Nathan P. Bryan

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Nathan Philemon Bryan (April 23, 1872 - August 8, 1935) was a lawyer and United States Senator from Florida.

[edit] Personal

Bryan was born on April 23, 1872 near Fort Mason, Orange County (now Lake County), Florida. He attended the common schools but graduated from Emory College, Oxford, Georgia (now Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia), in 1893. He graduated from the law department of Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Virginia, in 1895 and was admitted to the bar that same year.

After a lengthy career in politics, education and law, Bryan died on August 8, 1935 still serving on the circuit bench. He is buried in Evergreen Cemetery.

Nathan Bryan was the brother of William James Bryan who was also a US Senator from Florida.

[edit] Career

Bryan began practicing law in 1895 in Jacksonville, Florida. He chaired the Board of Control of the Florida State Institutions of Higher Education from 1905 to 1909.

Bryan became a Florida State Senator by appointment on February 22, 1911. But shortly after that, the legislature elected him to that position as a Democrat on March 4, 1911. He served as Senator until March 3, 1917, having been an unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1916. He chaired the Committee on Claims in the Sixth-third and Sixty-fourth Congresses. He declined the appointment as Governor General of the Philippine Islands by President Woodrow Wilson in 1917.

Bryan returned to the practice of law and also became a trustee of Emory University. In April of 1920 he accepted an appointment as judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, a position he held until his death.