Celebrating Homeschooling Parents in American History: The Orator Who First Spoke Atop His Mama’s Table
In 1976 America celebrated the 200th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Then 82 years old, artist Norman Rockwell created a painting of himself putting a Happy Birthday ribbon on the Liberty Bell. Ray and I made our first trip to Philadelphia that year. I remember seeing America’s Bicentennial logo decorating light poles in the city where our brave founders signed the astonishing document that proclaimed:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness . . . .
It is almost time to celebrate again. 2026 is the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Be looking for the red, white, and blue “America 250” logo.
We know from history that we American humans have taken a while to live up to what we declared that July 4, 1776. Still, we are grateful for every triumph toward our worthy goals. Please pray with me that we take advantage of our 250th anniversary to come together and to celebrate everything that is good in America.
As homeschoolers we can also celebrate and be grateful for our freedom to homeschool, and we can honor the parents who homeschooled American leaders who have made a great impact on our 250-year history. Some of America’s most famous historical figures were homeschooled for at least a portion of their childhood—patriot Patrick Henry, First Lady Abigail Adams, Chief Justice John Jay, President John Quincy Adams, inventor Thomas Edison, President Theodore Roosevelt, and photographer Ansel Adams to name a few.
The commitment, hard work, and sacrifice of those mothers and fathers have helped to write the story of American history. From time to time, I’d like to contribute to our celebration of 250 years by honoring them.
For today’s post, I have chosen Judge Silas M. Bryan and his wife, Maria E. Jennings Bryan, parents of William Jennings Bryan. Don’t be embarrassed if you have never heard of William Jennings Bryan. If you had been living at the beginning of the 20th century, you certainly would have. Bryan was the unsuccessful Democratic presidential candidate in 1896, 1900, and 1908. In 1912 President Woodrow Wilson chose Bryan as his Secretary of State.
Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan
William Jennings Bryan was born in Salem, Illinois, in 1860. As a child, he enjoyed playing, reading books, and hunting rabbits. One of his chores was feeding the deer his father kept on the family farm. Bryan’s father, Judge Silas Bryan, was deeply committed to God and prayed before he made a decision. William Jennings Bryan said that the most pleasant memory of his childhood was of his mother, who taught him at home until he was ten years old.
Bryan was a celebrated speaker. When Bryan first began his political career, people started calling him the Boy Orator of the Platte (referring to the Platte River in Nebraska, where Bryan and his wife moved not long after his graduation from law school). After Bryan’s election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1890, he gave a speech in the House chamber. The speech was so popular with his fellow congressmen that they gave out more than 100,000 copies of it. After running unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate in 1894, Bryan became a popular Chautauqua speaker.
Bryan’s 1896 speech at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago was titled “Cross of Gold.” It is one of the most famous speeches in American history. When Bryan finished, men and women screamed. They waved their hats and canes and threw their coats into the air. The applause lasted 30 minutes.
Bryan, his family, and his Cross of Gold speech
The following day, convention delegates nominated 36-year-old Bryan as the Democratic candidate for president. Bryan traveled 18,000 miles in 1896. Some days he spoke 25 times. The election was close, but William McKinley won. As mentioned above, the Democrats nominated him again in 1900 and 1908.
Bryan speaks to the Democratic Convention in 1908.
Though he never got to try out his ideas as president, Bryan worked for what he believed was best for everyday people. People began to call him The Great Commoner.
For three decades, Bryan spoke about 200 times a year. People called him “the silver-tongued orator.” He did not shout, but thousands of people could hear him without a microphone. In 1922, when he spoke for the first time on the radio, an estimated 60 million people listened. Bryan wrote Sunday School lessons published in over 100 newspapers. After their children grew up, the Bryans moved from Nebraska to Miami, Florida. There he taught a Sunday School class which drew crowds of 5,000 people. The class had to move to a park because of the large number.
When the famous “Scopes Monkey Trial” took place in 1925 in Dayton, Tennessee, William Jennings Bryan was the prosecuting attorney who stood up for God as Creator against attorney Clarence Darrow, who defended the teaching of evolution. Bryan died less than a week after the end of the trial. Five years after his death, a group called the Bryan Memorial Association founded Bryan College in Dayton.
Speaking of his belief in the resurrection of Jesus, Bryan once said, “If the Father deigns to touch with divine power the cold and pulseless heart of the buried acorn, and make it burst forth from its prison walls, will He leave neglected in the earth the soul of man, who was made in the image of his Creator?”
Bryan had been giving speeches since he was boy. His audience of one was his homeschooling mother. When she taught him his lessons, he memorized them and recited them back to her while standing on a little table. Evidently that was good training for The Great Commoner Boy Orator of the Platte.
Like apples of gold in settings of silver
Is a word spoken in right circumstances.
Proverbs 25:11
All images courtesy of the Library of Congress