The Bryant family papers contain 9 letters addressed to Emma Alice Bryant ("Alice") of Mt. Vernon, New York, and to her parents, Emma Frances Spaulding Bryant and Colonel John Emory Bryant.
Bernice, a friend of Alice's, wrote 3 letters in 1892 about her experiences at Ulysses S. Grant University in Athens, Tennessee, where she was a senior. She discussed her education, social activities, news from Athens, and mutual acquaintances who attended the college, such as Julius Zeller, Alice's future husband. Her letter of June 20, 1892, encloses newspaper clippings about weddings and other events, and she described the opening of an African American Baptist church (July 30, 1892). Margaretta Spaulding, Emma Spaulding Bryant's sister and Alice Bryant's aunt, wrote letters to Emma (June 21, [1892]; August 28, 1892) and Alice (October 1894) about her daily life in Earlsville, Illinois.
Julius Zeller's 2 letters are a love letter to Alice Bryant about his previous relationship with their mutual friend Bernice and about his studies at Ulysses S. Grant University (January 15, 1893) and a letter to his mother-in-law, Emma Bryant, written shortly after his marriage to Alice ([January 23, 1895]). The second letter concerns newlywed life. Alice Bryant wrote one letter to her parents about life in Kickapoo, Illinois, shortly after moving there (January 11, 1895).
John Emory Bryant (1836-1900) served in the 8th Maine Infantry Regiment of the Union Army during the Civil War, and later became a lawyer and prominent politician in Georgia. He and his wife, Emma Frances Spaulding (1844-1901), married in 1864; their daughter, Emma Alice ("Alice"), was born on November 16, 1871, and lived with her parents in Mount Vernon, New York. On January 1, 1895, she married Julius Christian Zeller, a teacher with a degree from Ulysses S. Grant University in Athens, Tennessee. They lived in Kickapoo, Illinois; Chicago, Illinois; and Tacoma, Washington.