Memorial to the John Bryant family,
Poplar Springs Cemetery near Skullbone
submitted by: Dr.
Tony Mack McClure
Author of the best selling Native
American book "Cherokee Proud"
This unique memorial to the John Bryant
family is located in Poplar Springs
Cemetery near Skullbone. Bryant, a mixed-blood Cherokee Indian, and several
of his children and their families were among the first pioneer settlers of
Gibson County. Bryant's widowed mother Lucy (Briant) Bryant , also
memorialized on the stone, was listed on the 1817 Cherokee Indian roll as a
reservee living near the present town of Helen in Northeast Georgia. It was
on her individual 640-acre Cherokee reservation land there that gold was
first discovered about 1826 - a major event contributing to the infamous
Trail of Tears. Her old land, taken from her in 1828 by the shameful Georgia
land lottery is today designated as a Georgia historic site by the Georgia
Indian Affairs Commission. Many of Lucy Brant's descendants, through her son John
Bryant, several of which still reside in Gibson County, are enrolled
Cherokee tribal members and take an active part in their unique and proud
heritage.