[2] Although the Drake family had weathered the Revolutionary War in relative safety,[2] the economic crisis that followed impacted them particularly hard and they were bankrupt by 1788.

[3] The family was separated for much of the next ten years as they searched for work[4] until Drake’s older brother, Asaph, established a household in Weybridge, Vermont.

When it came to tax documents and census records, Bryant was listed as the head of the household,[12] and the people who knew them often spoke of them in terms generally used to discuss marriage.

I would tell you how, in their youthful days, they took each other as companions for life, and how this union, no less sacred to them than the tie of marriage, has subsisted, in uninterrupted harmony, for more than forty years.

[14] Over the years, they turned to a variety of treatments for their ailments, often exploring both chemical and natural remedies,[15] which gave them the medical knowledge to assist friends and family when necessary.