Donald M. McIntosh, Mrs. Rutledge, and her sisters, Joanna and Harley, came about the same time and were related to the other families. Many other less prominent southern people during these years came to Cedar Rapids which could boast of a true southern society. Mr. McIntosh erected one of the first brick dwellings in the city and held various public offices. Michael Bryan was alderman in 1851, while B. S. Bryan was elected city recorder. The Bryans were not outspoken in politics, but McIntosh was a democrat, the aunt, Miss Legare, held to the whig tenets of her illustrious brother, whose speeches and works she edited. She was also interested in church work, as well as in the education of women.
Michael Bryan erected a fine residence where the old N. B. Brown homestead is now located. At this house social affairs of the little town were conducted in true southern style, and fortunate was the person who was favored with an invitation to visit in the Bryan home. Michael Bryan died here, and the widow with her family returned to South Carolina just preceding the Civil war. B. S. Bryan removed to the coast and is still living in Seattle.
Miss Legare organized a ladies' seminary, and was an artist of considerable talent. She was also an accomplished musician. It is said that she brought the first piano to the county. However, this claim has been disputed as it is said that the J. P. Glass family brought a musical instrument here in 1846.
In the '50s Miss Legare became the wife of Lowell Bullen, an uncle of the Daniels brothers, whose home was in North Brookfield, Massachusetts. They resided at Marion until Mr. Bullen's death in 1869, when the widow returned to her old home in South Carolina, surviving her husband a number of years.
Nearly all the members of the southern society were members of the Presbyterian church, and took an active part in the religious and social work of that people. Mrs. Bullen was kind and considerate. Her dignified presence was enough to give her entrance into any home. She took an active interest in the poor, and was interested in education in general. She loved and revered the memory of her statesman brother, and never forgot what place he held at one time in the affairs of the nation. During the rebellion she felt that her heart would break as she thought of friends and relatives fighting on both sides in that terrible struggle for the preservation of the Union.
A letter received lately from Bryan & Bryan, attorneys of Charleston, South Carolina, throws some light on this subject:
"In reply to your letter of the 10th instant, we beg to say that H. S. and B. S. (Benjamin Simons) and Michael Bryan, of whom you speak, were the sons of Col. John Bryan, a planter of this section.
"He (Col. John Bryan) married a sister of Hugh Legare, the writer and statesman, and attorney general of the United States. These sons went to Cedar Rapids before 1860.
"Michael Bryan married Harriet Dwight, a sister of my mother, Rebecca Dwight.
"It happened strangely enough, that my father, George S. Bryan, who married Rebecca Dwight, was no relation to Michael Bryan, who married Harriet Dwight. (In other words, the two Bryans being no relation, married two sisters.)