RANSOM O’BRIANT, was born in 1819 in Person County, North Carolina. He was the grandson of Revolutionary War Militia Soldier Dennis O’Briant (1760-1817) and Rebecca Harris (1765-1836), and the son of Elijah O’Briant (1795-1878) and Tabatha Canady (1797-1858). He married LEAH LONG (born, 1816, Person County, North Carolina – died, UNKNOWN DATE, about 1888, Cedar Fork Township, Durham County, North Carolina); she was the daughter of Reuben Long and Martha Parrish. They were married on 30 Sep 1839 in Roxboro, Person County, North Carolina. The 1840 US Census has the couple living in the Roxboro District of Person County. Ransom was a farmer with a real estate value of $200.00 in 1850, living in Bushy Fork Township, Person County. Prior to the Civil war, Ransom’s personal wealth in Bushy Fork Township was $1600.00 and his real estate value was $1000.00. By 1860, Ransom is first noted as having acquired an 8 year old male slave to assist Leah. During the time leading up to the Civil War, Ransom was very active in Democratic politics; being a delegate to the Democratic State Convention every two years from 1852 to 1860. He also served as a Justice of the Peace, performing several marriages as well a Magistrate presiding over court cases. Ransom did not go off to fight in the War, but he and his father are noted having served the Confederacy.
Following the War, Ransom was forced to sell off all of his Person County property. In 1868, like so many of his fellow Reconstruction-era farmers, Ransom O’Briant was “adjudged” bankrupt. [In 1867, largely as a response to the severe adverse financial conditions of so many southerners after the Civil War, an act was passed by Congress that was entitled “An Act to Establish a Uniform System of Bankruptcy Throughout the United States.”] All his real and personal estate was assigned to H. L. Bumpass, apparently a county officer, except some exempted property which was not listed. If the law was anything like it is today, Ransom’s clothing and necessary possessions would be exempt, as might be the piece of property upon which he lived. He is later found in the 1870 Census living in Patterson Township, Orange County, next to his eldest son William.
Ransom continued to be active in politics even after moving out of Person County. He was appointed a Wake County Magistrate in 1877 for the township of Cedar Fork. When Durham County was formed in 1881 from parts of Orange and Wake counties and took its name from the principal town and county-seat, formerly known as “Durham Depot,” on the North Carolina Rail Road, and which took its name from the Durham Family residing at that place. Cedar Fork was absorbed into Durham County, and Ransom remained the Magistrate at that time. In March of 1881 he was appointed as an election Register for the new county of Durham, and May of 1881, Ransom was elected as a Tax Assessor for Cedar Fork. By March of 1882, he is noted as the Justice of the Peace of Cedar Fork. He was noted as a Democrat prior to the Civil War, but when Ransom ran for Durham County Coroner in 1884 he was endorsed by the Republican Party. Ransom owned a large farm at the time of his death off Lynn Road and Raleigh Road (today’s Miami Blvd) He died during the evening of Tuesday, 1 September 1896 and was laid in the family cemetery located off of Raleigh Road next to his wife. The site is marked by field stones. Ransom and Leah had nine children.