Tombstone Tuesday: Little George Bryant At Rest

This is the tombstone of little George H. Bryant, son of Sheldon and Ruth Bryant who died November 11, 1849 at the age of 2 years, 8 months.

For several years, the stone rested in an unusual place: in the garage of the town historian. Apparently some kind souls found the stone and brought it to her for safekeeping. The historian thought it had been found in a creek bed and perhaps washed down from the cemetery on Bryant Hill at some point.

Bryant Hill, in the town of Ellicottville, was an early settlement area and named for the Bryants who came from Massachusetts. Sheldon himself was born in Norwich, Hampshire County, Massachusetts on March 23, 1812. His obituary stated he moved to Cattaraugus County, New York when he was six years old and married the former Ruth B. Chamberlain at the age of 22. According to his obituary, they removed to the town of Great Valley in 1852. He died January 2, 1886.

Ruth survived him and lived until October 4, 1908. She was born to Elizah and Ruth Chamberlain on October 22, 1817 in Ludlow, Windsor County, Vermont. Her obituary says she came with her parents to Warsaw, Wyoming County, New York at the age of 10 where she lived until her marriage to Sheldon in 1839 and then came with him to Bryant Hill. 1857 is the year given in her obituary as to when the family moved from Bryant Hill to their farm in Great Valley. Five children were born to her and Sheldon, although only two were living at the time of her death. Both Sheldon and Ruth were buried in the Sugartown Cemetery in Great Valley.

When we look at census records, we see the family was living in Ellicottville during both the 1850 federal census as well as the 1855 state census. By 1860, the family was enumerated in Great Valley. Thus, it is more likely that 1857 rather than 1852 was the year they relocated. Either way, it looks like little George was born and died on Bryant Hill and the only one in the family left behind. He had two older sisters, Amanda R. born February 12, 1843 and Mary Louisa born January 3, 1845. His brother Franklin Sheldon came on November 13, 1851 and the youngest sibling, Nancy E., was born March 3, 1854. Their births likely occurred on Bryant Hill as well.
An 1869 landowner map for Great Valley shows a J.S. Bryant's house on the corner of Sugartown Road and Plum Brook Road and was likely the Sheldon Bryant homestead. The house still stands.
Nancy Bryant went on to marry Charles H. Rider in 1876 and died April 25, 1890. She was buried in the Rider family plot in the Jefferson Street Cemetery in the village of Ellicottville. Charles and Nancy lived in a large house on Sugartown Road a little ways from the original Bryant homestead which also still stands. Sources at the Ellicottville Museum indicate that house was built prior to 1860 and owned by Milford Rider, the father of Charles, from 1867-1872. Charles Rider sold it to Joseph Wilson around 1889. Mary Louisa Bryant was married to John Pratt Whittlesey on April 6, 1881 according to his obituary published in the Ellicottville Post newspaper after his death, which occurred in Great Valley on February 3, 1904. Mary died on April 3, 1900. They were both buried in the Sugartown Cemetery.

According to his obituary, Franklin Sheldon Bryant lived until December 18, 1922 when his body was found near a fox trap he had set on his property on Saw Mill Run where he had moved some six years prior. He died of apparent heart failure and was buried in the family plot in Sugartown.

Amanda Bryant married Harlan M. Beecher. They lived in a house across the road from the Sheldon Bryant place. It is no longer standing but there are remnants of an old well and apple trees still stand where it used to be. It was probably Amanda and her brother along with family friends who had a nice monument set at her parents' graves in May 1911 according to a notice published in the local paper on May 31, 1911. No stones mark their resting spot, but Amanda and Harlan were also buried in Sugartown as indicated in their respective obituaries. He died in Great Valley at his home on Sugartown Road on December 2, 1908. She died at her nephew Otis Bryant's in Great Valley on December 11, 1924.

This leaves us with the tombstone of little George. Research completed by both the town historian and myself do not yield any affirmative information that George was in fact buried in the Bryant Hill Cemetery. Any burial records that far back are long since gone (official death records for the town of Ellicottville only go back to 1899 according to the town clerk). The earliest known transcript of tombstone inscriptions for that cemetery appears to have been done around 1957 and is incomplete at best. A more complete listing was later made by Lois Siggelkow in the 1970s but that also does not list little George.

So it was decided that George's stone should join those of his family's in the Sugartown Cemetery. This finally occurred in 2019, nearly 170 years after his death.