Thomas Barbour Bryan

Bryan was born in Alexandria, Virginia on December 22, 1828.[1][2] His father was Daniel Bryan, and his mother was Mary Thomas Bryan (née Barbour).[2][3] Bryan's father was a poet and a lawyer, abolitionist, and statesman who served from 1821 to 1853 as Alexandria's postmaster, and who, from 1818 through 1820 served in the Senate of Virginia.[2][3][4]

A member of the esteemed Barbour family through his mother, Bryan's maternal uncles were James Barbour and Philip Pendleton Barbour.[2] His maternal grandfather was Thomas Barbour.[5] Bryan's nephew, would be Bryan Lathrop, with whom he would later form a personal and business relationship.[6] Another nephew would be Barbour Lathrop. Bryan was first cousins with Sextus Barbour.

Bryan's paternal great-uncle was Daniel Boone.[3] His paternal grandfather had been William Bryan, one of the founders of Bryan Station, and his maternal grandmother had been Mary Boone Bryan.[7][8]

Bryan was educated at Virginia's top preparatory schools.[2]

For four years, Bryan held a clerkship with the post office that his father oversaw. The clerkship paid $300 annually, which Bryan saved up before leaving to attend Harvard University.[9]

Bryan graduated from Harvard Law School in 1848.[1]

After graduating from Harvard Law School, Bryan practiced law in Cincinnati until 1852.[1]

In 1850, Bryan married Jennie Byrd Page, who became Mrs. Jennie Byrd Bryan.[10]

In 1852, Bryan and his wife moved to Chicago, where he had acquired broad real estate interests.[11] Over the next half-century, Bryan would be a booster in the growth of the city.[1]

Sometime between 1856 and 1959, Bryan settled in Cottage Grove, Illinois (modern-day Elmhurst), building a 1,000 acre estate there named "Byrd's Nest".[11][12][13] Bryan would ultimately play an important role in the development of the town, even being credited as the one responsible for renaming the town.[11][12] Living there, he would commute daily to Chicago on the Chicago and North Western Railway.[12] In the 1860 United States Census, Bryan was recorded to be the wealthiest person in DuPage County, Illinois, with a net worth said to exceed $325,000.[12] In 1864, he would sell 26 acres of his land to his brother-in-law Jedediah Lathrop, where Lathrop built his own estate named Huntington.[14]

He and his wife Jennie had three children; two of whom (a son and a daughter) would live to adulthood.[15] The son they lost as a child was named Daniel Page Bryan.[15] Their adult son was Charles Page Bryan, who would have a career as a lawyer and diplomat.[16] Their daughter was also named Jennie Byrd Bryan. She would become a prominent artist and philanthropist, and would marry John Barton Payne, adopting his surname.[17]

In 1860, Bryan established Graceland Cemetery. He was the inaugural president of the Graceland Cemetery Association.[18] The year also saw the opening of Bryan Hall, a music hall which Bryan constructed in Chicago on Clark Street across from the city's courthouse. With a capacity of between 500 and 600 people, it was reported to be the largest hall of its kind in the metropolitan area at the time of its opening.[12][19][20] It would remain the city's primary venue until the opening of Crosby's Opera House .[2]

Bryan established a reputation for himself as a gifted orator.[10]

Bryan was, twice, reluctantly a nominee for mayor of Chicago.[2] In 1861, Bryan was the Democratic nominee for mayor of Chicago. He lost the election to Republican Julian Sidney Rumsey. He was the Republican nominee for the office in 1863, losing by an incredibly narrow margin to incumbent mayor Francis Cornwall Sherman.

