On March 1, 1856, the formal distribution of the estate of James A. Bryan is recorded. Wilkinson M. Whitehurst — Nancy's husband — receives his distributive share: land for $681, mule Martha for $130, and the rosewood piano for $260. The piano was purchased from the Virgin Brothers in Macon in December 1849 for $260. It was tuned by G.E. Schloth in June 1853 for $5. It was being maintained and played through 1855. On March 1, 1856, Whitehurst pays the same price for it that the estate paid in 1849 — it has held its value exactly across seven years.

The piano leaves the Bryan house on the Sandbed Road and does not return. Everything else distributed that day — mules, horses, plows, land parcels — is also divided. But the piano is the only item in the distribution that had already been named in the record, already placed in the household, already connected to the life of the house. Its departure closes something the documents had been building since 1849.

The 1856 cotton harvest moves to market in five separate transactions through two brokers. Eight bales in September to D.R. Rodgers at 10½ cents — $406.03 net. Eight more to Knott & Hollingsworth at 8¼ cents — $316.70. Eight bales in October to John S. Nelson at 12⅛ cents — $467.48. Twenty-one bales in December to Atha & Granniss at 11⅝ cents — $1,158.73. Seven more through Adams & Reynolds at 11⅝ cents — $382.80. Fifty-two bales total, $2,731 in cotton income.

The price variation — 8¼ to 12⅛ cents in a single season — reflects timing, bale quality, and market conditions month by month. Each bale is numbered and weighed to the pound. The estate that formally divided its land and personal property in March is running its largest bale count since 1854 through the fall.

Cornelius Bryan receives $234 for overseeing the plantation in 1856 and $180 for the hire of two people — $414 total, paid January 5, 1857. He was running estate errands in Macon in 1855, witnessing receipts, a visible operational presence. By 1856 he is formally the overseer — the man responsible for day-to-day plantation management while Robert administers from the same property. The two brothers divide the estate's labor: Robert handles the ledgers, the brokers, the court filings, the medical practice; Cornelius manages the field operations and the hired-out arrangements.

J.E. Crosland receives $115 for the tuition of James S. Bryan — one year at $24, board for nine and a quarter months at $90, Davies' Arithmetic and Weld's Grammar at $1. Abner studied Latin, advanced mathematics, and chemistry at Crosland's across 1854 and 1855. James S. is working through arithmetic and grammar — the foundational curriculum, a younger student in the same schoolroom, his board and instruction paid from the same estate account.

Oliver Porter, Justice of the Inferior Court, receives $12.86: jail fees for Boy Avery of the Estate of J.A. Bryan. On the same date the ledger records $1.75 in expenses for Abner Bryan to and from the Macon jail. The charges against Avery and the circumstances are not stated in the document. Abner makes the trip — the estate pays both the fees and the travel. The jail fees are recorded between a blacksmith bill and a tuition payment, as a routine expense. Oliver Porter signs the receipt. The ledger moves on.

D.H. Jackson receives $36.75 for one ton of cotton seed. This is not a sale — it is a purchase. One ton plants roughly 30 to 50 acres. The estate distributed its land and personal property in March. It sold fifty-two bales through the fall. It is paying school tuition for three students. And in December it is buying seed for a crop that will not be harvested until the following autumn. The estate continues operating through its own distribution. The land keeps its cycle regardless of what the ledger records about ownership.

E.J. Johnston & Co. receives $10.00 for one ladies pin. A single decorative pin, $10 — charged to the estate account in September, the same month eight bales of cotton sell for $316 and the Asher Ayres provisioning order goes out for kersey and mackerel. Someone in the household wanted this pin enough for Robert to put it on the estate account. The ledger records it without elaboration, between a blacksmith account and a cotton transaction, as it records everything else.