John Neely Bryan, the credited ‘founder’ of Dallas, had a wild ride of a life, capped off by being buried in an unmarked grave of a mental institution.
John Neely Bryan was born in 1810 in Tennessee where he attended a military academy and was admitted to the bar. He then found himself in Arkansas, trading with Native Americans. Bryan made his first trip to Dallas in 1839, apparently liked what he saw, returned to Arkansas to settle his affairs and moved permanently to the Trinity River area in 1841. At age 32, in 1843, he would marry Margaret Beeman, then 17. They would have 5 kids together. But, those are the ho-hum details of his life.
In our next installments, we will cover John Neely Bryan shooting a man, being part of the Gold Rush, living with the Creek Nation and being institutionalized. Stay tuned.
Pictured: a replica of the cabin Neely built when he arrived in what we now call Dallas.
Our Dallas tours often start from the Old Red Museum which is just across the street from this cabin.
