A Biography of Young Henry Berry
(October 14, 1848 – August 22, 1925)
YOUNG HENRY BERRY was born on a farm in the Salem Community near Gadsden, (now in Crockett County) Tennessee, the first son of Reddick Hunter Berry and Catherine A. (Allen) Berry. His father had been married previously, so Henry had four half-sisters who were much older than himself; the oldest of whom had married his mother’s brother, only three days before he was born. He also had two sisters, about two and four years old. (Eventually he would have several more sisters and two brothers).
Henry was born on Saturday, October 14, 1848. As you might imagine, he was the pride and joy of the family, for there was no other boy in that houseful of girls, until he was almost ten, and then his brother Andrew Berry was born.
The family residence was a small log structure that contained one large room and an attic, with a separate kitchen building behind the house. A few slave cabins were on the property, and there were numerous barns and sheds all surrounded by rail and picket fences. The place was located on a road that went from the Center Community to Salem Church. (Now other roads have been constructed and the old road has been almost obliterated by trees, weeds and soy bean fields.)
The family owned livestock and hundreds of acres of cotton and corn, so all the family had to do farm chores, despite their having a few slaves. “Y.H.” (as Henry was often called), learned all aspects of the family farming operation.
He had not been personally involved in the Civil War, as he was only 13 when it began, and 17 when it ended, but soon afterward he was persuaded by peer pressure to join the “Night Riders”, the forerunners of the Ku Klux Klan. One night, not long after he joined the group, his new cohorts falsely accused, and then tortured one of the Berry family’s former slaves. The incident infuriated Y.H., so that he broke all association with the Night Riders and burned his robes.
In 1868, when he was 19 years old, he traveled to Greene County, Arkansas to stay several months with his half-sister, Lucy (Berry) Hopper and her husband, Pleasant. He helped them put in a crop while he was there. He liked the area, and returned the next year to work for them again. By the summer of 1870, when the census was taken, Y.H. was back in Tennessee, living with his parents, and was listed on that census as a “farm laborer”.
On December 24, 1872 he married Andromedia, the only daughter of John Vickers, a boot-maker from Carroll County, Tennessee. “Annie” was 18, and Y.H. was 24. (Census records show that John Vickers was born in North Carolina. Family tradition is that he was of Dutch or German descent, and was a Federal sympathizer during the Civil War. Annie’s mother had deceased when Annie was very young.)
After the marriage ceremony in Huntingdon, Carroll County (performed by Justice of the Peace, Albert Warren), the couple became neighbors of Y.H.’s parents in the Salem Community of Crockett County. They moved to a residence on a 112 acre plot of land that had been given to them as a wedding gift by Y.H.’s parents. [The deed was recorded at the court house in Alamo, Tennessee on January 2, 1873 – only nine days after the wedding.]
On September 13, 1874 their first child, John Henry, was born. Then on October 6, 1876 another son was born, and was named Reddick Hunter Berry II, in honor of Y.H.’s father who had just passed away a few months before. [Or in 1877, according to one family historian].
On November 13, 1878, Y.H. and Andremedia Berry sold one-half of their acreage to Y.H.’s uncle/brother-in-law, Miles Lewis Allen (husband of Y.H.’s half-sister, Mary Elizabeth “Sis” Berry). About that same time the Berrys moved to Greene County, Arkansas and settled in the Hopewell Community, near the Hoppers. This was where the Berrys and the Hoppers were living at the time of the 1880 census.
Flora Alice Berry, their third child, was the first to be born there in Arkansas. Her birthdate is January 26, 1879.
After 1880, Y.H.’s youngest sister, Malissa Ann (Berry) McCoy and her husband, Newt McCoy, moved from Crockett County, Tennessee to the same area of Arkansas, to remain there the rest of their lives.
While living in the Hopewell Community, Y.H. supported his family by farming. Later they moved to the town of Rector (about 3 miles away) and he eventually went into business as the owner of a General Mercantile store, on Main Street. But sometime, either before moving to Rector, or afterward (not certain), he was a deputy U.S. marshal. In Rector, he was a deputy Sheriff and jail-keeper for a number of years. (He may have been such at the same time he operated the mercantile store).
In the early 1880’s Y.H. employed a Mr. Johnson, a craftsman from Kansas City, to construct a fancy house in Rector, not far from his business establishment. He must have been doing well in his business, for besides having the house constructed, he was willing to take on the responsibility of caring for his widowed mother, and he sent for her to come live with him and his family. (She had been living alone in the old house, in Crockett County, Tennessee, due to the recent marriage of the last of her children.)
