Samuel Bryant, who was a native of Adair
county died in Taylor county,
where he had lived for the last twenty-five years, on March
the 8th.
Old Riverman Dead.
Samuel Bryant, aged 90 years, 4 months and 21 days, died at
his home,
about three miles north of this city, Friday morning, March
8, at 1:30 o'clock.
The deceased was born on Green river, in Adair county, and
was married
in 1844, his wife having died some three years since at the
age of 87.
Many citizens of Taylor and Adair counties knew "Uncle Sam,"
as he was
familiarly named, and knew him as genial, humorous
intelligent gentleman,
fond of sport and as a fisherman of renown. His last fishing
trip was in the
summer of 1911, while nearing his ninetieth anniversary and
with his usual
results ... a big string of fish. Possessed of remarkable
strength of body
and power of endurance, coupled with exceeding good health,
he was
enabled to tramp 15 or 20 miles a day, even after his
eighty-ninth year.
The summons came suddenly, cerebral hemorrhage, which he
survived nine
days only.
In his early years, Uncle Sam "took to the river" and made
many trips on
flatboats, loaded with tobacco, from the Green river section
of Kentucky for
the New Orleans market, returning by steamboat, on which he
stoked to the
mouth of Salt river, thence by foot to his home, seventy-five
miles distance.
The seventy-five miles he walked in one day. On the flatboat,
the hands were
well supplied with the necessities of life, as well as the
luxuries of the times,
especially plenty of those two famous products of Kentucky,
corn whisky and
game cocks ... one barrel of the former and several coops of
the fighters.
The grand old time came on when the game boat tied up for the
night. Staple
corn juice in abundance, cock fighting and old sledge galore.
The comic side
of river life cannot be appreciated until related by such a
man as Uncle Sam,
embellished with native witicisms and delivered with a fine
sense of the
humorous. We, who know Sam Bryant best shall ever cherish pleasant
memories of that jolly, good old man.
Mr. Bryant is survived by his sons, J. W. Bryant, of Taylor
county, John Bryant,
of Louisville; and daughters, Mrs Hannah Lee and Mrs. Holmes
of Taylor county.
--News Journal.-