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| Birth: | 1745 in Dublin, Ireland |
| Death: | 1811 in Lexington, Kentucky |
| Sex: | M |
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Individual:
1801 - Moved to New Orleans down river on barge
Revolutionary War Veteran
BEF 1789 - Virginia to Kentucky
BEF 1801 - Kentucky to Missouri
1820 - Census, LA, Attakapas, p. 144, maybe Jr.
1840 - Census, LA, St. M. p. 335, maybe Jr.
1777-1779 - Pvt.Continental Line, 6th VA Regiment, etc. sick at Valley Forge
or returned to Kentucky from LA
caught poaching, stowed away to Virginia, changed his name
credited with founding Morgan City in Berwick Bay, LA.
red hair, blue eyes, 6'4"
Fleeing arrest after poaching one of the king's deer, Christopher Kindallis O'Bryan (80) moved to Dublin, Ireland, possibly from County Clare. As a young man in about 1769, he sailed as a cabin boy to Virginia, where he changed his name from O'Brien to Bryan. He may have gone to Madagascar first. Tradition says Christopher is descended from King Brian Boru ("Brian of the Tributes"), the pious 11th century Irish king who drove the Danish Vikings out of Ireland in 1014, losing his own life as he did so. Titles held by O'Bryan family members include "King," "Viscount," "Lord", and "The O'Bryan." An Episcopalian, Christopher had red hair and blue eyes, and stood six-four. He was a surveyor in Fincastle, Greenbriar County, WV in 1769. As early as 1770 he was on a jury in Virginia. About 1776 he married Katherine Kimberland (81). He served in the Revolutionary Army (Pvt. Continental Line, Company "O," Colonel Grayson's 6th Virginia Foot Regiment) at Camp Paramis, White Plains, Robinson's Farm, and Middlebrook. Due to depletion of his regiment, Christopher later served under Capt. Cleon Moore, then Col. Nathaniel Gist and Capt. Alex. Breckinridge.
Legend says that in private life, Christopher had changed his name to "Bryan" because he was a wanted man in Ireland. But Christopher's Army record calls him "O'Brien" and he later signed his name that way. His pay starts April 9, 1777. The August 11 Muster Roll noted that he was "Confined," perhaps as punishment for slipping away to see his wife and newborn baby Luke. On the December 25, 1777 Muster Roll, he is "On Scout"; April 3, 1778 in Valley Forge notes "Sick Camp"; June 6, 1778, "Unfit for D. No gun"; December 1778 "On Forage Guard" and January 1779 "On Command." Christopher's last Muster Roll was for March 1779, seven months before his son Christopher II was born. Perhaps he was released from his three year enlistment because of family duties. Lt. Quirk took a horse from him in 1781 for Lafayette's dragoons, later listing him as giving patriotic service, and Christopher was paid 33 pounds in March 1783. Court records suggest Christopher may have had a typical red-haired Irishman's temper, for on November 21, 1781, he was put in debt to the Commonwealth of the fantastic sum of 50,000 pounds.
"..upon this condition that if the said Christopher Bryan shall keep the
peace toward all the good citizens of date thereof, particularly toward
James Byrnside, then the above recognizance to be void; otherwise to
remain in full force and virtue."
After the war Christopher took up surveying again and went to Greenbriar County, WV. In November 1780, he was issued a license to keep an "ordinary" in Monroe County. He signed several petitions in the early 1780's proposing new roads in the area. By the year 1784, Christopher and Katherine had six children. In 1787, he recorded real estate transactions at Great Levels and Horseshoe Bottoms in Greenbriar County, WV. But he was still headed west. A few years after the youngest child, George, was born in 1789, the O'Bryans had made the arduous trek out to Bryan's Station, KY (now Lexington). On deeds as late as July 11, 1789, Christopher called himself a resident of Virginia, but on January 9, 1791 he changed that to Kentucky (the state lines were also changing). Later that month, he was listed as having established a ferry across the Kentucky River from his land on the south shore to Frankfort on the other side. He owned two horses and four cows in 1794 in Mercer County, KY, formerly part of Virginia.