Y.H.’s mother, Catherine Berry had been looking forward to moving to Arkansas to be close to Y.H. and her other children who had moved there. She was at her home, sitting on the bedside, talking to the many well-wishers who had stopped by to bid her farewell. It was almost time for her to board the wagon and head out to the train station, when she had a heart attack and died, at age 62.
A fourth child was born to Y.H. and Annie Berry, on April 8, 1883, and was named Walter Mack Berry. Then on July 25, 1886 Enola Alafair “Nola” Berry was born. Both Mack and Nola were born in Rector, Arkansas.
During those years more kinsfolk were moving from Tennessee. Between 1885-1888 Y.H.’s brother, John Louis (or Lewis) Berry and his wife, Betty (Patton) Berry made the move. Sometime during the 1880’s their sister Sallie (Berry) Patton and her husband, Thaddeus Patton had moved there; and also their sister Nancy (Berry) Oliver and her husband, Sampson Oliver had also moved.
Now came some grievous times for the Y.H. Berry family. Y.H. and Annie’s oldest son, John Henry Berry contracted pneumonia and died on November 23, 1886, at age 12. Then, on February 8, 1890 their second-born son, Reddick Hunter Berry II (called by the nickname “Dock”) died of pneumonia, at age 13. Their sixth child, Pearl Berry died on October 23, 1890. She was just a little over a year old, having been born on September 14, 1889. All three were buried at the Pleasant Grove cemetery, in the Hopewell Community.
About 1890, after many years as a merchant, Y.H. Berry sold his business interests, being forced to do so because so many of his customers would not pay their bills. Then he bought a farm about 2 miles northwest of Rector, on Post Oak Creek, where he built a house and began farming again, at age 42.
Some friends named Newberry (from the Newberry settlement near Lafe, Arkansas) had moved to Texas, and kept in correspondence with the Berry family. They extolled the glories of Texas, and how much better off they were than when they lived in Arkansas. Annie had been in poor health for some time, and her doctor recommended that they should seek a more healthful climate for her. So, in March or April of 1892 the family boarded a train, with all their possessions, and headed for Buffalo Gap, Taylor County, Texas, to join the Newberrys.
They found Buffalo Gap to be a beautiful little town, with a dry climate. They obtained housing at a renovated jail, which had not been used, as such, for several years (because the county seat had been moved from Buffalo Gap to Abilene, and the County Jail was now in that city). Close by, there was an excellent school and college, operated by the Cumberland Presbyterian Church (their denomination). This school had the reputation of being the greatest institution of higher learning west of Ft. Worth, causing the town of Buffalo Gap to be known as “The Athens of the West”. Y.H. and Annie Berry were pleased with this new town and all it amenities..
In June, 1892, only a few months after their arrival in Texas, Andromedia Vickers Berry died, at age 38, and was buried at the Buffalo Gap cemetery, ‘neath the shade of a live-oak tree. Alice, who was 13, took on many of the household duties, assisted by her brother Mack, age 9.
Through correspondence with his brother, John Louis Berry (back in Rector, Arkansas), Y.H. learned of a young, childless widow, the daughter of the Methodist parson, who “just might be interested in matrimony”. So, Y.H. wrote the parson, asking permission to correspond with his daughter. The parson turned the letter over to his daughter, so she could answer it.
After a brief exchange of letters, Y.H. and Nola (six years old), headed east, by train, to Rector, where soon after their arrival, Y.H. and Willie Ruhamah (Evans) Throgmorton became man and wife, at the home of the bride’s father, Parson Asa Delosier Evans. The date was November 13, 1892.
A few days later, the newlyweds and young Nola, headed for Texas. They stayed at the “jailhouse” a short time, and then moved to a farmhouse near the community of Caps. This was also near the Border’s Chapel schoolhouse. (The Newberry family were also living in Caps, by this time).
Y.H. Berry engaged in farming, but also struck upon an idea which proved to be financially helpful to the family. There were many wild mustang horses in that area of Texas; and he rounded them up, or hired others to round them up. They would corral the ponies for a short time, and would load them onto boxcars of the T & P Railroad.
