Sarah Cate was the daughter of William and Elizabeth Messersmith Cate and was born in North Carolina on December 27, 1782. Nothing is known about Sarah’s early life except that she had two brothers and two sisters. The brothers were John Cate and Benjamin Cate and her two sisters were Charity and Hannah Cate.
On August 12, 1799, her older sister Hannah Cate married William Berry, who was the son of Robert and Elizabeth Cate Berry. One year later, on August 11, 1800, Sarah married William Berry’s brother Thomas Berry. Sarah and Hannah’s father died very soon after Sarah and Thomas were married. The estate sale was held in 1803.
Thomas and Sarah had two children. David was one and Eleanor was two years old at the time of their grandfather’s sale. In 1806 Thomas sold his property in preparation for the upcoming expedition to search for new land in the west. There may have been several young men who were leaving Orange County, North Carolina, in the hope of finding some free government land in Georgia or Tennessee.
Sarah, David, and Eleanor moved in with Hannah and her three children sometime between 1806 and 1810. We know that William was with the party because Hannah Berry was listed as head of household in 1810. She was the very first listing after her father-in-law Robert Berry in the 1810 Orange County, NC, Census.
In 1787 Robert bought Patrick Rutherford’s plantation from his three sons after their father died. This is the house that Hannah and Sarah Berry were most likely living in in 1810. William, James, and Thomas Rutherford signed the deed to Robert on March 2, 1787. I mention this here because the Rutherford boys may have been in the party searching for land also.
Things did not go well in their excursion, because when Robert Berry wrote his will in 1812, Thomas Berry was dead. There is a folklore story by the descendants who live in Tennessee today. The story states that Thomas was killed by the Indians while searching for land.
The cabin in this picture was the home of Eleanor Berry Reed. This cabin has been restored. This picture was taken in 2005 and the cabin is located where it has stood for almost 200 years, near Cypress Inn, Tennessee. This site is just a short distance from the Natchez Trace, a famous old Indian trail.
Sarah remarried on December 11, 1815, in Williamson County, Tennessee. Sarah and John Pigg had children after they were married, and she also had David and Eleanor to raise.
In 2008 distant cousins gathered in Wayne County, Tennessee, for a Thomas and Sarah Cate Berry Pigg reunion. Cousins came from California, Alabama, North Carolina, Maryland, and local cousins from Wayne County, Tennessee. The local host supplied all of the food and a pig-picking on a newly built pavilion that was constructed for this reunion. A wonderful time was had by all. Sarah Cate was born in Orange County, North Carolina, and spent many years of her life in a frontier community at Cypress Inn.
Son of Thomas and Sarah Cate Berry. David was about one year old at the time of his grandfather William Cate's estate sale in 1803. After Thomas's death, David was raised by his mother Sarah and later by his stepfather John Pigg in Wayne County, Tennessee.
Daughter of Thomas and Sarah Cate Berry. Eleanor was about two years old at the time of the 1803 estate sale. She grew up in Wayne County, Tennessee, and married into the Reed family. Her restored cabin near Cypress Inn, Tennessee, still stands after almost 200 years.
Sarah Cate Berry appears in the Orange County, North Carolina, census in 1800 and 1810 (with her sister Hannah). After moving to Tennessee, she appears in Wayne County census records from 1830 through 1870 — first with husband John Pigg, then as head of household.
Orange County, North Carolina
1800 — Thomas Berry and Sarah Cate Berry listed in Orange County Census as husband and wife.
William Berry, 1800 Orange County, NC, Census
1810 — Sarah Cate Berry and her sister Hannah Cate Berry were living together with their 6 children in Orange County, North Carolina.
Hannah Cate Berry’s 1810 Census — Sarah and her children were living with Hannah
1820 — No census found.
Wayne County, Tennessee
1830 — John Pigg found in Wayne County, Tennessee.
John and Sarah Berry Pigg, 1830 Wayne County, Tennessee
1840 — Sarah Pigg found in Wayne County, Tennessee.
Sarah Pigg, 1840 Wayne County, Tennessee
1850 — Sarah Pigg found in Wayne County, Tennessee.
Sarah Pigg, 1850 Census, Wayne County, Tennessee
1860 — Sarah Pigg found in Wayne County, Tennessee.
Sarah Cate Pigg, 1860, Wayne County, Tennessee
1870 — Sarah Pigg found in Wayne County, Tennessee.
