Generation 3 Thomas Berry

Book Chapter: Read the full story in Chapter 9: Thomas Berry from Our Berrys in Frontier America

The Story of Thomas Berry#

Thomas Berry was born about 1772 in Orange County, North Carolina, one of the ten children of Robert and Elizabeth Cate Berry. On August 12, 1800, he married Sarah Cate, the daughter of William and Elizabeth Messersmith Cate. Sarah was born on December 27, 1782.

Sarah’s older sister Hannah Cate had married Thomas’s brother William Berry one year earlier, on August 11, 1799. The two Cate sisters married two Berry brothers, a connection that would have lasting significance for their descendants, who are double first cousins.

The Expedition West#

Thomas and Sarah had two children — David and Eleanor — both born in Orange County, North Carolina. In 1806, Thomas sold his property in preparation for an upcoming expedition to search for new land in the west.

Thomas Berry land sale, 1806

Several young men may have been leaving Orange County at the time, hoping to find free government land in Georgia or Tennessee.

William Berry accompanied his brother Thomas on this journey. Hannah Berry listed as head of household in the 1810 Orange County census, the very first listing after her father-in-law Robert Berry. This confirms William was away from home.

Sarah, David, and Eleanor moved in with Hannah and her children sometime between 1806 and 1810. They were most likely living in the house on Patrick Rutherford’s former plantation, which Robert Berry had purchased from Rutherford’s sons in 1787.

Thomas’s Death#

Things did not go well on the expedition. When Robert Berry wrote his will in 1812, Thomas Berry was listed as dead. There is a folklore story passed down by descendants living in Tennessee today that Thomas was killed by Indians while searching for land.

It is uncertain whether Thomas died before returning to North Carolina, or whether his brother William came back alone and escorted Sarah and her two children to Tennessee.

Sarah Cate's Life After Thomas

After Thomas’s death, Sarah eventually made it to Tennessee with her two children. She remarried on December 11, 1815, in Williamson County, Tennessee, to John Pigg. Sarah and John had additional children together, while she also raised David and Eleanor from her first marriage.

Marriage bond for Sarah Cate Berry and John Pigg, Williamson County, Tennessee, December 11, 1815

After her second husband died, Sarah opened an inn just off the Natchez Trace, and this is where Cypress Inn, Tennessee, got its name.

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 locally from Wayne County. A new monument was placed at Sarah’s grave.

Monument for Sarah Cate Berry Pigg in Wayne County, Tennessee. The old headstone behind the new one was plowed up in the field where it now stands. Sarah was born in Orange County, North Carolina, and spent many years of her life in the frontier community of Cypress Inn.

Children of Thomas Berry and Sarah Cate

Thomas and Sarah had two children, both born in Orange County, North Carolina, before Thomas’s death.

1. David Berry
   Born c. 1801, Orange County, NC
   Went to Tennessee with his mother Sarah after Thomas's death. Appears in Sarah Pigg's 1840 Wayne County, Tennessee census.
2. Eleanor Berry
   Born c. 1802, Orange County, NC
   Went to Tennessee with her mother. Eleanor married a man named Reed and lived near Cypress Inn, Tennessee. Her cabin has been restored and still stands where it has been for almost 200 years, just a short distance from the Natchez Trace.

Eleanor Berry Reed's cabin near Cypress Inn, Tennessee. This restored cabin has stood for almost 200 years, just a short distance from the Natchez Trace. Photographed in 2005.

Census Records

• 1800 — Thomas Berry and Sarah Cate Berry listed as husband and wife in Orange County, North Carolina
• 1810 — Sarah Cate Berry and her sister Hannah Cate Berry were living together with their six children in Orange County, North Carolina (Thomas was dead or away)
• 1830 — John Pigg found in Wayne County, Tennessee (Sarah living with second husband)
• 1840 — Sarah Pigg found in Wayne County, Tennessee (David and Eleanor in household)
• 1850 — Sarah Pigg found in Wayne County, Tennessee
• 1860 — Sarah Pigg found in Wayne County, Tennessee
• 1870 — Sarah Pigg found in Wayne County, Tennessee

William and Thomas Berry in the 1800 Orange County, North Carolina census

Hannah Cate Berry's 1810 Orange County census — she and Sarah Cate Berry were living together with their six children

Key Documents

• Sarah Cate’s pages have extensive census images from 1830 through 1870 in Wayne County, Tennessee
• William Cate inventory sale, 1803 — Sarah and Hannah’s father died shortly after both daughters married