In England the Bryants were Protestants and in the contest to uphold Protestantism they

aunt minerva collection
The Foster Family by W.T. Foster

were with the orangement and against the catholics for which they were granted the orange and purple chevron, now in their coat of arms. THey were well to do people, held high official positions under the English government, belonged to that class then called gentlemen therefore they were associated with royalty in the favorite hunting sports called falconry. For that reason the hawk or eagle appears in their coat of arms.
After the American Revolution the Bryants went west to secure lands for their land warrants. They crossed the Alleganies and stopped a long time at the old stone fort up the Monogahela river above Pittsburg where they with 300 other families built family flat boats and floated down the Ohio river to the falls of the Ohio. In Kentucky they stopped at Bryant's Fort which they often had to defend against Indian attacks. The Fosters were in that same fleet of flat-boats that floated down the Ohio.
After living in Kentucky for a long time the Bryant's moved to Indiana where they owned farms and were farmers. In 1855 they moved to Missouri and my wife's father to Harrison county, Mo.
Jonathan M. Bryant, my wife's father was born Nov. 5 1821 in Garget county, Kentucky, and died March 10 1900. He married Gilly May Nelson who was born in Kentucky Nov. 7 1823 and died Dec. 13 1866 in Harrison county, Mo. Her mother Nancy was born Oc. 25 1802 in Carrol co. Ky., died august 10 1879 at Kingston, Mo. Thomas Owsley Bryant was my wife's grand-father. He was born in Kentucky, April 30 1796 and died Jan. 27 1845. Her Bryant aunts were Mary, Keziah A., and Elizabeth, married Myers, Brady, and Hall. In 1860 I attended commercial school of which Henry O. Bryant was the Principal. T.J. Bryant was president of Bryant's and Stratton's commercial college at Indianapolis, Ind. and later of the Bryant commercial college of St. Joseph, Missouri.
From the above it will be observed that the Bryants have much of the Huguenot blood in their veins and it is interesting to know who those Huguenots were. They were descendants of the Wends who conquered the Roman Empire. You will find that the descendants of the Wends have steadfastly adhered to the Protestant faith. These French Huguenots from about 1562 to 1730, were oppressed by the Latin-French Catholics who were in power in France. During that 68 years about 12 religious wars occurred between these Protestants and Catholics. France lost a half million inhabitants by these wars in slaughter and emigration, many having immigrated to America. The Huguenots finally won their liberties, the right to worship according to their own consciences, of which liberty the Catholics tried to deprive them.
It is remarkable that the the Flints, Fosters, Bryants, Selbys and Terrys have for a thousand years kept to-gether and participated in the greatest events of history, each of the five families having attained to the highest honors in war, science, medicine, commerce, the ministry, law, literature, statesmanship and the arts. If there were no other evidences, this fact alone would prove that they are of the same race. To my mind, the tribal histories of these families are the same. They all came from the highlands of Asia from Eden, now called Turkestan, because when the Wends left it, about 600B.C., the Turks took possession of it. But it was the great drouth that drove the Wends out; the Turks made it their home because they had been used to living in deserts further east.