"Everything we've done we tried to do it as we thought Christ would have us do it." This is the standard which Donald Bryson, Stockton, has tried to maintain throughout his long active life. Bryson, one of Jo Daviess County's pioneer Guernsey breeders, will be 90 years old next Feb. 16. Long retired from farming, Bryson still maintains an active life maintaining his own home with a large garden, does all his own canning and even visits the local bowling lanes on occasion. Born in 1888 on the Lincoln Boettner farm, Elizabeth, Bryson was the son of Frank and Mary McKenzie Bryson. Bryson's grandfather, Robert Bryson brought his family of seven boys and three girls from Ireland. Grandfather Donald McKenzie, came to this country from Glasgow, Scotland, in 1836. He worked in the area lead mines. During the gold rush of 1849 he joined other miners travelling to California by oxen team and after some success in the gold fields decided to return home to Elizabeth on a sailing vessel rather than take his chances against Indians and highway men. He sailed from San Francisco around Cape Horn to New York, then traveled cross-country to Elizabeth. Bryson was only 10 years old when his Grandfather McKenzie died and he learned most of what he knows about him from his mother. Bryson also explained that his uncle, John C. McKenzie, was a congressman from this district from 1911 to 1925. As a child Donald Bryson lived in Elizabeth until 1900 and then moved to the McKenzie homestead in Woodbine. In 1910, Bryson married Mary E. Williams and bought his father-in-law's farm and lived there until 1928. The family also lived in Wards Grove Township before moving to Stockton in 1968. Mrs. Bryson died in 1969. Bryson was the first secretary of the Jo Daviess County Guernsey Association, one of the first directors of the Farmers' Cooperative Creamery and a charter member of the Farm Bureau. He helped organized the Jo Daviess Service Company and the COuntry Mutual Insurance Co. He is also a past member of the Elizabeth Masonic Lodge.

Along with his wife, Bryson taught Sunday School for 20 years. He also served as a chairman of the Wesley United Methodist Church board. His many interests over the years included carpentry furniture refinishing, photography, reading, classical and folk music (especially that of Scotland and Ireland), keeping church history records and compiling his family's ancestry records. Bryson said although he was alone after his wife's death, he never felt alone. "A Christian should never feel that way. I'm alone but never lonely." Urged by his friends, Bryson took up bowling for fun at the age of 82. His best game thus far has been 185. He maintains his own home and does his own canning. From his 30 by 40-foot garden this year he canned 30 quarts of tomatoes, 20 quarts of rhubarb juice, froze 20 pints of red raspberries and made 17 quarts of grape juice. Bryson also put up peaches, pears and apples. Flowers are another of Bryson's interests. For the bicentennial he lined his driveway with red, white and blue petunias. His crimson rambler rose climbs the south side of his house and he recently planted Tartarian honeysuckle plants. Bryson's recent travels include a trip to Bozeman last winter to see his son, to St. Louis and to Lincoln, Va., where his grandson, Don Aurand, and family live.

He took his first airplane ride at the age of 84. Always ready to see the humorous side of an incident, Bryson recalled that although he hasn't had too many sick days, he remembered the time he almost stopped his own operation. Bryson said all activity in the operating room stopped. He said he asked a returning nurse for an explanation. Bryson said the nurse told him they were to operate on an old man and had to check records to make sure they had the right patient. A rich sense of humor goes hand in hand with Bryson's outlook on life. Commenting on today's living, he pointed out that our technology has outrun our ability to keep up with it. Whimsically, he gave his definition of an egghead: "A man that doesn't understand all he knows." He said that is a description of himself. Bryson said if he were faced with the problems and frustrations of today's parents, he would probably do things the same way. "I was born in a different age," he said.

Contributed by Karen Fyock - Clipping October 24, 1977g