There was another Bryant Fannin about four years older who lived in Carter Co., with wife Louisa,dso be careful not to get them confused.

The Ashland Daily Independent of Thursday, March 16, 1882 ran the following obituary “FANNIN, Bryan - Elliott Co. (Sandy Hook) - Died, March 3, 1882, Bryant Fannin, one of our worthy and respected citizens. His life seems to have been a series of accidents and misfortunes. He was a workman and a machinist. He was once shot while working on a gun, which came near killing him. He had a hotel burned in Martinsburg in 1877. Last winter he was thrown from a horse, breaking his knee, and on the day of his death he had just put his new steam mill into operation, had ground 8 bushels of corn when, without warning, the runner bursted and a piece of stone struck him near the heart and he died without a work, or knowing the cause of his death. He leaves a large and respectable family.”

An unattributed clipping in the files of the Morgan County Library in West Liberty, wth the same date, reported the incident thusly: “On the middle fork of the Little Sandy at the Rolly Watson Farm, in Elliott County, on last Friday morning the mill stones of a steam grist mill, which was being operated by Bryant Fannin Sr., hitting in the head and instantly killing Bryan Fannin Sr. and severly but not fatally wounding Anderson Fannin and a young son of Anderson Fannin. The mill was recently erected by Bryant Fannin, one of the best citizens of Elliott Co. and former resident of Grayson.

This is the third occurance of the kind in Elliott Co. The millstones at Maggard’s Water Grist Mill on the Little Sandy have on 2 separate occasions bursted on one of which Old Man “Buckey” Holbroke was killed and Edward Deckerson wounded in the legs and made a cripple for life. The people in that neighborhood imagined at that time that the bursting of the stones was produced by the use of “Nitro Glycerin” was purposley thrown in by one John Skruggs who it was claimed was an enemy of the owners and operators of the mill, and resorted to this plan to destroy their property.”

His gravestone is reportedly inscribed with the date of death March 31, 1882, but that is not consistent with the newspaper reports. He cannot have died two weeks after his obituary was printed! (Note that March 3 was indeed a Friday.)

This is not a complete family group. I am only entering the descendants who are in my database because of other ties. For more information on this Fannin family, see the Fannin Genealogy web site at http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~fannin/wc_toc.htm

1860 census of Morgan Co., Ky, district 1, West Liberty P.O., enumerated 16 July, lists on pp. 66-67 as family #402:
Bryant Fannin, 29, farmer; Sarrah, 24; James H., 8; William G., 7; Raleigh, 5; George, 1; Sarrah Fannin, 19. All born in Kentucky.

I do not know the relationship of the younger Sarah. The 1850 census lists no sister of Bryant by that name. (There is an Eva age 10 and a Rosanah age 8.) She could be a cousin, or perhaps a young widow of one of his brothers.

1870 census of Elliott Co., Ky, precinct 1, Sandy Hook P.O., enumerated 7 June, lists on p. 1 as family #1:
Fannin, Bryant, 40, farmer; Sarah, 37; William, 16; Rolly, 13; George, 11; David, 8; Penola, 5; Martha, 3; Steel, Elizabeth, 18, domestic servant. All born in Kentucky.

1880 census of Elliott Co., Martinsburg precinct, enumerated 19 June, lists on p. 31 as family #230:
Fannin, Bryant, 49, farmer, b. Ky Va Va; Sarah, 45, wife, b. Ky Ky Va; George, 21, son; David C., 19, son; Penola, 15, dau; Martha, 12, dau; Minnie F., 8, dau; Peter, 6, son; Arthur, 3, son. All children born Ky Ky Ky.