Joseph Bryan: His Times, His Family, His Friends

There is no more potentially contentious group than family. As memoirists, when we sit down to write the stories of our families—our childhoods, our relationships with parents and siblings, the role of in-laws and out-laws in every generation —we often pause, hesitant. Questions begin to formulate. What will happen if I write about my family? How will they react? Should I tell the truth unflinchingly, or should I take care to write more gently—and less controversially? What is the truth?

In Richmond, writing and publishing family memoirs dates back several generations. This example from the Bryan family was privately printed. John Stewart Bryan (1871-1944) presented a copy to the Valentine Museum in 1936. The subject, Joseph Bryan (1845-1908), was one of Mosby’s Rangers during the American Civil War, a highly-successful Richmond business leader and a beloved husband and patriarch.