Bryan, N. P.

Judge.

Nathan Philemon Bryan was born on April 23, 1872, at Fort Mason, Florida. He attended public schools in Kissimmee, Florida, and pursued college studies at Emory College at Oxford, Georgia, and Washington and Lee University in Lexington, where he studied law. After graduating in 1895, he came to Jacksonville, Florida, and opened a law practice with J.M. Barrs, and later with his brother, William J. Bryan. On October 26, 1898, Bryan married Julia Ingram Smith of Mount Pleasant, Tennessee.

In 1905, Bryan was named a member of the State Educational Board of Control by Governor Broward, becoming the first chairman on the board. In this role he helped to create the law department at the University of Florida. In 1911, he was named United States Senator from Florida. In 1920, President Woodrow Wilson nominated him as one of the judges of the United States Court of Appeals, 5th District, in which office Bryan served for the rest of his life. He died on August 8, 1935, in Jacksonville, Florida.