Isaac Ryan (1805 - 1836)

Born 1 Mar 1805 in St. Landry, Louisiana Territory, United States

Ancestors

Died 6 Mar 1836 at age 31 in Alamo Mission, San Antonio, Bexar, Texas, United States

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Biography

Profile written by Allan Harl Thomas

As the first ray of sunlight glimmered above the San Antonio horizon on that fateful day of March 6, 1836, a voice shouted out: “Wake up, Ike! The Mexicans are coming over the North Wall.” Isaac Ryan was dreary-eyed for lack of sleep; nevertheless, he grabbed his loaded musket and dropped a nearby Mexican soldier in front of him. He was preparing to thrust a knife into another soldier when he was stabbed in the back by a Mexican bayonet, and Ike fell dead not far from the body of Colonel Travis. By 8 o’clock that morning, only an eerie silence permeated the atmosphere above 188 Texian [sic] bodies. ^[1]

Isaac Ryan lived in Louisiana.

Alamo defender Isaac Ryan, member of The New Orleans Greys, was a son of John Jacob Ryan and Mary Ann Hargrave, born in St. Landry Parish, Louisiana, on March 1, 1805,^[2][3] or Perry’s Ferry, Vermilion Parish, Louisiana.^[1]

In 1817, at age twelve, he moved with his parents to start the settlement of Lake Charles, Louisiana. By 1834, there were a host of neighbors living nearby, including his brother-in-law, Thomas Rigmaiden; Thomas Bilbo; Charles Sallier; Isaac's brother Jacob Ryan, Jr.; Arsene LeBleu, and several other families, who raised cattle and cotton.^[1]

Family tradition has it that the Ryans were close associates with Jim Bowie and his brothers. The Rio Hondo, or Saint Landry Parish as it was called then (later Calcasieu) was also home to Bowie's business partner, the pirate Jean Laffite. Isaac's brother would build his fortune constructing schooners from the virgin forest around Lake Charles.^[1]

Isaac's brother John Jacob Ryan Jr. and his father in law, Thomas Bilbo, were instrumental in the founding of the city of Lake Charles, Louisiana.^[4][1]

There were two different means for Ryan to have arrived in New Orleans in the late summer of 1835. He may either have helped Capt. Arsene LeBleu, a former Laffite pirate, drive a herd of cattle to the Crescent City, or he may have sailed aboard a New Orleans schooner, carrying the year’s Calcasieu River cotton crop.^[1]

There is every indication that Ryan was in New Orleans when he enlisted at Banks Arcade on Oct. 13, 1835 in Capt. T. H. Breece’s company of the New Orleans Greys.

There were two companies of the New Orleans Greys, one commanded by Capt. T. H. Breece and the other by Capt. Robert Morris, whose company traveled by sea to Texas. Capt. Breece’s company boarded the steamer Washita and went up the Red River to Alexandria. From there they traveled overland to Nacogdoches, Texas, where they were given horses, muskets and food-- mostly cured hams. Ultimately, a large number of the New Orleans Greys were either slain at the Alamo or during the Goliad Massacre. ^[1]

Texas history credits Isaac Ryan as having served in Capt. William Blazeby’s company at the Battle of San Antonio. After that battle, a small number of the “Greys” under Lieutenant Robert White reorganized in the Alamo as the “Bexar Guards,” and Isaac Ryan was a member of that group. Both Capt. Blazeby and Lt. White were members of the New Orleans Greys, and both Blazeby and White were killed at the Alamo along with Isaac Ryan. ^[1] The New Orleans Greys and PVT Isaac Ryan arrived in time to fight in the siege of Bexar, which occurred latter Oct.-Dec., 1835. ^[5]

In 1836, PVT Isaac Ryan then served in the Alamo garrison as a member of Capt. Robert White's infantry company, the Bexar Guards.^[6]

Isaac Ryan died in the battle of the Alamo on March 6, 1836. Remains were buried in San Fernando Cathedral.

Infantry, Garrison of Bexar shows Pvt. Ryan is on the list to receive a land bounty, listed under Blazeby.^[7] Travis's partial list also shows Pvt. Ryan as being from Opelousas, Louisiana, named as one who fell with Travis. ^[8][9] Isaac Ryan's heirs received land bounties warrants to heirs in the Texas Land Archives:

• Warrant 718 for 1920 acres in 1850 in Palo Pinto City, patented to heirs in 1851. Pat 37, Abst 742, GLO file 642.
• Donation certificate 232 for 640 acres in 1850 also in Palo Pinto City. Heirs claimed in 1851. Pat 373, vol. 1, Abstr. 387, GLO File Military Donations 653.

The following was sent via the private messaging system on WikiTree.com.

It was said that after the Mexican American War, Santa Anna was taken to Washington for his trial of war crimes by U.S. Marshals. Their 1st overnight stay was at Lake Charles with my 4th Great Uncle Thomas Bilbo, the other founder of that city who years earlier had purchased the old Army Cantonment on the lake and turned it into his home/ boarding house. I can only imagine that tensions must have been high at first considering the Ryans and the Bilbos were close in-laws. (Thomas and my grandfather Isaac Ryan --his brother in-law-- were also neighbors on the Pascagoula River in the Mississippi Territory. They both married daughters of Joseph Lawrence.) Here was the leader of the army that killed their kin, and several other friends. Only the dead know the true events of the evening but loud drunken singing (some in Spanish) was reported coming across the lake from the cantonment that night. --Cheers, Corey Alley

Communicated to Thomas-8856 00:39, 9 March 2015 (EDT)

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7} William Theodore Block, "Lake Charles is Proud of Its Alamo Hero," Isaac Ryan
2. ↑ Find A Grave, database and images (www.findagrave.com : accessed 10 September 2019), memorial page for Isaac Ryan (1 Mar 1805–6 Mar 1836), Find A Grave: Memorial #8822277 citing The Alamo, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas, USA; Maintained by Daniel Gabehart (contributor 48115366).
3. ↑ http://www.geni.com/people/Isaac-Ryan/6000000003506704022
4. ↑ http://www.cityoflakecharles.com/egov/docs/1192479718590.htm
5. ↑ http://www.tshaonline.org/supsites/military/l/blazw_9l.htm
6. ↑ http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fry03
7. ↑ http://www.tshaonline.org/supsites/military/l/blazw_9l.htm
8. ↑ http://www.tshaonline.org/supsites/military/l/travwb1l.htm
9. ↑ http://www.tshaonline.org/supsites/military/l/blazw_9l.htm

• http://www.tshaonline.org/supsites/military/l/blazw_9l.htm
• http://www.tshaonline.org/supsites/military/l/travwb1l.htm
• Wikipedia contributors, "New Orleans Greys," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=New_Orleans_Greys&oldid=866869454 (accessed September 10, 2019).