Past and Present of Hardin County, Iowa
ed. by William J. Moir. Indianapolis: B. F. Bowen, 1911.

Cassius A. Bryson, pp. 859-861

Conspicuous among the representative professional men and public-spirited citizens of Hardin county is the well known gentleman whose name forms the caption of this biographical review.  He has made his influence felt for good in Iowa Falls and vicinity, being a man of sterling worth, whose life, like that of his honored father before him, has been closely interwoven with the history of the community in which he resides and whose efforts have always been for the general advancement of the same, and the well regulated life he has led, thereby gaining the admiration and confidence of his fellow men, entitles Mr. Bryson to representation in a work of the scope intended in the present volume.

Cassius A. Bryson was born at Ackley, this county, May 18, 1874, the son of Alexander M. and Cartha H. (Allen) Bryson.  The father was born in Connecticut, the son of James Bryson and wife, natives of Scotland, where they grew to maturity and married and from which country they emigrated to our shores about 1840, settling in Connecticut and there the elder Bryson became a prominent and successful manufacturer of woolen goods.  About 1848 the family came west and located in Allamakee county, Iowa, when the country was wild and yet the domain of the red men.  There were over seventy tepees on the land which Mr. Bryson entered from the government, lying along Paint creek, so named because of the paintings upon the rocks made by the Indians.  Here the Brysons began life in typical pioneer fashion and underwent the usual hardships and privations incident to the lives of first settlers, but by persevering and hard work they developed a good farm and became very comfortably established, the subject's grandparents spending their last days here and his father growing to manhood.  The grandfather was an influential man there in his day and he assisted in the general upbuilding of the country, being one of the men who was instrumental in securing the right-of-way for the first railroad in that country, which ran from the Mississippi river to Waukon.

Alexander M. Bryson assisted his father in the work about the home place during his boyhood and he received an excellent education for those days, having attended the public schools, Upper Iowa University at Fayette, after he had passed through the Eastman Business University at Poughkeepsie, New York.  While in school at Fayette, Iowa, he met Cartha H. Allen, also a student there, and several years afterwards they were married.  Her family came originally from England, taking up their abode in America in the sixteenth century.  The parents of Cartha H. Allen were missionaries to the Indians in Indian Territory, and there her father, Samuel Allen, died.  He was a descendant of the same ancestry as was Ethan Allen, famous during Revolutionary days.

The Civil war began while Alexander H. Bryson was in school at Upper Iowa University and he and several fellow students enlisted in the Union army, becoming members of the Twenty-seventh Iowa Volunteer Infantry.  He saw some hard service, was wounded and confined to the hospital for some time.  After the close of his army career he returned to school at Fayette, and he was married soon after the war, and he entered life as a merchant, but two years later abandoned this field, took up the study of law and was admitted to the bar.  About 1873 he came to Ackley, Hardin county, and began the practice of his profession, soon forming a partnership with William V. Allen, his brother-in-law, who afterwards became United States senator from Nebraska.  This partnership lasted two or three years.  Mr. Bryson continued practicing law at Ackley with much success until about 1892, when he moved to Iowa Falls, where he practiced with ever increasing success until his death, in November, 1899.  He took a high rank among his colleagues at the bar in those days and was a man of sterling characteristics and exemplary character.  He was an active Republican and influential in public affairs.

Cassius A. Bryson was graduated from the high school at Ackley, then attended Ellsworth College at Iowa Falls, after which he entered Drake University, from which he was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Laws on May 20, 1897.  During the major part of the following year he was in the office of Granger & Bennett, two prominent lawyers who have since shown themselves leaders in other large cities.  In December, 1899, he came to Iowa Falls and took up the practice of law with his brother, Boyd R. Bryson, under the firm name of Bryson & Bryson, and they have continued to the present time, taking a very high rank among the leading lawyers of this section of the state, having for years figured more or less prominently in the leading cases in all the local courts.  In 1897 the subject was admitted to practice in the United States district and circuit courts and has since been admitted to practice before the various departments at Washington.  He has kept well abreast of the times in all matters of jurisprudence and is a very careful, persistent and able advocate and, like his brother, an earnest, logical and not infrequently eloquent pleader in the trial of cases.

Mr. Bryson was united in marriage, in 1899, with Jessie F. Reisner, of Des Moines.  She is a lady of talent and has long been a favorite with a wide circle of friends.  He met her while attending Drake University.  She is the daughter of William and Mary E. Reisner, the father being now deceased, while the mother is living at Los Angeles, California.  The home of Mr. and Mrs. Bryson has been blessed by the birth of three children, Helen M., ten years old; William P., now seven years of age, and John Robert, who has attained his fifth birthday.

Fraternally, Mr. Bryson is a member of the Knights of the Maccabees.  He has long been active in political and public affairs and is at present ably serving the people as county attorney, in fact, according to the consensus of opinion the country has never been better served in this capacity, for he looks after its interests with the same degree of fidelity as he would manage his individual business, and he carries the same honest policy into this office that has always characterized his work.