the Civil War, he ” firmly maintained the supremacy of the Government and was an ardent Union man.” 1
Isaac Bryson Jr. lived in the family home all of his adult life. Most of the people in these photos have not been identified however, the young woman standing on the steps is Miss Mollie Bryson. She is the daughter of Isaac Bryson Sr. The children in the photo are believed to be Ollie Bryson’s children. Ollie is one of Mollie’s brothers.
He was born December 13, 1853 in Louisiana. He was the youngest of four children born to Isaac and Elizabeth Bryson. He married Miss Florence Minor in 1881. They had one son, Lynn who was born April 7, 1882. Unfortunately, Florence died one week after the birth of their son. Lynn was raised by his father and worked with him at the Louisiana Press Journal. He was the editor and publisher of the paper from 1887 until his death. He outlived his son Lynn who died on February 11, 1937, which was also the 8th birthday of Lynn’s son Isaac Bryson III. After the death of his son, he asked his daughter-in-law Gladys and his grandson Isaac Bryson III to live with him in the house at 321 N. 3rd St. He called himself the “Old Filosefer”. He never went to college, but was just a “born country editor”, according to his daughter-in-law, Gladys Bryson. He was also supposedly a perfectionist when it came to editing the paper. She said: ” He was very set in his ways, and he ran the paper to suit himself. In his editorials, he spoke his piece… if they liked it, it was all right… if they didn’t like it, that was alright too… He didn’t care either way.” 2
Tragedy struck the Bryson family on Friday November 4, 1938. Isaac Bryson Jr. was returning to the Louisiana Press Journal office after having dinner with his grandson at his home when he was hit by a car. It was a rainy evening and Bryson was crossing Georgia Street by Mercantile Bank. Joseph Ackerman, a man from Bowling Green, did not stop at the stop sign of that intersection as he was heading eastward on Georgia Street. He hit Mr. Bryson and knocked him to the ground. There were no witnesses that saw Ackerman’s car hit Mr. Bryson, but there were several people who noticed his body lying in the street. He was badly bruised, unconscious, and bleeding, but still alive. He was taken by two police officers to the office of Dr. R.L. Andrae nearby. He was then taken to the hospital. X-rays revealed that, in addition to his bruises and cuts, he had a fractured nose and a fracture of the bone under his right eye. He died on Monday November 7, 1938 of hypo-plastic pneumonia as a result of the accident. Mr. Bryson, up until the accident, was in good health and still working. 3