Cherry Price (1793-1837)

Cherry Price is an excellent example that shows what we know about women in the early 19th century — Next to nothing.  Most of what we know is because of what we know about one of the men in her life, either her father or her husband. 

I have found two major sources of information regarding Cherry.  First, is the Martin County Heritage, published by the Martin County Historical Society in 1980.  It is a great resource for many of the family lines I am researching in the area.  There is an article in the book regarding her husband, John Bryan which provides most of the information that we have regarding the family.

   

Martin County Heritage also mentions that John’s grandfather was a patriot which led me to the Daughters of the American Revolution website and their database. A look through their database showed several lineages which include Cherry. 

I decided to purchase one of the applications that had been submitted to National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution (NSDAR).  They cost $10.00 each which is more than I like to spend on a single item.  But, I had never purchased one so I thought I’d try one that has Cherry included so I could see what is included in one of the DAR downloads.  The lineage, which you do see when  you look at the index is included. I did notice that the image does show some detail that was left out of the index entry.  More importantly, there were “references for lineage” which are really great.  In this case, there was a “certified statement” which provided information on ancestors which were not direct decedent.  There was reference to the “Bryan Bible Records” (which I have seen reference to before), the will of Lewis Bryan (which I wrote about in my Lewis Bryan blog), and the deed from Robert Bryan to Lewis Bryan (which I’ve seen reference to and I believe I have in my “Needs to be processed” files from my last visit to the library.)

The application also refers to “Hassell’s N.C.Church History (Sylvester Hassell) Chapter 26, Page 851” as a reference regarding John and Cherry Bryan and/or their daughter Martha Ann Bryan. I thought, wow, that’s cool another source of information. I went to WorldCat to look up the book and where there might be a copy of it.  Not there.  I did see some personal papers and History of the church of God, from the creation to A.D. 1885; including especially the history of the Kehukee Primitive Baptist Association — and they have a copy only 7 miles away at the Atlanta History Center. The book is old, so I wondered if it was available online — So off to Google Books. 

A search there found the book, then a search for “John Bryan” was a hit with 11 results in the book.  Sure enough, one of the hits was on page 851 which just so happened to be in Chapter 26. (Of course, neither Cherry or their daughter Martha Ann is in the book.)  The book has a page or two about the Conoho church in Martin County and mentions many names I’ve seen elsewhere in the records including Purvis, Archibald Staton, and others.  There was also the line I initially saw in Martin County Heritage about John being a “disciplinarian unsurpassed by anyone else in the Kehukee Association.”

The NSDAR application also gives some further references to Robert Bryan’s service history, which I will need to followup with.  Certainly purchasing the NSDAR application was worthwhile and I’ll do it again for other patriot records. 

What I think I know about Cherry Price:

She was born on 03 Mar 1793 in Martin, North Carolina, USA.

She married John W Bryan on 16 Aug 1810,

Cherry and John had nine children. 

Tragedy struck her at least twice as she saw the deaths of two of her children.

Cherry died on 19 Mar 1837 in Martin County, North Carolina, USA. I do not know where she was buried. 

We remember Cherry Bryan, my wife’s third-great grandmother, today on the 221st anniversary of her birth. 

Get a copy of the appropriate pages of the Bryan Family Bible.

Get copies of the references cited regarding Robert Bryan’s military service in the Revolution.

Daughters of the American Revolution – Member # 517846 – Ancestor # A016279

Daughters of the American Revolution – Member # 597793 – Ancestor # A016279

Martin County Heritage – Article Article #  89 – John Bryan Family

Martin County Heritage – Article Article # 784 – William Price Family