The first day of summer, June 21, Roy Stevens Bryant shared his memories of Bryant, Mississippi, a place he calls home, with Yalobusha County Historical Society’s fifty-five members and guests.
He began his trip around the neighborhood at his childhood home.
I grew up in a family of eleven people, Daddy, Little Mama Mary Elizabeth Walker, Granny Gennie Ferrell, Papa Lee Roy Moore, Ella Jean, Priscilla, Roy Bennett, Charlotte Ann, Susan Bell, Courtney Louise, and Edd Walker.
Daddy and Little Mama had to work outside the house to feed and clothe our large family, but we were blessed to have Granny and Papa to take care of us.
Daddy worked for the Mississippi Skuna Valley Railroad. After finishing his run to Bruce and back to Coffeeville, he worked at Peeples Drug Store on Front Street in Coffeeville. Little Mama was employed at Bailey’s on Front Street.
Bryant
The doors of the Stevens home swung on welcome hinges. Sunday dinners home would increase from eleven family members to thirty or more. It was the custom in those days for the adults to eat first. When the adults finally did get through eating, then they would lean back, push their plates away, and talk, talk and talk.
Our neighbors on the east side of us were John Leslie Snell Sr., and his wife, Mary Victoria Bell Snell. Their children were Lillian Louise Snell Moore, Marie Bell Snell Boland, Margaret Rebecca Snell Broadstreet, Jim Franklin Snell, Anna Victoria Snell, John Leslie (Brother) Snell Jr. Byrdie Snell Webb, and Thelma Rae Snell Harbor.
Just past Mr. and Mrs. J. L. Snell Sr.’s home was William Bryant’s general store known as the Skuna Valley Store. William Cullem Bryant had the store built around 1906. Mr. Snell was promoted to store manager, then to Bryant postmaster.
The post office was located in the general store. Bryant was a flag stop located four miles south of Coffeeville. Uncle Tom Freeland helped around the store and would get the mail bag off the hook. Mr. Snell retired as postmaster in 1953.
Uncle Tom Freeland lived in a shed behind the store. Any game we killed and didn’t want, he was glad to get
Mr. Snell was a good Christian man, soft spoken and an avid outdoorsman. He had an old jeep that we fixed up to hunt out of. On several occasions he would let me go squirrel hunting with him and Dick Miller.
One time we went muddling. We boys got in the old sloughs and muddled up the water real good. The jug head catfish would come to the top to get air and Mr. Snell would shoot them in the head with his 22 rifle. Then we would gather them up and put them on a forked stick.
The Skuna Valley store was torn down; the I.C.R.R. and Highway 7 were all moved west of Bryant. Everyone east of Bryant had to move, and it became Grenada Lake.
It was the beginning of the end of Bryant. The Grenada Lake Project began in January 1947 and was completed and put in operation in 1954.
As we travel across old Highway 7 and old Illinois Central Railroad, Alonzo Ray Mosher had a store on the east side.
Bruce Junction was located about one half mile up Highway 7 north of Bryant on the east side of the highway. Everyone who lived at Bruce Junction worked for the Mississippi Skuna Valley Railroad.
The school had a big pot-bellied stove; in the center and a stage in the back. Bryant School closed at the end of the spring semester of 1945.
Brother George T. Sledge was a Methodist minister in Duck Hill and one Sunday each month and during summer revivals he would come to Bryant to hold services. He never married, and his home faced highway 51. A log truck left Highway 51 and ran into his home during the night causing it to explode. Bro. Sledge and the driver of the log truck perished in the fire.
Okachickima Creek was always very cold. People would gather watermelons and put them in the creek to keep them cold.
Across from Pleasant Grove Church was Uncle Ray Mosher’s store. About halfway from Uncle Ray’s store and Miss Bessie Webb, was a small tenant house where the Fernandez brothers, Frank, Ken, Paul and Sid moved to do commercial fishing in Grenada Lake. They later moved up to the lodge. Millionaire’s Lodge was located in Bryant. Brothers Tom and Jerry Lebber were businessmen from Detroit.
John Bailey helped them to locate a large tract of land in Yalobusha County for quail hunting. John managed the land for them, and when they were no longer able to come down here to hunt they gave John the acres of land.
Roy Bennett Stevens is attempting to record all of his Bryant and Bruce Junction memories in a book.