Biography of Jesse Enfield Berry

Jesse Enfield Berry
Company C
1830-1864

Jesse Enfield Berry was born about 1830 in Belmont County, Ohio and grew up there. He became a bricklayer and stonemason. There were several Berry families in Belmont County, Ohio at the time. It is thought he may have been the son of Sarah Berry, who reported having a son his age, in 1830.

No photos are known to exist of Jesse, but military documents describe him as 6 feet, 1-1/2 inches tall, with blue eyes, sandy hair, and a sandy complexion.

In 1850, at the age of 20, Jesse worked in Barnesville, Ohio for the Butter family as a stonemason. During the 1850's, he made the 1000-mile journey to Washington County, Iowa. It's a mystery why he traveled to Iowa, but there was a Berry family in Crawfordsville, where he stayed. While there, he married Caroline "Carrie" E. Bennett on March 12, 1856. She was born in 1829 in New Jersey to Iowa pioneer Elmer Bennett and Lucy Bennett.

By 1860, Jesse and Caroline had set up housekeeping in Washington County, Iowa, with their two children: David Franklin, 1; and Sophia Adelaide, 3. According to the 1860 census, Jesse was a bricklayer, and he and his wife lived next door to Caroline's father and mother.

Sometime later, Jesse and Caroline left Iowa and traveled back to Ohio. In February 1864, after only five years of marriage, Jesse volunteered for duty with the 60th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Three Years' service. He was 34 years old. By that time, his youngest child, Rufus, had been born and was just 4 months old.

After suffering through the Battle of the Wilderness and after only four months of service, Jesse was killed in action at Petersburg, Virginia on June 17, 1864. He was originally buried in Meade's Station. However, in 1869, Jesse's body was moved to its final resting place at Poplar Grove National Cemetery, Grave 1744, which is located on the Petersburg National Battlefield.

With three children to raise, his wife, Caroline, applied for a widow's pension in October 1864, calling upon Samuel Berry, Jr., and his neighbor, Benjamine Clark of Wayne in Belmont County, to witness her signature. We still do not know if Samuel Berry and Jesse Enfield Berry are related.

On July 3, 1867, Jesse and Caroline's daughter, Sophia, died at age 10 in Belmont County. Shortly after, Caroline decided to travel from Ohio to her family home in Iowa, and had trouble on the way. According to family lore, she traveled back to Iowa in a covered wagon, along with other wagons. One of the children, Rufus, took ill. She left him and David Franklin at The Davenport Orphan's Home promising to return when she settled. However, David Franklin refused to stay, and wisely as it turned out. He set out secretly at night to catch up with the wagon train his mother left on and found her. According to a Widow's pension filing, Rufus died at the Orphan's Home on January 24, 1869. Caroline testified that she returned to him two hours after he died.

Caroline and David Franklin (now called Frank in census records)lived together until at least 1870, when he was eleven. In 1880, he lived with Caroline's father, helping on his farm. He continued his relationship with his mother, Caroline, who remarried a Swedish tinsmith by the surname of Bergh (Berg). Grandma Bergh, as she was known by future generations, was said to be a businesswoman and backyard poet. According to the History of Washington County (Iowa), she wrote a prize winning poem about the Civil War called "The Conflict Is Over." [To date, the poem has not been found.] She had a total of 7 children and, according to newspaper accounts, the Berry and Bergh descendants remained close until the 1950's when their families were scattered and lost touch.

When David grew up, he was the stationmaster in Brighton, Iowa, for the CB & L Railroad. He married Ida and had two children: William and Jesse Enfield Berry, II, who became a banker. David Franklin was also the first telegraph operator in Brighton and later owned three banks. At the end of his life, during the Great Depression, the government closed down his three banks. He stood at the bank window in Brighton and handed out every penny of his own money to depositors until he was utterly penniless. Later, people who once owed money to his banks supported David Franklin's widow, Ida, to her 100th year, although they were not legally obliged to do so.

A special thanks to Jae Brown for contributing this information. Jesse Enfield Berry was Jae's great great grandfather.