John Henry Bryant, known asJ.H. Bryant, (ca. 1825–1903) was a medical doctor in 19th centuryLos Angeles, California, a mining entrepreneur, and a member of that city's governing body, the Common Council, in 1888–89.
Bryant was born about 1825, and came to Los Angeles in the 1870s, from eitherNew York State orSaint Paul, Minnesota.[1][2]
In 1895 Bryant's eye was removed in Los Angeles after it was injured in an accident in Yakima Bay, Oregon, when "a small twig that had been bent and flew back" to strike him.[3]
He died April 5, 1903, in Los Angeles from an attack ofcerebro embolus and was survived by four sons, Henry L., E.A., W.E. and Norman L. Bryant, and three daughters, Dora Wetherwax, Olive M. Skelton and Florence G. Bryant. The interment was in Oakland Cemetery in St. Paul.[1][2]
In 1877 theLos Angeles Times noted that: "Dr. J.H. Bryant and A.E. Clark, two of the directors in the newelevated electric railway company, . . . built the ice palace at theSaint Paul Winter Carnival.[4] The railway was proposed for construction betweenPasadena and theocean via Los Angeles.[5]
In the 1890s Bryant engaged in mining ventures. He was the president of the Los Angeles Petroleum Smelting and Mining Company, which owned theCopper King mine inFresno County,[6] the idea being to usepetroleum in the area as fuel for thesmelter. Work was halted for several months, according to theTimes, when "there arose dissension among the members of the company, and work came to a standstill. Men who were working the mine did not receive their pay and placed anattachment on the company property."[7]
In January 1897, Bryant became secretary of the Los Angeles Mining and Stock Exchange during a reorganization after the exchange had become too closely identified with theRepublican Free Silver Club.[8]
Bryant filed a petition forbankruptcy on July 28, 1899, stating that his debts were $57,535.84 and his assets were $75.[9] Nevertheless, in September that year he was listed as one of thedirectors of the Wabash Mining Company[10] and in January 1900 as its president. The company had fourteen copper claims and two mill sites on Dog Creek, about twenty-nine miles northeast ofFresno. It "adjoins and entirely surrounds the celebrated Copper King mine."[11]
Bryant, a Democrat,[12] was elected to theLos Angeles Common Council from the city's 3rd Ward on December 3, 1888, and served until February 21, 1889.[13]
As a member of the Park Commission, Bryant was in April 1890 part of a committee that went out canvassing [or money "to give employment to idle men inWestlake Park, for three hours." The men were to be put to work on projects to improve the park.[14]
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