Who was the first child born in Dallas?
John Neely Bryan Jr., not the city’s founder but his son and namesake, has long held the title. In recognition of his birthday on Jan. 9, 1846, here is a look into the veracity of the claim and his life as reported in The Dallas Morning News.
Dallas’ first child
John Neely Bryan, the man credited with founding and naming Dallas, settled on the Trinity River in November 1841. According to the Texas State Historical Association, a townsite was surveyed and laid out in 1844 and Dallas County was formed two years later. On Feb. 2, 1856, the Texas legislature granted Dallas a town charter.
John Neely Bryan’s mark on the city is apparent today. In Dallas, an elementary school and the pergola in Dealey Plaza are named after him. He has also been mentioned time and again in The News and other publications.
This story is not about him.
In 1846, John Neely Bryan Jr., was born in Dallas County to Margaret Beeman and the aforementioned elder Bryan. He was born the same year Dallas County was formed.
Some sources report that he was the couple’s first child, but in John Neely Bryan: Founder of Dallas, Lucy C. Trent, a Bryan family relative, disagreed. In her 1936 book, Trent said “it is thought that the first child born in Dallas was John Neely Bryan Jr., but this was the couple’s second child.” Trent said the couple’s first born only lived for a short time.
And so Bryan Jr. gets to be called the first.
The 1892 book Memorial and Biographical History of Dallas County, Texas, detailed Bryan Jr.’s life, up to that point, in North Texas. This text stated that Bryan Jr. was the first male child born here, not the first overall. This raises another question: Who was the first female child born in Dallas? At this time, it is unknown.
There are more questions about the accuracy of the label. Who decided he was the first? Were all children considered or only white children? A 1925 headline from the Wichita Falls Record News said, “Dallas’ First White Child Is a Hale Citizen of Charlie Texas” supporting the idea that he was the first white child born and not the first overall.
On Dec. 30, 1926, an article in The News clarified Bryan Jr.’s place in history. It said that research found him to be the eighth white child born in Dallas County, but the first white child born in what is now the city of Dallas.
Unfortunately, it was not typical for births to be recorded at that time. The Texas State Library and Archives Commission has many birth records, but not from this far in the past making confirmation difficult.
The following years
According to Memorial and Biographical History of Dallas County, Texas, the following was how Bryan Jr. lived his life up to 1892.
He was reared as a farmer, joined the Confederate Army at 19 years old, went back to farming after the Civil War, moved to Uvalde and Llano counties where he turned to ranching, and finally returned to Dallas County to farm in 1889.
During this time, he married Sallie (Sarah Jane) Thompson and they had five children. They named one of their sons after Confederate General Robert E. Lee.
In 1894, The News wrote about his visit to Dallas. In the article, he was asked what he thought about the city. Bryan Jr. reminisced about his father and Dallas’ growth. He ended with, “Of course I am proud of being the first child that was born in Dallas. Who wouldn’t be?”
The cabin and the State Fair of Texas
A walk through downtown Dallas’ Founders Plaza includes views of the Old Red Courthouse, John Fitzgerald Kennedy Memorial and the John Neely Bryan Cabin, a replica of the original built in 1842.
According to The WPA Dallas Guide and History (1992), the cabin was relocated multiple times before ending up on a farm that the Buckner’s Orphans Home purchased. Its directors loaned the cabin for use at the 1926 State Fair of Texas. (The WPA text said it was the 1928 fair, but that is incorrect as Bryan Jr. died in 1926.)
While the cabin was at the fair, Bryan Jr. and his wife entertained old friends there. After the fair, the cabin stayed in place on the fairgrounds. However, the WPA recorded that about half of its logs were stolen or lost.
In 1935, The News reported on an agreement made to restore the cabin on the courthouse grounds. According to the WPA, it was gifted to the city that year by the directors of the Buckner’s Orphans Home and was formally dedicated as part of the 1936 Texas Centennial celebrations. An article about the dedication ceremony called Bryan Jr. “the first white child born in the limits of Dallas.”
The end
In 1926, Bryan Jr. died at the age of 80 in Wichita Falls near his home in Charlie. His death was attributed to ptomaine poisoning that he contracted at the fair, according to a December 1926 article in The News.
A 2001 article in The Lancet, a medical journal founded in 1823, explained that ptomaine poisoning was a diagnosis that lost credibility by the 1950s and was thus discarded. Today, a diagnosis of food poisoning is used in its stead.
On Dec. 30, 1926, the Wichita Falls Record News covered his funeral and repeated the claim, unsubstantiated though it may be, that he was the first white child born in Dallas with the headline, “John Neely Bryan, First White Native of Dallas, Laid to Rest Thursday In Riverside Cemetery.”
In July 1935, the Wichita Falls Record News printed an obituary for Bryan Jr.’s wife, Sallie (Sarah Jane) Bryan. She was 89 years old. The headline for her obituary read, “Death Claims Mrs. Bryan, Widow of First White Child Born at Dallas.”
