Daniel Bryan

Daniel Bryan (1789 – December 22, 1866) was an American politician, abolitionist, lawyer, poet, and postmaster who served in the Senate of Virginia from 1818 to 1820 and as postmaster of Alexandria, Virginia for more than three decades. Bryan married into the prestigious Barbour family in his second marriage.

Early life Bryan was born in 1789 in rural Rockingham County, Virginia. There is disagreement on whether Bryan's maternal uncle was Daniel Boone. Boone had a nephew named Daniel Bryan; however, there is evidence to indicate that this was a different person. It is likely that the politician and poet Daniel Bryan was more distantly related to Boone. ) If he was Boone's nephew, then Bryan's father would have been William Bryan, one of the founders of Bryan Station, and his mother Mary Boone Bryan, sister of Boone. Bryan attended Washington Academy (today's Washington and Lee University), but did not graduate. In 1813, he published his first book, The Mountain Muse, which mainly consisted of the 5,600 line poem "The Adventures of Daniel Boone". Bryan practiced as a lawyer.

Bryan married Rebecca Davenport on October 15, 1815, but she died the following year, widowing Bryan. In the 1820s, he also garnered a reputation as a talented orator. Being an abolitionist, on January 26, 1820, Bryan cast the lone vote in the Virginia Senate against advocating for the admission of Missouri as a slave state. This placed him in direct opposition to the stances held by his brothers-in-law, who supported the admission of Missouri as a slave state. including the Alexandria "Blue Boy" Postmaster's Provisional, which has become extremely rare (only one known example remains), holding the record for the highest priced cover of United States philately.

With Bryan not being present at the Virginia State Capitol in Richmond at the start of the new 1821 legislative session, the Senate declared his seat vacant, thus ending his tenure. His wife was a member of the esteemed Barbour family. Sally Brown Thomas Barbour Bryan (1828–1906), who married Jennie Byrd Page in 1850 (with whom he had three children, including Charles Page Bryan and Jennie Byrd Bryan Payne).