Leander J. Bryan Jr.

LEANDER J. BRYAN, JR., public official, was born in 1843, in Autauga County; son of Leander J. Bryan, a farmer of Autauga County, who later moved to Wetumpka. He attended the common schools of the county until he was sixteen years of age, then entered the Coosa River Institute.

Upon the beginning of War of Secession in 1861, he withdrew from the institute and enlisted as a private in the Wetumpka Light Guards, Third Alabama Regiment Volunteer Infantry, Confederate States Army, under command of Col. Tennent Lomax. This was the first Alabama regiment sent to join the Confederate States Army in Virginia, and Capt. Bryan served with it throughout the entire war. He was furloughed home but once during that time, in 1865, by special order of Gen. Lee, for gallant conduct on the field of battle, for meritorious service as a soldier, and on account of wounds. He returned in time to take part in the final struggle at Petersburg and escaped at the surrender of Appomattox.

He made his way back to Alabama, and engaged in the hotel business until 1867 when he became bookkeeper under U. S. Marshal John Hardy. He subsequently served as deputy under U. S. Marshal Gen. John W. Henley, until the winter of 1868, when he moved to Lowndes County.

He served there as clerk of the circuit court, then as sheriff and general administrator of the county, being engaged twelve years in the public service. Capt Bryan was one of the first Confederate soldiers to affiliate after the war with the Republican party, and in 1868 and 1872, he stumped his congressional district for Grant for president. In 1869 he was appointed chief deputy to U. S. Marshal George Turner, later U. S. Senator from Washington; was blocked from assuming the duties of United States Marshal under Harrison's administration; and accepted the place of chief deputy in the office of Dr. R. A. Moseley, collector of revenue for Alabama. He was elected a delegate to three national Republican conventions, and was president of the Republican state convention in 1898. He was appointed marshal of the middle district of Alabama by President McKinley in his first administration, and was reappointed to the office by President Roosevelt in December 1901.

Residence:
Montgomery.

Source: History of Alabama and Dictionary of Alabama Biography, By Thomas McAdory Owen, LL.D., Volume III,
The S. J. Clarke Publishing Compnay, Chicago, 1921

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