This memoir includes the handwritten, in ink, (and a typed transcript) of reminiscences titled: "Reminiscences of California, 1849-1852 by Berryman Bryant M.D. He made two trips to California: 1st trip he arrived in San Francisco June 12 - 1849 having gone by sea to Mexico then overland; 2nd trip left Missouri on April 15, 1850, and traveled overland. It also includes at the end of the memoir " notes by his son Calhoun Bryant." Berryman opened the first private hospital in California at Sacramento in June of 1849, and proceeded to start up various other businesses: a hotel in Downieville, provisioner of a mining company, and a sheep rancherin Gilroy Valley. The memoir also includes background of his childhood in South Carolina, Alabama and Mississippi. This second trip back was with 42 men and his young wife - the men having formed a mining company, and Bryant supplies mining tools, etc. He then settled in Downieville and opened a hotel there. He then moved south, stopping in Gilroy Valley, where he and his wife - with a child Perry Mason Bryant),in 1853 raised sheep. The final portion is written by his souond Calhoun Bryant, this section giving more details of his father's life: losing his house in San Jose, his membership in the masons and some information about Berryman's wife, Henrietta Frances Reeve and her family. Dr. Bryant is noted dying at the home of Calhoun on March 14, 1898. His wife passesd away on January 15, 1903 and both are buried at Gilroy, Santa Clara, California.

Berryman Bryant, M.D. was born in 1816 in Spartanburg County, South Carolina. He arrived in California on June 12, 1849, traveling overland from Camden, Wilcox County, Alabama (Society of California Pioneers records.) His memoir notes the following: "two trips to California, 1st trip he arrived in San Francisco June 12, - 1849 by sea to Mexico then overland, 2nd trip left Missouri on April 15- 1850 traveled overland." He spent time in the gold mines and his reminiscence gives insights as to mining technqiues. Bryant opened the first private hospital in California at Sacramento in June 1849. The memoir discusses more about his medical practice, farming and his real estate holdings. He was a physician, and lived in San Jose, California. He married Henrietts Frances Reeve, and had 2 sons, Perry Mason and Calhoun. He died in San Francisco on March 14, 1898 at the age of 81 years, and Henrietta died on Jan. 15, 1903.

1.0 folder (1 memoir,unpaged; 1 transcript, 15 pages)

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Collection open for research.