Andrew Jackson Berry

https://library.uta.edu/usmexicowar/item?bio_id=36&nation=US&ofst=3...

John Berry May 8, 1813 - December 20, 1891

Topic - Battle of Monterrey

Born in Indiana, John “Bate” Berry immigrated to Texas with his father and two younger brothers in 1826. In February of 1836, Bate and his brother Andrew Jackson Berry joined the Texas army. Andrew Berry fought in the battle of San Jacinto, John Berry was detailed to guard the baggage train and did not participate in the battle. The brothers joined Colonel Edward Burleson’s ranger company in 1840, taking part in the Battle of Plum Creek on August 12 against Comanche Indians. They also joined the 1842 Somervell-Mier Expedition, in which a younger brother, Joseph Berry was killed. Bate Berry would spend the next two years imprisoned in Mexico.

In 1846, John Berry enlisted in the Mounted Texas Rifles, serving as a scout for General Zachary Taylor’s Army of Occupation in northern Mexico. Some Texas volunteers were believed to have used the conflict to exact revenge for earlier conflicts with Mexico. John Berry was reprimanded by General Taylor for taking scalps from Mexican soldiers killed in action.

After the war, John Bate Berry moved to Koockville, Texas where he farmed and ranched until his death on 20 December 1891. He is buried in the Grit Cemetery in Mason County.

Bibliography

Dixon, Sam Houston and Louis Wiltz Kemp The Heroes of San Jacinto Houston, Tex., Anson Jones Press, 1932.

Fisher, Ovie Clark. The Texas Heritage of the Fishers and the Clarks (Salado, Texas: Anson Jones Press, 1963).

From rootsweb:

Served in the Battle of San Jacinto, the Plum Creek Fight, and the Civil War, enlisted several times until the war ended. After the Battle of the Alamo Jack served under Sam Houston, fought against Santa Anna and held him captive. He assisted his and other families in the Runaway Scrape when Santa Anna burned Bastrop to the ground. Jack received Donation Certificate number 39 for 640 acre s for his service at San Jacinto.

Jack enjoyed telling the time when Davy Crockett was a guest of the Berry Family at Mina. He recounted the time when Crockett was on his way to the Alamo to "fight for my freedom". After John Berry finished repairing Crockett's rifle, Jack liked to tell how he and Crockett tested their rifles on an improvised rifle range near John's gun shop.

He served on the first grand jury with his father in Williamson County. After the Civil War he returned to help his father with the ranch, gristmill and blacksmith shop.

Marker Title: Captain Andrew Jackson Berry City: Baird Year Marker Erected: 1936 Marker Location: Ross Cemetery, US 283 North, Baird. (marker in lefthand section as one enters cemetery). Marker Text: Born in Indiana May 16, 1816. Died at Baird, Texas July 31, 1899. Veteran of San Jacinto. Officer in the Confederate Army.
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Birth: May 16, 1816 Monroe County Indiana, USA Death: Jul. 31, 1899 Baird Callahan County Texas, USA

