Frank & Mary Hope Bryan

Since 1939, the Bryan Family has owned and operated Good Hope Farms located on North Main Street in Columbia, Alabama.  Frank and Mary Hope Bryan became the owners of the house and adjoining property after being approached by Mrs. Allie Walker, who wanted to trade for the house they owned located on the corner of Koonce and River Streets.  They jumped at the opportunity she was proposing.  The house was in need of repair, but with love and care, Mary Hope worked and decorated it to be the beautiful home it is today.

The property had been homesteaded between 1835-1853 through land patents, which were started during Andrew Jackson’s presidency.  This property was homesteaded by Ray Knight, one of the original founders of Columbia, and is the original tract of land.   His daughter was married to Maj. James Colbert Bryan, brother of our great-great-grandfather, Cornelius Augustus Bryan.  They were 2 brothers of 17 siblings that were the children of John Bryan who moved here from North Carolina, died in 1798 and is buried in Clayhatchee, AL. Major Bryan and his wife eventually sold the land to Judge Walker in 1879 with a deed transfer in 1880.  Judge Walker established the orchard in the 1880-1890s with the first original varieties that were ever propagated.  They include: Stuart, Schley, Success, Frotscher, Van Deman, Delmas, Pabst and many Seedling trees that were never grafted.  Many of them are still standing today.  Later varieties planted in the 1980s were Cape Fear, and currently the north tract is primarily planted with Elliotts.  This orchard is one of the oldest in the State of Alabama.

Walter Hope Bryan

Frank and Mary Hope’s only surviving son, Walter Hope, who was 15 at the time of the trade, joined the Navy soon after and was not present during a tremendous amount of the transformation of the house.  And so, Frank farmed the pecan trees that had been planted by Miss Walker’s father, Judge Walker.  When Walter Hope returned from his stint in the military, he began to farm also.

In 1982, after graduating from Auburn University with a degree in Agronomy, Kenneth the middle child of Walter and Catherine, came home to try his hand in the pecan business.  It has grown tremendously since that time.  He finished planting the 3 corners of the original orchard, which had never been completed and also expanded the orchard across the road to the northern block.  He also started the mail order business in which all pecans shipped come directly from OUR orchard, grown here at Good Hope Farms in Columbia.