Generation 4 David Middleton Berry

Research Note (July 2026): Date Collision with Robert Cates Berry#

This page formerly gave David Middleton Berry a birth of 14 April 1805 and a death of 7 May 1880. Both have been withdrawn, for the reasons below.

The birth date is shared with his first cousin. Robert Cates Berry, son of William and Hannah Cate Berry, is also given a birth of 14 April 1805. David Middleton Berry is the son of Robert Berry Jr. They are first cousins, not the same man.

This is not a website error. It originates in Our Berrys in Frontier America, Chapter 18, where the year-by-year timeline records, on two consecutive lines, that Robert C. Berry was born 14 April 1805 and that David Middleton Berry was born 14 April 1805. The adjacency strongly suggests a copy slip carried from one entry to the next, but we cannot presently say which of the two men the date belongs to. Neither birth date has a primary source. Robert Cates has the stronger external support (a Find a Grave memorial and a FamilySearch source set), so he is the likelier owner, but that is an inference and is not treated here as settled.

The death date of 7 May 1880 is a clearer case. It does not appear in the book at all. “7 May 1880” is a known erroneous variant of Robert Cates Berry’s death, traced to a Geneanet-derived entry on FamilySearch and superseded by his Find a Grave memorial date of 7 May 1881. Two first cousins sharing both a birthday and a death day-and-month is not credible. This date has been withdrawn from David Middleton.

What we can say about David Middleton Berry. He appears in the 1870 Fayette County census, and his estate was already paying distributive shares by May 1883 (Fayette County probate, final settlement 1889, his son Alfred W. Berry administrator). He died between those two dates. His birth is placed about 1805 on the strength of his marriage to Didama Box about 1826 and the birth of their first child in September 1827.

To settle it: the 1850, 1860, and 1870 Fayette County censuses give his age outright, which would fix his birth year and, by elimination, tell us whether 14 April 1805 was ever his. The letters of administration on his estate should give the death date.

The Story of David Middleton Berry#

David Middleton Berry was born about 1805 in Orange County, North Carolina. He was living in Fayette County, Alabama at the 1870 census, and his estate was in administration by 1883, so he died in that interval. See the research note above. David married Didama Box about 1826. Didama Box was born in South Carolina on February 14th, 1807. She died on December 14th, 1856 in Fayette County, Alabama. David Middleton Berry married his second wife, Frances E. Henderson on April 15, 1857 in Fayette County, Alabama. Frances was born on January 10th, 1818 in South Carolina and died May 17th, 1885.

Children of David Middleton Berry

First Marriage — Didama Box (c. 1826):

1. 1. John H. Berry
   Born September 29, 1827, Fayette County, Alabama — Died October 7, 1904, Burnet County, Texas
2. 2. Thomas Berry
   Born c. 1829
3. 3. William Dolphus Berry
   Born July 6, 1831, Fayette County, Alabama — Died August 31, 1852, Fayette County, Alabama
4. 4. Alfred Berry
   Born December 14, 1833, Fayette County, Alabama — Died August 24, 1909, Fayette County, Alabama
5. 5. Mary Berry
   Born c. 1837
6. 6. Robert Burgman Frauleing Berry
   Born August 16, 1848, Fayette County, Alabama — Died February 4, 1916, Travis, Texas

John H. Berry born September 29, 1827, Fayette Co., AL, m. July 1848 in Fayette Co., AL, Eliza Catherine Dennis, b. January 21, 1828, AL (daughter of Benjamin Dennis and Elizabeth Berry), d. July 21, 1913, bur. Cauble Cemetery, Burnet Co., TX. John died October 07, 1904, Burnet Co., TX, bur. Cauble Cemetery.

Second Marriage — Frances E. Henderson (April 15, 1857):

1. 7. Henry K. Berry
   Born c. 1859
2. 8. Samantha Caroline Berry
   Born c. 1861 — Died 1935, Karens, Navarro County, Texas
   Married Roland Teague Morgan, October 6, 1881.

Census Records

• 1830 — David was listed in the Fayette County Census
• 1840 — David was listed in the Fayette County Census
• 1850 — David was in the Fayette County Census
• 1860 — David was in Fayette County, Alabama Census
• 1870 — David was in Fayette, Alabama Census