Then Y.H. would have several cowboys accompany him to Rector and to West Tennessee, for the purpose of selling the mustangs. When they got to these places they would have to re-corral the ponies for the sale, and people would come from miles around to see these spirited animals, and to watch the skilled cowboys riding them. After the show, the mustangs would be auctioned off to the highest bidder. For many years after crops were laid-by, starting in about 1893, Y.H. would go on those pony-selling expeditions.
(Around the turn of the 20th century there was a celebration in Trenton, Gibson County, Tennessee on the first Monday of each August, and this celebration was called “First Monday”. At this event wild Texas ponies were corralled and then auctioned to an eager market. Y.H. was, no doubt, aware of this annual affair, and was probably there on many “First Mondays”, to sell his mustangs.)
It may have been while he was on such a trip that the following incident happened:
About August of 1893, Willie was helping the children with their chores and was carrying two five-gallon buckets of feed to the hogs, when she slipped and fell over one of the buckets. She was about seven months along in her first pregnancy, and she went into labor, and before help could arrive, she gave birth to twins, a boy and a girl. The babies lived just a short time and were buried at the cemetery in Caps. (This may have been the Drummond Cemetery).
About autumn of 1894 the family moved back to Arkansas, to the Mary’s Chapel Community on the north end of Rector. There on April 6, 1895, Nannie Ira Berry (Holder) and her twin sister, Annie Myra Berry were born. Annie died on July 28, 1895, and is buried at Pleasant Grove Cemetery.
In November of 1895 the Berry family moved back to the Border’s Chapel Community, near Caps, Texas. There they rented a 100 acre farm from Mr. Ira Borders, and raised cotton.
On January 21, 1897 the family was living in Jones County, Texas, not far from the town of Hodges, on what they called the “McCoy Place”, when Gertrude Leticia Berry (Poynor) was born. Y.H. was now 48, and Willie was 25.
The Berrys moved back, yet again, to the Border’s Chapel community in late 1897. Little Ira, age two, contracted some malady which caused her to have fevers and convulsions. During this time Y.H. went to the schoolhouse for a lodge meeting, and performed a humorous sketch called “The Black-face Sermon”. Willie had pleaded with him not to do this skit, as she felt such a performance would be blasphemous. He had performed the skit on numerous occasions and he was determined to go on with the show. But this proved to be his last performance of this skit. Why? On his return home, he found little Ira to be much worse, and he saw her declining condition as God’s way of showing displeasure at his performance. He prayed earnestly, and begged God for forgiveness; and the next morning, little Ira was much better and recovered fully. Y.H. kept his promise, for he had been humbled.
On November 7, 1897, Y.H.’s oldest daughter, Alice, married Joseph Arthur Joiner, there in Taylor County, Texas. Joe was the son of a prosperous farmer. The Joiners were a prominent Baptist family.
In 1898 the Berrys moved to Jones County, again. There, on the “Souder’s Place”, Willie had a second miscarriage of twins when she was about six months pregnant. (The twins were boys who died shortly, or were stillborn.)
On August 21, 1898, when Y.H. was 49 years old, he became “Grandpa” for the first time, when Joe and Alice Joiner’s first child was born. He was born there at the Y.H. Berry home, in the Caps Community, and was named Willis Schley Joiner. When Alice became able to travel, the three Joiners went back to Abilene, where Joe operated a cotton gin.
On November 3, 1899 another Berry son was born at the “Souder’s Place”. He was named Evans Berry (and would later acquire the nickname “Gabe”, and would give himself a first name of “John”). Gabe was born when Y.H. was 51, and Willie was 28.
About this time Y.H. went on another selling trip to Arkansas. On his return trip he brought his brother John Louis Berry and his family with him. By this time John’s first wife, Betty Patton Berry had died, and he was now married to Annie Eliza Crockett (Stewart) Berry, and had been for the last five years. They brought all their belongings with them, and the two Berry families lived together in Y.H. Berry’s house until Y.H. and John could construct a two-room house nearby, for John and his family. That house was finished sometime in the next year.
The Berry children went to the Bitter Creek School when they lived at the Souder’s Place. (Ira Berry said her first teacher there, was Miss Ella Love).
In this community 52 year-old Y.H. Berry was called upon by his neighbors to help them with their roping, branding, and farming operations on many occasions. When they called on him he gladly obliged.
