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Captain John Berry, Jr.

(1817-1898)

John Berry, Jr. was a farmer who from Juniper Bay, Hyde County. His homeplace was at the end of the Juniper Bay Canal. Just beyond his farm and before the marsh was a landing area called the Arch. The Arch was the shipping point for a large area of the county. Here, there was a store and a warehouse. John Berry was also a waterman. He and his neighbors of the Juniper Bay area hauled their farm produce and freight to and from the Arch on ox-carts, horse-drawn carts or wagons. Because of the low depth of water in the canal, it was necessary to load their cargos onto small boats, flats or barges and move it about one mile farther down the canal to Honey Creek, where the boat captains docked their boats. From the Arch, John Berry, Jr. and the other boat captain would ship their cargos to markets in Little Washington, New Bern and Norfolk. On his return trips, he would bring back those items which he and his neighbors weren't able to produce for themselves, such as tobacco, molasses, whiskey and other manufactured goods.

Family tradition relates that during the Civil War, John Berry, Jr. was neutral, or just wanted to be left alone to raise his crops and his growing family. Therefore he traded wherever he could. Because of this, a neighbor, Tully Williamson, was ordered by the local homeguard to sink John's boat. When Tully refused, both he and John had to hide out in the nearby swamp. John hid out in the swamp at Poplar Ridge (the other side of the Hydeland canal) to avoid capture. He was kept in food by a Negro, Charles Nelson. After the Civil War, in the late 1860's, he and his son were engaged in the shipping of lumber.

John Berry, Jr. was born May 2, 1817, the son of John Berry, Sr. (1778-1858) and Rebecca Benson (1785-1865). He married 1st in 1837 to Sallie Stotesbury (1817-1881), daughter of John Aaron Stotesbury (1794-1862) and Jennie Benson. John and Sallie had eight sons and three daughters: Richard Thomas (1838-1905), William Riley (died young), Nancy Jane (1842-1861), James Edward (1844-1928), Miranda (1845-1883), John Henry Clay (1848-1948), Reuben Haywood (1850-1900), Frances Elizabeth (1852-1905), Alexander (1854-1924), Zacheus (died young), and William Timothy (1860-1934). John married 2nd in 1886 to Sarah Elizabeth Jarvis (1855-1928) and they had one son, Jobe (1892-1979 ). John was then 75 years old. He died on Dec. 6, 1898 at the age of 81 and was buried at Clay Hill, the family cemetery, on the Poplar Ridge pocoson, and in the 1930's the graves in this cemetery were removed to Soule Cemetery.


Capt. Jim Berry (1844-1928)

Other seamen associated with shipping in Juniper Bay were Captain LeRoy Pedrick (1860-1929), Captain James Edward Berry, Sr. (Captain Jim, John Berry's son) (1844-1928), and Captain R. W. (Dick) Swindell (1869-1943). Captain Jim Berry owned and operated the sailboat Janie Berry, which he named for the wife of his brother Reuben Berry, who lived in New Bern. Captain Jim, like the other captains, carried farm produce, chickens, and cattle and brought back fertilizer for the farmers in the area as far as Lake Landing and other items of freight. He also carried passengers back and forth free of charge, who were always welcome on Captain Jim's boat. Captain Jim began his career as a sea-faring man at the age of eighteen and made his last trip at age eighty-four.


Braxton (Brac) Weston hauling freight from the Arch.


Captain Jim Berry and passengers on the Janie Berry.

CAPT. JOHN BERRY, JR.'s DAY BOOK

Below is John Berry, Jr's. account book for the years 1841-1849. He lived in the Juniper Bay area of Hyde County where he was a farmer. He was also the captain of a boat used for carrying produce to markets in nearby Washington, New Bern and Beaufort, NC. This a list of accounts for various goods which he obtained for his friends and neighbors to bring back on his return trip. Among the most popular items were molasses, whiskey, tobacco and boots and shoes. Below I have listed the names on each page and the corresponding date, if there was one. This small book is very fragile and the writing is often dim and difficult to read. A seccond account book has information from the late 1860's concerning the shipping of lumber.

Sources: Photos and information from John B. McGowan and Merlin S. Berry; Hyde County History, Hyde County Historical Society, 1976.

Prepared by John McGowan and Other Descendants of Carolina Watermen

Copyright 1999-2005
Carolina Work Boats Project

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