Berry, Col. Joseph W.

Source: Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Northwest Louisiana
The Southern Publishing Company, Chicago & Nashville, 1890
Submitted by: Gwen Moran-Hernandez

Col. Joseph W. Berry, assessor, Minden, La. One among the few remaining early settlers of this part of Louisiana is the man whose name appears at the head of this sketch. He was  born in Bloomington, Ind., on June 12, 1818, and his father, Judge Joseph Berry, was a native of Old Dominion. The Judge comes of old Virginia stock. He moved to Kentucky with his parents, there was reared to manhood,and when a young man went to Tennessee, where he was married to Miss Mary Campbell, a native of the Big Bend State.

He served in some of the old Indian wars and was captured by the Indians of Ohio. He served in Capt.
Price's company and Gen. Wayne's command. In 1812 Mr. Berry settledin Illinois, near Vincennes, and moved to Monroe County, Ind., in 1813. He was fairly educated, a man of good judgement and was a lawyer by profession. He was elected judge of Monroe County, Ind., and held his first court in a log cabin. In 1834 he started to move with forty families to the Lone Star State and died on the road, near Minden, in November of that year.

His wife had died in Bloomington, Ind., in 1825. Col. Joseph W. Berry remained in his native State until
sixteen years of age, and received a good education at New Harmony College. He came south with his father in1834, located in what is now Webster Parish and worked on a farm and in a saw-mill for about three years. In 1837 he entered a store as clerk at Overton, the old county seat, and in 1838 he came toMinden, where he clerked for several years. He was here in 1837, and saw this town surveyed and laid off.

He engaged in merchandising in Minden in 1841, and continued in the dry-good business for thirty-two years. In 1851 his superior intelligence and fine ability became recognized by the numerous friends he had gathered around him, and he was elected a member of the Legislature,serving two years. So great was his popularity that he was re-elected to the same office in 1856 and re-elected again in 1860, being a member of that body when the State seceded. In 1863 he was commissioned colonel of Claiborne's regiment and afterward served in Gen. Gilbert's staff. He entered the service in 1861; was
commissioned enrolling officer for Claiborne Parish, and afterward served as quartermaster.

He was elected to the Confederate Legislature in 1864, and was a member of that body when the news reached the House of the surrender of Gen. Lee, the Legislature adjourning on receipt of this news. In November, 1865, Mr. Berry again engaged in merchandising, which he continued up to 1872, at which time he met with a very severe loss by fire. He did not again engage in this business, but carried on his farm, he and his partner being the owners of a large tract of land and about fifty-three slaves previous to the war.

In 1880 Mr. Berry was appointed assessor of Webster Parish and has served now for ten years in that capacity. He has taken a prominent part in politics, has served as a delegate to numerous conventions
and was in the Legislature under fourdifferent governors. Mr. Berry was married first in Rapides Parish, La., in 1846 to Miss Camelia C.Hadley, a native of Louisiana, and was reared and educated in that State. Three children were born to this union: W. H., F. P. and Caroline E. (wife of J. T. Mims, a business man of Minden). Mrs.Berry died in October, 1853, and Mr. Berry afterward married a sister of his former wife, Miss J. E.Hadley, also a native of this State. There are four children born to this marriage: J. C. (married andis a telegraph operator at Monroe), E. L., J. L. and Nettie (who is a graduate of Minden College).

Mr. Berry is a Royal Arch Mason, has served as worshipful master of the Blue Lodge ten years and king and scribe of his chapter. Mr. Berry has been and still is a very active man. He is well posted on the
general questions of the day, is a thorough business man and is as pleasant a gentleman as one would care to meet.