THROUGH
MOUNTAIN MISTS
Early Settlers of
Their
Descendants...Their Stories...Their Achievements
Lifting the
Mists of History on Their Way of Life
By: Ethelene Dyer Jones
More on the
Berry Kin
Last week’s column centered on Dr. Thomas
Newton Berry (1870-1927), country doctor, something of his practice in
Union
County, of his black Stetson hat that became a symbol of “passing the
torch”
from the elder Doctor Berry to his grandson, Claude Hempill
I wish I, like popular radio
journalist, Paul Harvey, knew “the rest of the story.”
There’s much yet to uncover, I’m sure, about
Dr.
In fact, one of the Berry descendants,
William Robert Berry, better known as W.R., who is the great nephew of
Dr.
Thomas Newton Berry, called me to thank me for the article, and to fill
me in
on some of the other aspects of the Berry family, a staunch and
hard-working
early settlers family who lived almost astraddle of the district line
in
Choestoe and Owltown. W.E. reminded me
that Dr. Thomas Newton Berry was one of those Choestoe people who, from
humble
beginnings, did well and served people.
Doc Berry’s house in town, long a landmark on Mauney Street, has
recently been removed.
Dr.
Recall that Thomas Newton and William
Jefferson
Elias was a notable farmer, but also
plied his trades of blacksmith for the community, and was a cobbler,
making
shoes not only for his own family, but for others round about. Methodists by denominational persuasion, the
Berry family were important in the early years of the Shady Grove
Methodist
Church, and when death came to members of this early Berry family, they
were
interred in the Shady Grove Cemetery.
William Jefferson Berry, Dr. Thomas
Newton Berry’s brother, married Ila Jane Frady.
I find a discrepancy in the date of marriage.
The article about Jeff and Jane Berry in The
Heritage of Union County lists this couple’s marriage date as November
14,
1894. The
Jeff and Jane Berry had thirteen
children in all, and supported and educated them by farming and doing
other
self-sufficient tasks that persons in that era did to make ends meet
and
provide a living for a large family. The
couple believed strongly in education and were determined that their
children
would get the best education they could provide them.
It is interesting that Jeff and Jane often
moved from their Choestoe home to Young Harris in the wintertime in
order for
their children to have better educational opportunities.
The trip would be made by wagon before the
era of family automobiles (or trucks—as it would have taken a roomy
vehicle to
move a large family).
With a family of thirteen children,
their births were over a period of twenty-six years, from 1895 through
1921. Space and knowledge of the family
precludes my going into details about each of the thirteen. Here are birth dates and spouses, if known:
(1)
Forrest
Carter Berry was born in 1895 and married Vernie Brown and Irene
Hackney.
(2)
William
Cautus Berry was born in 1897 and married Lorena Crawford.
(3)
Sarah
LuVina
(4)
Floyd
McRae Berry was born in 1901 and married Louise McDonald.
(5)
Ulma
Mae Berry, born in 1903, died in 1923, never married.
(6)
Dollie
Madison Berry was born in 1905 and married Lester Davis.
(7)
Theodore
Roosevelt Berry was born in 1907 and married Los Murray.
(8)
Charity
Belle was born and died in 1909.
(9)
Jessie
Pelle was born in 1910 and married O.H. Fields.
(10)
Blanche was born in 1913 and
married John
Mullis and Roy Osborne.
(11)
Bessie
was born in 1916 and died in 1918.
(12)
Mary was born in 1918 and
married B.B.
Tucker.
(13)
John Jefferson born in 1921
married
[Ethelene Dyer
Jones is a retired educator,
freelance writer, poet, and historian. She may be reached at
e-mail edj0513@windstream.net;
phone 478-453-8751; or mail 1708 Cedarwood Road, Milledgeville, GA
31061-2411.]
Updated July 8, 2018
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