Born in Fayetteville, Tennessee in 1810, John Neely Bryan received an education and became a lawyer, dealt in real estate, became a north Texas pioneer, and the founder of Dallas, Texas.

During his life he traveled across the southern part of the United States, from Florida to California. He lived for many years in Van Buren, Arkansas where he made a living as a lawyer and bought land. In the late 1830's he went to work at Holland Coffee's Trading Post on the Red River, and from there he moved to the uninhabited land that would become Dallas.

He was the first non-Native American to permanently live in Dallas County, and for many months he was the only white person living there. In his travels and business dealings, he met and befriended many Native Americans and learned their languages. He married and had children. He lived to be an old man but his last years were difficult because he lost his sanity. He died in 1877 in the Texas Lunatic Asylum in Austin, Texas.

His homestead would later be called Dealey Plaza and was close to where John F. Kennedy would later be killed.

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