Proprietor of Mont Eyrie Orchards, a roughly 2,600-acre peach and apple operation built starting in 1903, entirely dependent on the L&N’s rail spur to ship fruit to market. When the L&N relocated its main line through Hayden in 1914-15, the orchards were stranded and Bryan abandoned commercial operation by the end of 1915. He fought a decade-long, ultimately unsuccessful legal battle against the L&N - first on a contract/tort theory (8th Circuit, decided against him in 1917), then on a fraud theory (Missouri Supreme Court, decided against him in 1922).
Appears in: Mont Eyrie Orchards & the Fight With the Railroad and Reid’s Gap.