About 1900 the T & P Railroad held a contest to select a name for one of the communities along it’s route. Y.H. submitted the name “Tye”, and it was selected. He entered the name in honor of John P. Tye, a Methodist minister who happened to be the first postmaster of the town. (Tye is in Taylor County, Texas. It had been called “Hinds” before Y.H. Berry re-named it.)
In 1901 Y.H. constructed a house in the Midway community, on a 40 acre plot. There Louie Chester Berry was born, on July 17, 1901. (Midway is near Hodges, in Jones County, Texas. It is said to be “mid-way” between Abilene and Anson.)
In early 1902, Y.H. and Willie Berry purchased a house and land on Noodle Creek, in Trent, Taylor County, Texas. From there, in September, Y.H. went on another horse-selling trip to Arkansas, and brought back several barrels of apples to sell to his apple-starved neighbors. He had hoped to make a lot of money, but the apples arrived in poor shape, after bouncing around in transit. Few of them were saleable, so the Berry family made an extremely large batch of apple butter.
Homer Earle Berry was born there in Trent, Texas, on December 5, 1902. Y.H. was 54, and Willie was 31. The next year the family moved to Merkel (a distance of seven miles away), to a fancy place with a peach orchard. Here is where they owned their first telephone. They also were the proud owners of a Surry with a fringe on top.
In late 1903 or early 1904 Y.H. embarked on another trip to sell ponies. Between Ft. Worth and Texarkana, near the city of Greenville, the train derailed, and overturned, killing or maiming all the ponies. Fortunately, Y.H. was not hurt seriously, except in spirit. He returned to Merkel, penniless and heart-broken. Right away he started legal action to try and regain some of his losses, litigation that would take several years and entail much expense, without success.
In the summer of 1904 the family went to north-east Arkansas and West Tennessee for an extended visit. While in Rector Y.H. visited an old friend Martin Van Buren Vowell who was in jail awaiting trial for the murder of a man named Bill Lovejoy. The shooting had occurred in Rector, Arkansas on August 12, 1903. Sometime after the Berrys returned to Texas they received the news that Mart had been convicted and hanged. The hanging had taken place on June 9, 1904, outside the jail, in Paragould. The news was a source of much sorrow for Y.H., for he had known Mart since the time Y.H. first went to Greene County, Arkansas in 1868.
(Mart Vowell and Y.H. Berry were opposites in personality, but almost identical in looks. Y.H. had been mistaken for Mart on many occasions, and this had resulted in some amusing incidents, and also in some frightening experiences, as Mart had many enemies.)
In late 1904 Y.H. and his family moved from Merkel, Texas to Rector, Arkansas, never again to live in Texas. They rented a house in the city of Rector.
In 1905 or 1906 Y.H. built a house on property adjoining Woodland Heights Cemetery, on the west side of town. At this place, on June 21, 1906 another son was born. He was named Willie Roosevelt Berry, and was called “Teddy”, and “Ted” as he grew up. Y.H. was 57, and Willie Ruhamah was 35.
In 1907 they sold that house to a Mr. Thomas, and from this “Thomas House” they moved to a rented farm in the Hopewell Community, near the Pleasant Grove Cemetery. Later that same year they moved back to the west side of Rector. Here at the “Liddle House”, Y.H., in association with Mr. T.T. Copeland, built several canneries for themselves and for some neighbors. This “cooperative” concern canned fruits and vegetables, selling anything the participating families couldn’t use. They labeled the canned goods using the brand-name “Pargo”.
Y.H. had sent his son Mack Berry to the Sam Houston Normal Institute, in Texas, and he received a good education there, and became a high-school professor. In 1908 he was the Professor at the high-school in Rector, Arkansas, and had become prosperous enough to finance the construction of a house there in town. When it was completed, he invited his father, step-mother, and his siblings to move there, and they were eager to do so. While the family were living at this “Mack House”, on March 20, 1909, Mack’s newest half-brother was born. They named him Allen Spencer Berry.
Then in 1910 the family moved to the Knob Community, northwest of town. That was the year that Y.H. took four-year-old Teddy, on a train trip to visit Mack, who had located himself in Memphis, Tennessee, and was in business there. After seeing Mack, they traveled on to Crockett County, Tennessee to visit Y. H.’s sisters and their families, who were still living near the old home place.