Andrew Jackson ("Jack") Berry, ranger, soldier, and rancher, the son of Betsy (Smothers) and John Berry, was born in Monroe County, Indiana, on May 16, 1816. The family moved to Texas in late 1826 and settled in the Atascosito District. In 1834 Andrew moved with the family to Mina, later named Bastrop. He enlisted as a private in the Mina Volunteers on February 28, 1836, and fought at San Jacinto as a member of Company C, First Regiment, commanded by Capt. Jesse Billingsley. After the victory he extended his service until June. He was living in Houston when the town was first laid out. In 1838 he was living in what later became Caldwell, Burleson County, where the Berry family had moved after San Jacinto. With his brothers Joseph and Bate Berry he fought in the battle of Plum Creek on August 12, 1840, under the command of Col. Edward Burleson. In 1843 he enlisted in Capt. Jack (John C.) Hays's Texas Rangers qv, and in 1846 he served at Goliad under Lt. John T. Price. Berry moved his family in 1847 to the future Williamson County, where the family was gathering on the Berry league on Berry Creek and the San Gabriel River. He served as a member of the first grand jury after that county was organized. He enlisted as a private in the Confederate Army and later served as captain in Archie Hart's company, Twenty-seventh Brigade. He joined the Texas Veterans Association when it was organized at Houston in 1873. He left Williamson County and was ranching in Lampasas County in 1876, but moved in 1881 to a ranch he purchased south of Baird in Callahan County, where he spent the rest of his life. Jack Berry married Rhoda Jane Hughes (1824-ca. 1866) on July 29, 1839; they had nine children. He married Mary Catherine Sloan on September 3, 1872; eight children were born of this marriage. In 1936 Mary Catherine was honored at the Texas Centennial celebration in Dallas as the last surviving widow of a San Jacinto veteran. Berry died on July 31, 1899, in Baird when his team of mules, frightened by a train, ran away and he was thrown from his wagon. He is buried in the Ross Cemetery at Baird, where the state of Texas placed a marker for him as a veteran of San Jacinto.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Sam Houston Dixon and Louis Wiltz Kemp, The Heroes of San Jacinto (Houston: Anson Jones Press, 1932). William Moses Jones, Texas History Carved in Stone (Houston: Monument, 1958). W. K. Makemson, Historical Sketch of First Settlement and Organization of Williamson County (Georgetown, Texas, 1904). Jack Pope, ed., John Berry and His Children (Austin, 1988). Clara Stearns Scarbrough, Land of Good Water: A Williamson County History (Georgetown, Texas: Williamson County Sun Publishers, 1973).

Family links:

Parents:

 John Berry (1786 - 1866)

 Betsy Smeathers Berry (1791 - 1818)

Spouse:

 Mary Catherine Sloan Berry (1853 - 1943)

Children:

 Mary E. Berry Martin (1850 - 1943)*

 George Washington Berry (1873 - 1947)*

 Frances Ellen Berry Murphy (1874 - 1961)*

 Robert Lee Berry (1876 - 1948)*

 Hattie Pearl Berry Gaines (1880 - 1979)*

 Harry Myers Berry (1883 - 1959)*

 Grover Cleveland Berry (1888 - 1975)*

 Ode Powell Berry (1889 - 1969)*

Siblings:

 John Bate Berry (1813 - 1891)*

 Andrew Jackson Berry (1816 - 1899)

 Joseph Berry (1818 - 1842)*

 Elizabeth Berry Bradberry (1820 - 1859)**

 Hannah Berry Hughes (1823 - 1863)**

 Margaret Berry Chadwick (1825 - 1866)**

 Polly Mary Berry Compton (1832 - 1902)**

 John Berry (1836 - 1921)**

 Jane Berry Rumsey (1839 - 1883)**

 Catherine Ann Berry Jackson (1842 - 1929)**

 Virginia Devore Berry Murphy (1855 - 1906)**

 Patrick Henry Berry (1855 - 1860)**

 George Washington Berry (1857 - ____)**

*Calculated relationship

• *Half-sibling

Burial: Ross Cemetery Baird Callahan County Texas, USA Plot: Magnolia Street, Blk 8, Lot 24, Space 6

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Created by: A.E. Collins Record added: Oct 21, 2006 Find A Grave Memorial# 16267334 http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=16267334

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Andrew Jackson Berry was named in his grandfather, William Smeathers will 1837 as his heir.There is a Historical marker on his gravestone in Baird at Ross Cemetery where he is buried. He came to Tx with his father in 1836 and step mother Gracie Treat. He fought in the Battle of Plum Creek with his brothers in 1840 and in 1843 enlised in Capt Jack Hay's Tx Rangers. 1846 he served at Goliad under Lt John T Price. He moved his family 1847 to Williamson Co Tx. Enlisted as Private in the Conferate Army and in 1876 went to Lampasas Co. 1881 he moved to Callahan Co where he d there in 1899. His team of mules were frightened by a train and ran away out of control with Andrew Jackson being thrown from the wagon and killed. He was abt 83yrs old. In 1936 his 2nd wife Mary Catherine Sloan Berry was honored at the Texas Centennial as being the last surviving widow of a San Jacinto Veteran. Andrew Jackson and his lst wife Rhoda Huges were the gg grandparents of the Historian and Judge Andrew Jackson 'Jack' Pope. 1/2002 NSmothers