Bryan was a generous man in life and the distribution of his estate exhibited that generosity. After his family, the bequests included local churches he was associated with throughout his life, the PCUSA, YMCA, public libraries, and educational institutions. The Bryan home in Nebraska was donated to the Methodists for conversion to a hospital. During the time in Dayton he expressed interest in establishing a Christian university to provide instruction based on the Bible and to counter the theory of evolution. Bryan College in Dayton was chartered in 1930 as William Jennings Bryan University and continues to provide Christian education.

This summer July 21, 2025 will mark the centennial of the Scopes Trial which was held in Dayton, Tennessee. John T. Scopes was convicted of teaching evolution in a public-school classroom in defiance of the recently passed legislation by the state of Tennessee called the Butler Law. The sentence was a hundred dollar fine, but the conviction was later overturned by the Tennessee Supreme Court. The prosecution was led by William Jennings Bryan with Scopes’s defense headed by Clarence Darrow. Just a year earlier Darrow had saved Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb from the death penalty when they were convicted and given life sentences for the kidnapping and vicious murder of Bobby Franks. Darrow had shown himself to be the defense attorney of the era but his arguments for Scopes proved ineffective. A century later, evolution is still debated and a hot-button issue. If Bryan’s name is recognized today, it may be for the Scopes Trial as interpreted by Stanley Kramer in the film Inherit the Wind, with Spencer Tracey playing Darrow and Frederick March playing Bryan. Darrow is depicted as an enlightened man advocating freedom of thought, while Bryan is stuck in the past fighting progress, and even though he was a Christian he really did not know much about the Bible. It is unfortunate that historical events and personalities are assessed by some people solely from movies. Bryan deserves better and the following will consider just a few of his final years of life.

William Jennings was born March 19, 1860 in Salem, Illinois, to Judge Silas Lillard and Mariah Elizabeth (Jennings) Bryan. His father’s spiritual roots were Baptist and his mother was a Methodist, but they both joined the Baptist Church when Will was twelve. Several of his friends attended the largest church in Salem, the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. During a series of revivals in the Cumberland Church, Will professed faith in Christ at the age of thirteen. When he entered Whipple Academy, a classical school in Jacksonville, Illinois, he transferred membership to the First Presbyterian Church. College studies were acquired at Illinois College, also in Jacksonville, 1881, then law school was completed in 1883 at Union College of Law, Chicago, followed by admission to the bar. He married Mary Baird of Perry, Illinois October 1, 1884. When the family moved to Lincoln, Nebraska three years later they transferred their memberships initially to First Church, but when they built a country home they united with Westminster Presbyterian Church in Normal, 1902. The Bryans’ neighbors were all Methodists, so they attended the Methodist Church most often to support their community, but Bryan was a lifelong member of the Presbyterian Church and they both taught Sunday School.

He entered politics and was known for captivating speeches often delivered to multitudes. He was a leader of the Democrats. He represented Nebraska for two terms in the U. S. House of Representatives, 1891-1895; was President Woodrow Wilson’s Secretary of State for two years; and he ran unsuccessfully for the presidency three times (1896, 1900, 1908). He refused to campaign on the Sabbath which raises the question whether his devotion to God’s Law cost him the White House because he worshipped one day in seven. Bryan debated national hard-money policy during the interrupted administration of Grover Cleveland because he felt the system was hardest on those with lesser means. His public policy views were seeded by the farmers of America’s heartland, and he promoted the lesser against the greater earning the appellation, “The Great Commoner.” Often targeted in his speeches were the aristocratic northeastern elite. His public policy and religious opinions were published in his well-circulated newspaper The Commoner (1901-1923) which at one point had over 100,000 subscribers. After losing the third attempt for the White House to William Howard Taft, he reduced political activities and became popular on the Chautauqua lecture circuit, however there were always friends encouraging him to try for the Oval Office again. Both Bryan and Mary were aging and she was struggling with health issues, so they decided to visit the sunny city of Miami, Florida, far away from the brutal Nebraska winters.

The Bryans arrived in Miami by train in November 1912 just months after Henry M. Flagler rode one of his Florida East Coast Railroad trains to Key West for the first time. Forida’s population was growing and Miami had become the winter destination for those with the means to get there. Anticipating making Miami their winter home, Bryan had purchased land earlier in the year for a house. A great crowd was gathered shoulder to shoulder at the Miami train station when the Nebraskans were welcomed and given the key to the city. An entourage followed the couple as a chauffer drove them to the temporary residence while their house was built on a two-acre lot facing Brickell Avenue. From the backyard of the new house the pilings for a boathouse and dock could be seen in Biscayne Bay. It was the Miami land boom and Bryan was not only hopeful for improved health for Mary but also anticipated investing and prospering in real estate. The lot for the new house was left as much as possible in its natural state with a variety of vegetation including many fruit trees. The house was built of concrete in the Spanish Mediterranean style and named Villa Serena. A neighbor two lots south along Biscayne Bay was industrialist James Deering, the founder of Deering Harvester Company who had recently merged his company with that of Cyrus McCormick to form International Harvester. The Deering estate was named Vizcaya. Several lots north of the Bryans’ property lived a friend, Louis Comfort Tiffany, the wealthy New York designer of stained glass, lamps, and jewelry. Bryan had done well financially over the years and his assets would increase as he bought and sold tracts within Miami’s Dade County. The Great Commoner built his uncommon Villa Serena on what was called Millionaires Row.

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