Stanislaus
County
Biographies
HENRY BRYAN
This is distinctively an age of
machinery and one in which the ingenious and judicious inventor often reaps the
rewards of his enterprise. Henry Bryan,
of Modesto, Stanislaus County, California, the owner of the Modesto machine
shops and planing-mill, is one of the best known inventors and machinists in
California. He was born in the state of
New York, July 5, 1835, and is a descendant of Quaker ancestors, who settled
early in New England. His grandfather
Bryan was a Connecticut Yankee and his father, H. C. Bryan, who was born in New
York, married Miss Elizabeth Yates, a native of that state and a daughter of
Captain Peter Yates, who participated in the battle of Bemis Heights and witnessed
the surrender of General Burgoyne to General Washington. H. C. Bryan began life as a farmer, but later
became a manufacturer of farm implements.
He was an estimable citizen and a member of the Lutheran church, and
died at the age of fifty-three years, his wife surviving him until she had
passed the eighty-sixth anniversary of her birth. Of their five children only two are living.
Harry Bryan was educated in the
public schools in the state of New York and has given his whole life to
mechanics, having learned the machinist’s trade under the instruction of his
father and elder brother. He came to
California in 1884 and to Modesto in 1886, when he established the important
business to the upbuilding of which he has since devoted himself. He has built a large machine shop, which is
fitted up with expensive machinery so various in kind that he is able to do all
kinds of iron and steel work in his line, and is the originator and patentee of
six valuable inventions, the last of which is an attachment for reapers, an
improvement for oiling, which does away with friction and prevents machines
from setting the field on fire. Many
hundred of these attachments are already in use and the sale is constantly
growing and extending. Mr. Bryan has
proven himself a thorough mechanic, expert in pertaining to such machinery as
is in his line, and is recognized as an inventive genius of much ability. His public spirit has impelled him to assist
many movements for the public good.
He is an earnest Democrat and is not
without influence in the councils of his party; but he has resolutely refused
every political office which has been offered him, his taste leading him to
devote himself exclusively to his business.
He is not married and has never joined a secret society, but his
geniality and real interest in the welfare of his fellow citizens have won him
many steadfast friends, not only in Stanislaus County but also throughout
central California.
Transcribed by
Gerald Iaquinta.
Source:
“A Volume of Memoirs and Genealogy of Representative Citizens of Northern
California”, Page 421. Chicago Standard Genealogical Publishing Co. 1901.
© 2010
Gerald Iaquinta.