THE STORY OF OUR NAME
The Needham Bryan Chapter of the NSDAR was organized in February 22, 1915, in
Mobile, Alabama. It was named for Colonel Needham Bryan of Johnston County,
North Carolina, a Revolutionary War ancestor of the organizing Regent, Mrs.
Harry Tutwiler Inge (Belle Peterson). The members felt the name honored a
patriot who was connected to the Colonial, Revolutionary and War of 1812
periods. Needham Bryan was born October 31, 1725, to Needham Bryan (Sr) and Anne
Rambeau of Bertie County, North Carolina. On February 5, 1748, he married Nancy
Smith and settled in Johnston County, North Carolina. She was the daughter of
Colonel John Smith, a Revolutionary War patriot, and his wife, Elizabeth
Whitfield. After her death he married Charlotte Moore. Colonel Bryan was a member of the Colonial Assembly of North Carolina in 1762
and 1771. He represented Johnston County in the first (1774), second (1775),
third (1776) and fourth Provincial Congresses. In 1776 he was in the Battle of
Moore’s Creek and elected to the Constitutional Convention which met in Halifax,
North Carolina. On April 4, the fourth Provincial Congress resolved that “the
delegates of this Colony in the Continental Congress be empowered to concur with
the delegates of the other colonies in declaring independence of Great Britain.”
The Constitutional Congress in November adopted the first constitution for North
Carolina. The following year Colonel Bryan represented his county (Johnston) in
the North Carolina Senate and from 1786 to 1793 as a member of the House. During the Revolutionary War he was a leader among a band of liberty-loving
Americans called the Regulators and was a Colonel of the Minutemen in 1775. Chapter Charter Members: Evelyn Correll, Anita Gaillard Croom, Mary Padgett
Gwinn, Annie Chapman Hoffman, Marie Ilett, Belie Peterson Inge, Clara Walkley
Jenks, Julia Sledge Jones, Mary Peterson Jones, Dorothy Ilett Lewis, Bessie
Hopper McAlpine Madeline Meredith, Marguerite Meredith, Ida McLean Padgett,
Eugenia Partridge, Mary Parker Smith, Frances Threefoot and May Threefoot Walker