Document K
Statement of the career in Oregon of Judge W. P. Bryant.
I have been unable to learn much about Judge W. P. Bryant, except his actions in connection with Abernethy Island and against Dr. McLoughlin. To his Biennial Report of 1899 (page 190) Hon. H. R. Kincaid, as Secretary of State for Oregon, added an Appendix giving short biographies of the Chief Justices of Oregon and of other Oregon officials. Of Judge Bryant the Secretary of State said only: “There are no official records in the Department of State to show when Mr. Bryant assumed the duties of his office nor for what period he served. The decisions of the Supreme Court at the time when he served were not reported. Mr. Bryant was appointed by the President from some eastern state and only served here a short time when he again returned east.”
In the History of Oregon in Bancroft’s Works, it is said: That Judge Bryant’s home was in Indiana; that he was appointed Chief Justice of Oregon in August, 1848, and arrived in Oregon April 9, 1849; that he resigned as Chief Justice January 1, 1851, having spent but five months in Oregon; that upon his resignation he returned to Indiana, where he soon died.