William Bryant Kirkpatrick was the oldest son of Samuel Clinton and Elizabeth Bryant Kirkpatrick. He was born April 17, 1843 in Tippecanoe County, Indiana, and died while living in Vermilion County Illinois on September 6, 1915. He was 72 years old.

William Bryant Kirkpatrick was a farmer by trade, like most of his ancestors who migrated from Ohio to Indiana, and settled in Illinois. Sometime after the Civil War, William Bryant moved to the Vermilion County area, and continued the work of a pioneer in the reclamation of the prairies.

The Shobe, Dilling, Kirkpatrick Book (1919), indicates the marriage of William Bryant Kirkpatrick to Mary Scott, (Elizabeth Molly Scott), on April 10, 1871.

On the marriage license of his son, William Sherman Kirkpatrick in 1899, it shows his mother's maiden name as Mary Ward. On William Sherman Kirkpatrick's death obituary in January 1962, it shows his mother as Elizabeth Molly Scott Kirkpatrick. No confirmation to date has been determined, however, speculation is that Elizabeth Molly Scott who appeared on the obituary of William Sherman Kirkpatrick, and Mary Scott who appears on other documents are the same person.

The children of William Bryant Kirkpatrick are: William Sherman Kirkpatrick, born in Hope, Illinois, July 19, 1872, and died January 17, 1962,( Jamestown, Indiana), Frederick Kirkpatrick, born February 13, 1874, and died April 15,1956, Noble B. Kirkpatrick, born June 1876, and died 1937, Grace Kirkpatrick Black Smith born January 26, 1878, and died May 8, 1952, and Goldie Kirkpatrick born October 15, 1893, and died April 22, 1911.

William Bryant Kirkpatrick and his wife, Mary Scott, are resting at the Stearn Cemetery in Vermilion County, Illinois.