Minister, Community Chaplain, Humanitarian James Alexander Bryan
was born on March 20, 1863, in Williamsburg County, South
Carolina. His teenage years were spent in Raleigh, North
Carolina, where he attended the Lovejoy Academy. Entering the
University of North Carolina in 1880, he alternated between law
and theology for his academic major. Following graduation in
1885, he returned home to care for his family and taught school
in the Gastonia Female Institute, Gastonia, North Carolina.
Receiving a scholarship to Princeton University in 1886, he left
to pursue a degree in theology. "Brother Bryan," as he was
affectionately known, came to Birmingham as a Princeton student.
He served as pastor for a little congregation in a tent at the
corner of Avenue G and 23rd Street, which later became Third
Presbyterian Church. After graduating from Princeton in 1889
with a bachelor of divinity degree, he accepted the pastorate of
Third Presbyterian Church, which by then was housed in a small
wooden structure. In 1890, he w