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Transcribed from "An Illustrated History of The Big Bend Country, embracing Lincoln, Douglas, Adams and Franklin counties, State of Washington", published by Western Historical Publishing Co., 1904.

     BENJAMIN F. BERRY, who resides about three miles northwest from Fletcher in the country known as the Rattlesnake flat, is one of the heaviest wheat producers of the Big Bend country. He is a man of marked energy and industry and has gained his princely holding through his own unaided efforts. At the present time, he owns nine and one-half sections of first-class wheat land, and one and one-half pasture. The nine and one-half sections are in crop. His estate is one of the largest in Adams county and owing to the skillful management of the same is one of the best paying in the country. Mr. Berry has six men employed all the year round and during portions of the year has many more. He is a pioneer and has been on the frontier almost all his life, participating in the labors and adventures incident to mining, prospecting, freighting and so forth.
     Benjamin F. Berry was born in Wapella county, Iowa, near Ottumwa, on March 30, 1852. In his native country he was reared on the farm and received his education from the public schools. At the age of twenty-three, he determined to seek his own fortune in the west and we find him in Colorado, Nevada, California, Oregon, Idaho and in various other sections actively engaged in different enterprises, and ever showing the energy and wisdom that could but bring success. These labors continued until 1892, when he came to where his home is now located and took a quarter-section under government right. From that time until the present, Mr. Berry has given careful attention to farming and stock raising, more especially to farming. He improved the home place in a proper manner with all buildings, fences and so forth needed and it is supplied with an abundance of good water and an orchard of fifteen acres. Mr. Berry was thoroughly convinced from the start that this was a magnificent wheat country and he accordingly determined to possess more land. With this end in view he laid his plans and from time to time bought land from the railroad company and others until he has now seven thousand and forty acres as stated above. To handle this magnificent domain, Mr. Berry has a large number of horses and mules, which he raises on the farm. He has the latest and most improved machinery, including a combined harvester and thresher and has shown splendid executive ability in handling his business. His principal crop is wheat. His grain is marketed at Washtucna and Lind and the produce of this farm would feed many hundred people. In addition to what has been mentioned, Mr. Berry has stock holdings in the German-American Bank at Ritzville and is a director. He is also interested in the Medical Lake Sanitarium and owns considerable property besides.
     In fraternal affiliations, he is connected with the I. O. O. F.
     At Ritzville, in November, 1900, Mr. Berry married Miss Margaret McVene, a native of Michigan and to them one child, Benjamin F., Jr., has been born. When Mr. Berry located in this country, it was wild and thoroughly uninhabited. He has had the pleasure of seeing it settled up and built up to be one of the choicest sections of Washington and in this good labor he has been a leader. He is ever interested in the improvement of the roads, in making better schools and heartily co-operates with every movement that is for the welfare of the community.
     Mr. Berry has been a great traveler and the experience that he has acquired in his labors and travels, has made him a well informed man. Yet notwithstanding the fact that he has seen some of the choicest sections in the United States, he is firm in the belief that Adams county is one of the best to be found in the west. No such thing as luck has brought about the gratifying result with which we see Mr. Berry blessed at the present time, for to the careful observer, it is evident that his masterful ability and keen foresight were responsible directly for the accumulation of this great property. He laid his plans well and then worked to the mark, allowing nothing to swerve him from accomplishing that which he had planned to do. As a man, Mr. Berry is generous and genial, as a citizen he is loyal and patriotic, and as a business operator, he is forceful and successful. His standing in the community is of the best and his circle of friends is as wide as his acquaintance.

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