Soon Christopher and his family moved to New Madrid, Missouri, just inside Spanish territory on the Mississippi River. Like Moses Austin and Daniel Boone, they may have been motivated to leave Kentucky because they lacked clear title to their land. They probably traveled by flat-bottomed boat, north on the Kentucky River to the Ohio River, then southwest to the Mississippi River. A 1796 Spanish document refers to his "grand familia y tres hijos hombres." Christopher expected New Madrid to become a booming trade center, but his wife Katherine Kimberland died there, and Christopher felt that he needed to leave its unhealthy climate. Then he heard he could get rich growing sugar cane, since it could now be refined. Two relatives had agreed to join him and the three families loaded everything, including the cattle, onto flat-bottomed boats.
The group stopped at several points along the way, including Natchez, MS and New Orleans, LA. Commandant Manuel de Salcedo at Baton Rouge gave Christopher ("a subject of his Catholic Majesty") a passport to visit Opelousas and Attakapas to look for land, stating "that there is no objection to his keeping a tavern on certain conditions." Christopher petitioned for land on the Bayou Teche, adjoining the property of Talmadge Dunleavy, and the Spanish authorities agreed to let him settle wherever
he wanted, granting him acreage according to the number of his family, which they did not specify.
At last Christopher floated the boats from the Mississippi over to the Atchafalaya River, in hopes of getting rich from cutting huge cypress trees and selling them at Berwick, LA. Another story says they traveled by covered wagon from New Orleans to Berwick Bay. Christopher bought some improved land on Bayou Teche between the towns of Berwick and Patterson from Samuel Stout. By this time, France had secretly regained Louisiana through the Treaty of San Ildefonso, but Christopher got a Spanish title for 1500 acres of land on Tiger Island, where panthers roamed the swamps. The island was called the Big Woods because the trees were big and plentiful there. Christopher built a dock from which to sell cypress to passing ships, and began farming indigo and corn. He called the plantation Wyandotte, after the Indian tribe up north. He is credited with founding Morgan City, LA. On Sept. 20, 1802, he wrote, "I request you to solemnize the marriage between my son Lucas O'Brien of the one part and Rebecka Berwich of the other which I consent to..." which he signed"Your humble & old sev't, C. Kindallis O'Brien."
About 1810, Christopher probably returned to Kentucky, where he is buried. Before his death, he is supposed to have asked his sons to change their name from Bryan back to O'Bryan. On April 8, 1812 the United States government confirmed a claim of 640 acres at the spot in Louisiana where he settled, but Christopher's sons were unable to get U.S. title to the rest of the Spanish grant. The Spanish grant "according to the number of his children" had not specified that number, and the government ruled that Christopher had bought Stout's improvements without necessarily gaining title to the land. His son George married Eleanor Merriman. Four of Christopher's children married four children of Thomas Berwick, who were about their same ages.
1801 - Moved to New Orleans down river on barge
Revolutionary War Veteran
BEF 1789 - Virginia to Kentucky
BEF 1801 - Kentucky to Missouri
Virginia O'Bryan says born in Co. Clare, Ireland.
1820 - Census, LA, Attakapas, p. 144, maybe Jr.
1840 - Census, LA, St. M. p. 335, maybe Jr.
1777-1779 - Pvt.Continental Line, 6th VA Regiment, etc. sick at Valley
Forge
or returned to Kentucky from LA
caught poaching, stowed away to Virginia, changed his name
credited with founding Morgan City in Berwick Bay, LA.
red hair, blue eyes, 6'4"
!BIRTH: Old Corner, newspaper clipping from Beaumont or Galveston
!DEATH: near Bryan, KY buried in Lexington estate settled in 1812
!MARRIAGE: Frances Evelyn Bryan Crock DAR 520770
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