In 1911 they moved to the “Verd Cudd House” in Rector, and from there to a house on Main Street, where on April 14, 1912, Vivian Frances Berry (Laffoon) was born. Y.H. was 63, and Willie was past 40. A family joke is that when Vivian was born, the “Titanic” sank! (The famous ship “Titanic” sank on the night of April 14/15, 1912, just a few hours after Vivian was born.)
On May 14, 1914 the family were living on Tom Vangilder’s place near the Walnut Ridge School, seven miles south of Rector and 1/4 mile west of Little Ridge, when the Berrys’ last child was born. She was named Mary Gwendolyn Yates Berry (Laffoon). (The Yates name was for a preacher that Y.H. admired.) Y.H. was 65 and Willie was almost 43.
For several years Y.H. had been a regular correspondent to the Rector newspaper, “The Vitascope”. His anonymous column was called the “Possum Hollow News”. His poor spelling, due to a limited education, made it necessary for him to dictate his column to his daughters, Ira and Gertie. His last column was written about 1914.
The family lived in many places after leaving the Vangilder place, including a place in the town of Marmaduke, Greene County, Arkansas. They were there in 1916. Then in the fall or winter of 1917-18 while residing in the Post Oak Knoll Community, also in Greene County, sixty-nine year old Y.H. fell, crushing his ribs and injuring his lungs. His health was never the same after that.
In 1918, after several years of Bible study, Y.H. and Willie made a change in their religious affiliation. To confirm this to God and to man, they were both baptized as “Bible Students” at a special ceremony in Jonesboro, Arkansas, in 1920. To be baptized they had to go by railroad train on a round-trip of about 70 or 80 miles. They made this same trip any time they wanted to meet with the other members of their faith, as the congregation in Jonesboro was their nearest congregation of “Bible Students” (now known as “Jehovah’s Witnesses”).
In 1921, when the family lived near the Vincent Community, Y.H. broke his ribs, again. He was carrying two buckets of water to the family sorghum mill, behind their home, when he hung his toe on a low fence, while trying to step over it, and he spilled forward and fell.
In June, 1925 while living at the “Hawk Cunningham Place” (seven miles north of Rector, Y.H. suffered several strokes, at age 76. Then on August 22, that year, Y.H. passed away in death. He was at home, with many of his family by his side, on that Saturday. His last words were, “Willie, my sweetheart!” He was buried at the Mitchell Cemetery in Greenway, Clay County, Arkansas, after a graveside service conducted by a friend of the family, Brother Rivers Meriweather, one of Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Young Henry Berry was a man who was capable at many tasks. He was a farmer, merchant, lawman, jail keeper, cowboy, and a seller of wild mustangs. He was also a substitute (lay) preacher and song leader, and used to deliver funeral eulogies for friends . He liked to sing at church functions, and often led the singing and/or the prayer service. He was adept at telling a good story, and loved to perform skits of comedy at social gatherings. He also did auctioneering, on occasion.
He wrote columns of community news for newspapers, in Texas and in Arkansas. He was once a correspondent for the U.S. Agriculture Department, and wrote crop reports for their yearbook.
Once he ventured into the world of politics, though he was defeated. This was when he ran for Sheriff of Greene County, Arkansas, in the early 1880’s. He also liked to express his political views in letters to the editors of several newspapers. He enjoyed seeing his letters published, and would write whenever he thought he had something valuable to say.
He was a mason, carpenter, well-digger, and water dowser. He was skilled in the use of folk-medicine, and was known in the communities where he resided, as a folk doctor.
Young Henry Berry had an outgoing and amiable personality. He really loved people of all kinds, and showed hospitality, readily, to anyone, whether friend or stranger. He had a deep love for all his relatives, and especially his immediate family. He was always generous and helpful to his neighbors. He had a reverence for God, and was serious about Bible reading and prayer. He died at peace with his God, Jehovah, and had a firm conviction that he would be resurrected to heavenly life to be an associate ruler with Jesus Christ in his heavenly Kingdom. Oh, that his descendants would imitate his best qualities, and especially his ardent Faith!
“And in this mountain he will certainly swallow up the face of the envelopment that is enveloping over all the peoples, and the woven work that is interwoven upon all the nations. He will actually swallow up death forever, and the Sovereign Lord Jehovah will certainly wipe the tears from all faces. Your dead ones will live. A corpse of mine – they will rise up. Awake and cry out joyfully, you residents in the dust!” (From the Holy Bible, at Isaiah 25: 7,8 and 26:19 – New World Translation)
2001 – W. Ross Berry