Ausphera W. Bryant, planter, was born in Baldwin county, August 20, 1827. He attended school till seventeen, then entered the employ of Mr. Edward Robinson, as clerk in a store of general merchandise. At the age of twenty years, he entered in business for himself. In 1858, he bought his first piece of land, consisting of forty acres, where his present pleasant home now stands and which he settled at that time and put on first-class improvements. He enlisted in the Confederate service in 1862 and was paroled in April, 1865. After the war he returned to his home and family and began the upbuilding of his shattered fortunes. He began the clearing of land and turned to farming, in which he has been successful and has accumulated much realty, adding to his original purchase of forty acres, till he now owns 1,900 acres, agricultural and timber lands. Mr. Bryant was married in 1858 to Miss Virginia Steadham, daughter of Edward Steadham, who was a native of South Carolina and was one of Alabama’s early pioneers. With his father and two brothers he settled in Baldwin county, near the boatyard, so called, and was one of the many settlers that sought safety in Fort Mims, and escaped the day of the downfall of the fort. With two musket balls in his thigh he returned to the Alabama river, and, with the assistance of a pine log, swam the stream and thence to the Tombigbee river, and in like manner succeeded in crossing that stream and found his way to safety, and lived to be one of the wealthy and representative men of the county. Mrs. Bryant was born in Baldwin county, near Montgomery Hill, September 26, 1838. was married in her twentieth year and is now the mother of eleven children, ten of whom still live, born in the following order : Emma, now the wife of John McDavid whose biography appears elsewhere; Julia A., wife of I. R. Cox; Martha E., now the wife of John Richardson; Maggie V., single; William E., married to Maggie Richerson; Ausphera W., now attending the dental school of Philadelphia; Percy A., attending college at Auburn; May H., George R., and Douglass O.
William P. Bryant, father of A. W. Bryant, was born in North Carolina in Scotland Neck, in March of 1799, came to Alabama and settled near Fort Mims, and in a short time returned to North Carolina and brought his mother and sisters to this state. He was married in Baldwin county in 1825 to Miss Margaret Weekley. He then engaged in merchandising near old Fort Mims, where he continued in business till death, which occurred September 27, 1839. His wife was born near Montgomery Hill, Baldwin county, Ala., where she grew to womanhood. Her parents came from St. Augustine, Fla., and settled in Baldwin county near Montgomery Hill. She was married in her twentieth year and became the mother of three children, two of whom reached maturity and still survive. In 1843 she was married to Edward Robinson, and lived a happy, consistent and exemplary lire till her death, which occurred December 28, 1862.