Dr. Brantley was born on the 29th of December, 1821, at Augusta, Ga. He is the son of Rev. William T. Brantly, Senior, D. D. His mother's maiden name was Margaretta Joiner. His father was a native of Chatham County, N. C. and his mother a native of Beaufort, S. C. When he was about five years old his father moved to Philadelphia, where he lived until 1837. Here he (John J.) received his school education. He was graduated from the Charleston, (S.C.) College (of which his father was then President), in 1840.

After his graduation, he taught school at different times in Pittsboro and Fayetteville, N. C. and Augusta, Ga. He was licensed to preach by the First Baptist Church of Charleston, S. C. in 1844. His father then prostrated by paralysis, signed his license as pastor of the Church, which was the very last official act of his life.

In 1845, he was married to Miss Della Smith of Fayetteville, N. C. In 1846, he was ordained to the full work of the Gospel Ministry at Fayetteville, and remained there teaching and filling the position of pastor of the Baptist Church at that place unit 1850, when he removed to Newberry.

Dr. Brantly's sermons preached in Newberry, were always sound, intellectual and instructive, and accomplished a quiet but effective and permanent work. He was calm and dignified in the pulpit and spoke with deliberation. While he never elevated his voice to a high pitch, he could be distinctly heard in every part of the Church. He did not attempt oratorical displays, but he had, without seeming to be aware of it himself, unusual power over the feelings of his hearers. By the beauty and pathos of a single sentence, he would often send a thrill through the hearts of his listeners, and bring silent tears into many eyes. His illustrations and descriptions were striking and graphic.

During the latter years of his residence in Newberry, he taught a Female School with much success. The character of his preaching and his labors in the school-room, made a profound and lasting impression in the mental as well as the moral developemnt of the young of the community. Being an accomplished linguist, his language in preaching, in teaching and in the social circle was chaste, appropriate, and free from slang and vulgarisms.

Dr. Brantly is every inch a student and a man of varied attainments. Before he left Newberry, he had accumulated a large library of valuable books in many languages. In addition to Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, he had mastered the German, French, Italian, and Spanish. He takes particular delight in linguistic studies, and his knowledge of languages, is both copious and exact; qualities not apt to be found together. Having naturally good powers of acquisition and good ability to digest and assimilate thought so as to make its own, it may well be supposed that his mind is stored with the best thoughts contained in human literature. His mind has an aesthetis tendancy, and a poetic vein runs through his mental habitudes.

His native diffidence and studious habits incline him to retirement.