PITTSBORO — Rev. Ricky R. McKinney Sr. says it’s hard to overstate the importance of the Bryant family and the contributions made by the African-American family to Pittsboro during the last century.
Now pastor of Jordon Grove AME Zion Church in Siler City, McKinney got to know the Bryants well, hanging out with them on their farm as a young man growing up in Pittsboro in the 1970s.
“I’ve had the opportunity to know firsthand the value of the Bryant family,” McKinney said. “They’re just a great family. Everybody knew them. And for me personally, they were very instrumental and so inspirational in my life.”
Today, only one Bryant from the once-large family — Carl, who is 82 — survives and McKinney is planning a program next month at the Chatham County Agriculture Center in Pittsboro to honor not only the last living Bryant, but also his late siblings, their parents and their contributions to the community.
But it all started, in the early part of the 20th century, with the marriage in 1914 of Gade Bryant, a former sharecropper born in Broadway in 1895, and his wife, Maude Lee Bryant, born in Pittsboro in 1897.
Gade was a hard-working farmer who, by hand and mule, “planted and harvested his own tobacco, wheat, cotton, sugar cane and cucumbers before later becoming a prominent dairy farmer,” said McKinney.
The family farm encompassed 500 acres. In 1954, Hurricane Hazel drowned many of Gade’s cows, driving him out of the dairy cow business. In the hurricane’s aftermath, he turned to sugar cane and cucumber farming.
Maude, who worked alongside her husband on the farm, was also a midwife.
She was, McKinney said, “an amazing woman who gave birth to 11 children of her own. Their names were Evelyn, Nathaniel, Robert, Nannie, Gertrude, Theodore, Louis, Harvey, Margaret, Wilbur and Carl. She raised them all with love, sharing, and prayer. She loved to cook and she could cook, too, because I used to eat her cooking when I was a young boy visiting the farm and fishing in their pond.”
On their Pittsboro farm, the Bryants embraced a strong work ethic, McKinney said.
“I’m told that on the day that Ms. Maude gave birth to Carl, April 2, 1937, on the same day she returned to the fields to help her husband plant corn,” he said. “As a midwife, she delivered 97 babies and three of them were white babies. A story is told that she saved the lives of two babies who were thought to be dead; but Maude kept on working and never gave up until life was restored to those two babies.”
Gade also assisted in the building of Ft. Bragg in Cumberland County.
In 1949, Gade donated a portion of his land for the Chatham County Colored Agriculture Fair and he built the JOCCA building for county residents in the Seventies.
“Mr. Bryant also donated the land for one of the first black schools in the county, named New Zion School,” McKinney said. While the school, which was on a site on Gade Bryant Road, no longer exists, several of the Bryant children attended school there.
Gade Bryant “was very involved with the 4-H program in the county, which led to the Chatham County Fairgrounds Association. He served as president on the board for 27 years; other Bryants have been on the board for years as well. This father, while working hard, amassed 500 acres of land ownership at a time when blacks truly had to struggle to accumulate wealth.”
Gade and Maude’s children “went on to accomplish some very note worthy futures of their own,” said McKinney. “The Bryant children went on to become better-than-average school teachers, barber college owners, daycare providers, entrepreneurs, morticians, public office holders, store owners, gas stations owners, farmers. They have roads named in the honor of Mr Gade Bryant and one of the north Chatham County schools have been named in honor of one of their children.”
McKinney was especially close to Wilbur Bryant who, for decades until his death in 2017 was a well-known figure in Pittsboro, known to many as the man selling produce at various locations around town from the back of his pick-up truck.
“Those who lived in Chatham County, particularly Pittsboro, all knew the person in the personality of Mr. Wilbur Bryant,” said McKinney. “He’s the one who determined early in life that he would stay on and continue to farm and work alongside his dad and mom to keep the Bryant name in farming ongoing. He could be seen regularly all over the county and even surrounding counties selling the fresh produce that he grew to our neighbors. If it would grow, he knew how to tend it and have a harvest. His big hands could hold a half dozen or more ears of corn in one hand as he stood pretty much alongside the roads. You could hear him say to the passersby ‘Roasted ears. Get your fresh roasted ears here; these ears are as fresh and tender as a mother’s love.’ Boy, he would say that. I suppose that speaks of just how much he loved his mother. Wilbur never met a stranger, and would greet all the same by calling them ‘friend.’ If you were real close, he’d call you ‘cuz.’ What he did for the county and town will be missed for years.”
Of the Bryant family, McKinney said they were “great humanitarians and deserve to have their legacy live on. Their hard work and dedication to Chatham County will be hard to match, to say the least.”
A stone marker erected on the family farm recognizes “the firm foundation” built by Gade and Maude “for their famly and community. Their commitment to entrepreneurship, advocacy and civic leadership left a tangible legacy in Chatham County.”
Aiming to recognize the Bryant family and their many contributions to the region, McKinney several months ago began planning an event, which will be held in Pittsboro on December 21, to honor them.
It will be held at the Chatham County Agriculture/Conference Center, 1192 US Hwy. 64, beginning at 4 p.m.
McKinney is lining up speakers who knew the Bryants to participate.
There will be music, provided by REK KREATION ENTERTAINMENT, with a performance by McKinney’s son, a musician trained at the Berklee College of Music in Boston.
Scurlocks Catering in Pittsboro is lined up to provide food.
“Every effort has been made to accommodate an evening of elegance for the Bryant family,” said McKinney.
Everyone is invited.
Tickets for the event are $25, available in advance at Willy’s, 35 W. Chatham St., Pittsboro; John’s Pizza, 122 Sanford Rd., Pittsboro; Knott’s Funeral Home, 50 Masonic St., Pittsboro; Dan Augustine, 507 East St., Pittsboro; and Peace Makers Gates Of Beauty, 405 E. Main St., Carrboro. Tickets will also be available at the door the day of the program.
McKinney said the Pittsboro venue can accommodate 299 people, and he’s hoping for a good crowd.
“I’m praying we’ll have 299 people there,” he said. “But if there’s only 10 people, I’m still honored to do it.”
Randall Rigsbee can be reached at rigsbee@chathamnr.com.