During the American Civil War, Bryan funded a company of the 105th Infantry Regiment of Illinois Volunteers in the Civil War, named the "Bryan's Blues".[12] He was a member of the Union Defense Committee.[1] He was also president of the Northwestern Sanitary Fair, an event held in 1865 along the Chicago lakefront which raised more than $270,000 for union soldiers.[1][21][22][23]

Bryan served in leadership roles for numerous Chicago organizations. From 1865 until 1906, Bryan served as president of the Chicago Soldiers' Home.[24] He was president of the Union League Club of Chicago.[1][24]

In 1870, Bryan leased Bryan Hall to Richard M. Hooley for a period of five years, for $21,000 per year. It was renamed the Hooley Opera House.[19]

In 1871, Bryan and his wife Jennie gave 30 acres of land to the German Evangelical Synod of the Northwest for a seminary, which would eventually became Elmhurst College.[25]

In the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, Bryan lost $2 million, with one significant part of this being the loss of his music hall in the fire.[12] After the fire, he provided a number of people displaced with refuge at Byrd's Nest.[12] Bryan was involved in helping revive the city after the fire.[11] Shortly before the fire Bryan had founded the Federal Savings Bank and Safe Depository, also known as the Fidelity Safe Deposity.[1][26] Despite the burning of its building, the vaults and safes were intact, and their contents survived the fire.[26] Bryan rebuilt a new structure for the institution quickly after the fire.[27]

From December 3, 1877 through July 1, 1878, Bryan served as Commissioner of the District of Columbia.

Bryan around the time of the World's Columbian Exposition

Bryan fell victim to what ultimately turned out to be scam run by H. H. Holmes, later discovered to be a serial killer. He lost more than $9,000 after gotten involved in Holme's scam "A.B.C. Copier Company" at the advice of Bryan's associate Fred Nind.[18] Holmes would fraudulently use Bryan's name on the papers of this and a number of other scam companies.[18][28]

Bryan was a leading figure in the effort to bring the World's Columbian Exposition to Chicago. Bryan convinced the Chicago City Council to pass legislation that would help the city in its efforts secure the world's fair.[11] He, alongside Chicago mayor DeWitt Clinton Cregier and former Illinois Central Railroad president Edward Turner Jeffery gave the presentation for Chicago's bid to the fifteen member United States Senate committee that decided what location would be awarded the fair.[11]

After Chicago landed the fair, he was appointed a commissioner-at-large of the World’s Columbian Exposition Board created by federal legislation.[12] He was ultimately the vice president of the World's Columbian Exposition, vice president World's Congress Auxiliary, Commissioner General of the Exposition and the Chairman of the Congresses Committee of Organization, and President of the World's Congress.[12][28][29]

Bryan commissioned many works by George Peter Alexander Healy.[33][34] Healy had an acquaintanceship with Bryan. In 1857, Healy had purchased a cottage in Cottage Hill (Elmhurst) from Bryan, where his Healy lived for next six years, making them neighbors with Bryan during this period.[34][35] After Bryan's death, many of the paintings that he had commissioned from Healy would pass to his daughter Jennie Byrd Payne.[36] After her 1919 death,[17] in 1920, Jennie Byrd's Payne's widowed husband, John Barton Payne, gifted a collection of forty masterpieces to the State of Virginia, a gift valued at time at over $1 million.[36] In this gift were several paintings Bryan had commissioned from Healy.[36]

In his life, Bryan acquired several noteworthy pieces of historic memorabilia.

After the Great Chicago Fire, Bryan purchased the broken remains of the bell from the city lost courthouse at an auction. He kept parts of the bell, but sold most of the bell's remains to H.S. Everhart & Company, who made one-inch tall miniature bells as souvenirs.[37] The courthouse bell was notable in relation to the fire, as it had been one of the bells in the city that was rung to warn citizens of the fire.[38]

After notable people had been invited to send items to the Northwestern Sanitary Fair to auction, Abraham Lincoln sent the original draft of the Emancipation Proclamation.[39] Bryan was successful in bidding for it, paying $3,000 for it, the item being the highest bid item on auction.[39][40] Bryan had lithographic copies made and sold for the benefit of the Sanitary Commission.[39] Bryan gifted the document to the Chicago Soldier's Home, who in turn entrusted it to the Chicago Historical Society for safekeeping. However, this original document was lost in the Great Chicago Fire.[40]