Charles E. Bryant was born on March 20, 1870, in Battle, England, to Harold and Emma Bryant. His father worked in a tannery. The family immigrated to America in the spring of 1871 and settled in Brookfield, New York. He married Margaret A. Hanks on June 26, 1901, and they had at least three children: Margaret, born around 1902; Samuel, born around 1906; and Charles, born around 1910.
They lived in Coshocton, Ohio, and Bryant worked as Superintendent of Schools. In 1919, he travelled to France to “take over an important educational post overseas with the army educational corps.” His passport described him as 5 feet, 8 ¼ inches tall, with brown hair and blue eyes. He moved to Akron, Ohio, in the early 1920s, and he worked as a school principal. He retired in 1940, and he died sometime afterward.