1866 Final Distribution
April 10, 1866 · Houston County, Georgia · Certified by A.M. Crowder, J.P.
By virtue of an order from the Houston County Honorable Court of Ordinary of said county to us directed authorizing and requiring us to make distribution of the Estate of James A. Bryan deceased late of said County among the distributees entitled to said Estate we proceeded this day to the performance of that duty.
— Final Distribution, Estate of James A. Bryan, April 10, 1866James A. Bryan died March 22, 1847. He left a widow, ten children, debts, a plantation, and an estate that his son Robert C. Bryan administered for the next nineteen years. On April 10, 1866 — nineteen years, two weeks, and nineteen days after his death — five commissioners proceeded to the performance of that duty and made distribution. The estate appraised at $23,840.30. Each of the five distributees received $4,768.06. The accounts were settled. The estate closed.
Five people receive shares of the estate of James A. Bryan on April 10, 1866. Abner Bryan — the son who went to war with $7.50 from the estate in January 1863, who returns to receive the house and the land. James S. Bryan — who oversaw the plantation through the war years and went to the Front twice in 1864. Laura Bryan — the tenth child, born in the weeks after her father died, represented in the distribution by her brother Robert C. Bryan, who has been administering this estate since she was born. Catharine P. Bryan Stewart — Kitty, now married. And Thomas C. Whitehurst — receiving the share on behalf of his wife Honora Bryan Whitehurst, whose name appears in the estate returns from her schooling in Perry through her mending receipts in December 1865.
Of the ten children of James A. Bryan: Troup died of disease in Virginia in September 1861. Ira Hugh closed his portion in 1853 and received his share of his mother's estate in 1865. Cornelius settled his overseer arrangement and received his mother's share in 1865. Nancy — her husband W.M. Whitehurst received her share through the distribution of Catharine H. Bryan's estate. Robert — the administrator — is not among the distributees. He administered the estate for nineteen years and is not listed as receiving a share.
The largest single item in the distribution inventory is 62 bales of cotton — $3,761.90. The same 62 bales sold through Harris & Ross to E.A. Wilcox on March 26, 1866 for $8,751.90 at 28 cents a pound. The distribution values them at $3,761.90 — the commissioners' appraisal price, not the market price. The cotton crop that the plantation grew in its first post-war season is the asset that anchors the final accounting of a nineteen-year estate.
The J.A.B. brand has been on Bryan estate cotton since the first sale in 1847. These 62 bales carry it for the last time.
The inventory opens with the plantation's working mule team — nine mules, each named: Ginjo, Mollie, Wilson, Rosa, Nelly, Warren, Mary, Eliza, and Fan. Values range from $40 to $175. Total: $1,016.00. The estate has been purchasing mules since the first years of the record — two in 1851, two more in 1854, replacements across every decade. The animals that pulled the cotton wagons to the Toby Sofky bridge for nineteen years are appraised here by name, the same way the horses, cows, and oxen are appraised — each one known, each one valued.
Five men certified the distribution: J.M. Davis, A.M. Crowder, W.D. Simmons, Jas. B. McMurray, and L.R. Alexander. A.M. Crowder is the Superintendent of the Houston Factory — the same man who received 15 bales of J.A.B. cotton directly at the factory in January 1859 and again in February 1861, and who certified this distribution as Justice of the Peace. J.M. Davis is from the Davis family that operates the Houston Factory and published the Southern Literary Companion. Jas. B. McMurray collected the soldiers tax from the estate in December 1864. The men who administered the plantation's commercial world now certify its final accounting.
Mule Team
Nine named mules appraised April 10, 1866. The plantation's working draft animals, named individually throughout the estate record. 🚩
| Name | Appraised Value |
|---|---|
| Ginjo | $100.00 |
| Mollie | $100.00 |
| Wilson | $80.00 |
| Rosa | $175.00 |
| Nelly | $96.00 |
| Warren | $125.00 |
| Mary | $40.00 |
| Eliza | $100.00 |
| Fan | $100.00 |
| Total | $916.00 |
Selected Assets
Major items from the full estate inventory. Complete inventory available in the Houston County probate record.
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| 62 bales of cotton | $3,761.90 |
| Parlor furniture | $185.00 |
| 2,650 bushels corn | $265.50 |
| 47 pork hogs | $572.50 |
| Land — 31 acres at $10/acre | $310.00 |
| Road wagon & harness | $125.00 |
| Road wagon | $160.00 |
| Carriage | $50.00 |
| 4 horses (Pete, Bucephalus, Joe, John) | $450.00 |
| Lot bed clothing | $200.00 |
| 6 barrels syrup | $72.00 |
| 400 lbs lard | $12.00 |
| 300 bushels cotton seed | $105.00 |
| Blacksmith tools | $20.00 |
| 1 gin | $60.00 |
| 50 head stock hogs | $125.00 |
| 15 head sheep | $18.75 |
| Total Estate Appraised | $23,840.30 |