CAPT. JOHN BYARS,
Born on his father's estate, Brook Hall Farm, Washington county,
August 11, 1811, is a son of Col. William Byars, formerly of Louisa
county, Virginia, who married in Washington county, and settled here.
Colonel Byars' father was a soldier of the Revolutionary war. The
mother of John Byars was Elizabeth, daughter of William Beatty, a
pioneer of Washington county.
His wife, whom he married near Glade Springs, October 22, 1836,
was Jane B. Ryburn, born near Glade Springs Depot, June 6, 1819.
They have one daughter, Elizabeth M., now Mrs. Hall, residing near
them, and have buried one daughter, Sarah A. A., died in 1856. The
father of Mrs. Byars was Beatty Byburn, whose father, Matthew
Ryburn, came from Scotland to Washington county in early days of
the county. Her mother was also a Ryburn, Jane, daughter of William
Ryburn, who settled on the middle fork of the Holston before the
Indians had left the county.
Capt. John Byars has resided on Brook Hall Farm all his life, and
both he and his estimable wife have seen the county pass from the
hands of the Indian to its present state of development and comfort,
having borne their share of those pioneer hardships incident to such a
change. During the years of the war he was too old for military duty,
but had a younger brother, James M., who served from the beginning
to the close of that struggle.
