Thomas Barbour Bryan

Thomas Barbour Bryan (December 22, 1828 – January 26, 1906) was an American businessman, lawyer, and politician.

Born in Virginia, a member of the prestigious Barbour family on his mother's side, Bryan largely made a name for himself in Chicago, Illinois. Bryan was involved in many ventures in the city, such as the creation of Graceland Cemetery, and was active in the city's politics, having twice been nominated for mayor. Bryan was a strong unionist during the American Civil War. Bryan was instrumental in Chicago being awarded the World's Columbian Exposition, and was involved in the exposition's organization and operation.

Bryan also played a key role in the development of the Chicago suburb of Elmhurst, Illinois, where he resided much of his life. He is often referred to as "The Father of Elmhurst".

In addition to his involvement in Chicago politics, Bryan spent a brief period as a commissioner of the District of Columbia.

Early life, education, and family

Bryan was born in Alexandria, Virginia, on December 22, 1828. His father was Daniel Bryan, and his mother was Mary Thomas Barbour Bryan (). 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.

A member of the esteemed Barbour family through his mother, Bryan's maternal uncles were James Barbour and Philip P. Barbour. His maternal grandfather was Thomas Barbour. One of Bryan's nephews would be Bryan Lathrop, with whom he would later form a personal and business relationship. Another nephew was Barbour Lathrop, and a niece was Florence Lathrop Field Page.

Sources disagree as to whether Bryan's paternal great-uncle was Daniel Boone, as it is unclear whether his father was Boone's nephew. If he is Boone's great-nephew, his paternal grandfather would have been William Bryan, one of the founders of Bryan Station, and his maternal grandmother had been Mary Boone Bryan.

Bryan was educated at Virginia's top preparatory schools.

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.

Bryan graduated from Harvard Law School in 1848. While attending Harvard, he lived in nearby Boston, at the house of a German woman who taught him the German language. He would, soon after graduating, publish grammar meant to help Germans learn to read, write, and speak the English language. This grammar received praise from German press and from professors.

Adult life and career

After graduating from Harvard Law School, Bryan practiced law in Cincinnati until 1852. At one point in his legal career, he was attorney for the estate of deceased president William Henry Harrison.

In 1850, in a wedding ceremony held in Newport, Kentucky, Bryan married Jennie "Jane" Byrd Page who became Mrs. Jennie Byrd Bryan. His wife was related, by marriage, to the prominent Page and Lee families of Virginia. She was the daughter of an episcopal clergyman.

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

Bryan's initial residence in Chicago was at 103 Michigan Avenue, near Madison Street. This was, at the time, a fashionable neighborhood. Here, he was neighbors with many prominent Chicagoans, including Matthew Laflin. Shortly after living here, he built a house at the northwest corner of Wabash Avenue and Jackson Street.

Sometime between 1856 and 1859, Bryan settled in Cottage Hill, Illinois (modern-day Elmhurst), building a 1,000-acre estate there named "Byrd's Nest". Bryan would ultimately play an important role in the development of the town, even being credited as the one responsible for renaming the town. He is often referred to as "The Father of Elmhurst". Living there, he would commute daily to Chicago on the Chicago and North Western Railway. In the 1860 United States census, Bryan was recorded to be the wealthiest person in DuPage County, with a net worth said to exceed $325,000. In 1864, he would sell 26 acres of his land to his brother-in-law, Jedediah Lathrop, who built his own estate named Huntington on the site.

Bryan and his wife Jennie had three children, two of whom (a son and a daughter) would live to adulthood. The son they lost as a child, Daniel Page Bryan, died on April 12, 1855. Their adult son was Charles Page Bryan, born in 1855, who would have a career as a lawyer, politician, and diplomat. Their daughter, born in 1857, was also named Jennie Byrd Bryan. She would become an artist and philanthropist, and would, in 1913, marry John Barton Payne, adopting his surname.

In 1860, Bryan established Graceland Cemetery in partnership with William Butler Ogden, Sidney Sawyer, Edwin H. Sheldon, and George Peter Alexander Healy. He was the inaugural president of the Graceland Cemetery Association. The first burial at the cemetery was Bryan's late son Daniel Page Bryan, with his remains having been disinterred and removed from the city cemetery in Lincoln Park along with approximately 2,000 other individuals. That 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. It would remain the city's primary venue until the opening of Crosby's Opera House.

Bryan established a reputation for himself as a gifted orator.

Bryan was, twice, reluctantly a nominee for mayor of Chicago. In 1861, Bryan was the People's Ticket nominee for mayor of Chicago. He lost the election to Republican Julian Sidney Rumsey by a sizable margin. Bryan had been drafted for mayor by a number of acquaintances to run on what the being dubbed "The People's Ticket". Unaware at the time that he'd be running in opposition to the Republican Party, Bryan reluctantly accepted. He was reported to, ultimately, have seemed somewhat relieved by his ultimate defeat in the polls. He did not desire to be mayor of the city, nor did he want to cause disarray or fractures in the Republican Party at the time that the Civil War was beginning. Bryan was the National Union (Republican) nominee for the office in 1863, losing by an incredibly narrow margin to incumbent mayor Francis Cornwall Sherman.Rogues, Rebels, And Rubber Stamps: The Politics Of The Chicago City Council, 1863 To The Present Portada; Dick Simpson Routledge, Mar 8, 2018
/ref> He originally planned to contest the result over allegations of election fraud by the Democrats, but ultimately did not, not being concerned enough with the results, having been a reluctant candidate to begin with.

A strong unionist, 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". He was a member of the Union Defense Committee. He was also president of the Northwestern Sanitary Fair, an event held in 1865 along the Chicago lakefront which raised more than $300,000 for Union soldiers. Interestingly, his wife had incidentally been in the company of Confederate Army general Robert E. Lee, a relative of hers by marriage, just days before the breakout of the Civil War.

Bryan served in leadership roles for numerous Chicago organizations. From 1865 until 1906, Bryan served as president of the Chicago Soldiers' Home, which he also had helped to found. He was president of the Union League Club of Chicago.

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.

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 become Elmhurst University.

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. After the fire, he provided a number of people displaced with refuge at Byrd's Nest. Bryan was involved in helping revive the city after the fire. Shortly before the fire Bryan had founded the Federal Savings Bank and Safe Depository, also known as the Fidelity Safe Depository. Despite the burning of its building, the vaults and safes were intact, and their contents survived the fire. Bryan rebuilt a new structure for the institution quickly after the fire. He purchased the metal from the Chicago Court House Bell which he used to fashion an alarm for his company, selling the rest to H.S. Everhart & Company which commissioned the U.S. Mint to strike commemorative medals from the metal.

From December 3, 1877, through July 1, 1878, Bryan served as Commissioner of the District of Columbia. During this brief period, he and his wife briefly lived in Washington, D.C.

In 1878, Bryan stepped-down as president of Graceland Cemetery, turning over the presidency to his nephew Bryan Lathrop.

For a period of time, he and his wife moved to Colorado. At the time of the 1880 United States census

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