Early Memories of Saugatuck, Michigan : 1830-1930
Author: Heath, May Francis
Publisher: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company; Grand Rapids, Mich: 1930

SAMUEL WILLISON BRYAN

S. W. Bryan was the fourth child of Samuel and Margaret Ashton Bryan, and was born in Kalamazoo, Dec. 24, 1847; his parents operating a hotel there. When he was very young his mother died, and later the father married again and they purchased an 80-acre farm in Manlius, on the old Allegan road and kept a boarding house.

In 1882 Willis was married to Miss Serena Olsen, whose pioneer parents came from Oslo, Norway, first to Chicago, then to their large farm home at Saugatuck.

In 1886 Willis and Serena bought a 40-acre farm on Lake Shore Drive; it was a fruit farm and very productive, and in 1900 when the farm home burned they built the popular summer resort, Rosemont, which has always been a success and is still owned in the family. Willis died in 1918 and Mrs. Bryan in 1938.

There were six children, and living are Nellie Hewlett, Willis, Lillian Erickson, Hallie and Douglass. The Bryan family came from Ireland and Denmark in 1653. Samuel Willison and William Jennings Bryan were first cousins.