H. W. BERRY
Henry L. and Lawrence D. Berry, descendants
Capt. Henry W. Berry was born in Ohio, June 22, 1818. He enlisted in the regular army of the United States and came to Corpus Christi in 1845 with Taylor’s Army of Occupation, which had been ordered from Fort Jessup, June 15, 1845, by President James K. Polk.
Captain Berry was married twice. His first wife died when his son, Robert, was born, January 21, 1849, and she was buried in Galveston. The history of Captain Berry’s first marriage seems obscured in the family records. We know that Captain Berry was the first sheriff of Nueces County, which county was chartered in 1846, and tax collector and assessor in 1850. No mention is made of a wife in Corpus Christi during the period, in the local press, but the above record of the birth of his first son, Robert, in 1849, is of record. Captain Berry married, the second time, Mrs. Irene E. Hall Gravis, a widow, in 1856. His son, Robert, then was nearly 7 years old. Captain Berry and Mrs. Irene E. Hall Gravis Berry were the parents of three children born as follows: Lawrence D. Berry, born November 14, 1857, Lee H. Berry and Henry L. Berry, twins, born December 6, 1862.
One of the twins has died, leaving Henry L. Berry, and his older brother, Lawrence D. Berry, both living in Corpus Christi.
The twins were fond of the national game of baseball, and played ball with the “Browns,†one of the first baseball teams of Corpus Christi. Lawrence D. Berry is a charter member of local Typographical Union No. 528.
Mrs. Lawrence D. Berry is one of the foremost philanthropists of our fair city. She has served continuously with the local chapter of the Red Cross since 1917, when her patriotism induced her to serve her country in the most efficient organization of the World War. Unnumbered disabled soldiers have found help and war service recognition at her hands. Civilian duty is constantly keeping her at her post, as in the years of utmost depression, the calls for help were multitudinous, and of peculiar natures, requiring vigilant investigation in every case almost. The Roll of Honor for the pioneer Business Women of Corpus Christi will write Mrs. Berry high up.
The state that gave birth to Captain Berry, gave birth to seven Presidents of the United States of America. With that record of patriotism, we would expect Ohio to answer the call to arms by President James K. Polk, to defend the territorial rights and boundary line of the Texas Republic, which had received recognition by the United States as soon as it became a Republic in 1836.
There was a promise made by Andrew Jackson, when President, and James K. Polk when nominated for president, that they would redeem their promise to General Houston for the Texas Republic: “to defend it against invasion and loss by the Mexican government and the Mexican raiders, and also to secure the admittance of Texas into the United States as an additional commonwealth of the nation.†Polk, therefore, sent General Zachary Taylor to the mouth of the Nueces River, the Nueces River being looked upon by Mexico as the southern boundary of Texas. Mexico had never recognized the independence of Texas and was preparing to fortify the Nueces River along its course in order to prevent Texas’ acquiring any territory south of the Rio Grande.
Captain Berry was one of the soldiers in the United States Army who came with General Taylor to Corpus Christi in 1845 and was stationed there with the “Army of Occupation†until 1846, when he went with the army to Mexico.
Captain Berry, like many other volunteers in the Regular Army, enlisted for a certain period of time. When it expired the soldier was free to enlist again or to receive an honorable discharge, and to return home.
Corpus Christi, of all the places Captain Berry had seen in his voyages from Ohio into Mexico and back again, was chosen by him for his home. He returned to the beautiful bay of Corpus Christi, and at once his exceptional abilities were recognized by the men who were building the city and county of Col. H. L. Kinney.
Among those who felt his power was Colonel Kinney, the original grantor and founder of Corpus Christi.
Serving as the first sheriff of the recently chartered county, he showed such versatility in regard to the financing of a jail for lawbreakers and means for financing the county, that he was chosen tax assessor and collector of the county, in 1850. He served in this capacity until the city was incorporated in 1852, when Capt. Benjamin F. Neal was elected first mayor, and Capt. Henry W. Berry one of the aldermen.
Owing to Mayor Neal’s absence from the city, at times, Captain Berry served as mayor pro tem. by vote of the other aldermen. A very important transaction took place during his office of mayor pro tem. Colonel Kinney, who still owned most of the land in and around Corpus Christi, “gave a deed to the city of the Market Square,†which wad duly recorded, and for which Colonel Kinney was later warmly thanked. Those who remember the uses to which that market square has been put during the existence of the city can appreciate what Colonel Kinney and Captain Berry contributed to its growth in after years.
It was during his administration that the council was ordered to build a prison on the market square. The dimensions were to be 18 feet by 16 feet and two stories high, with trap doors, etc. The office of the city council was to occupy the ground floor of this spacious building. In 1857, Captain Berry became mayor-elect and the result of that election gives a vivid picture of the size of the city and the number of legally qualified voters, not counting women.
Total number of voters, 54, in 1857.
Candidate for office and number of votes cast for each:
Thus about one-fifth of the voters were placed in office, and of the remaining voters, at least six were made marshal, street tender, dog catcher, fandango regulator and deep channel chairman. So Corpus Christi might well be called, in 1857, a city of officers. Captain Berry was elected again in 1860, and served until 1862, one year after the Civil War was declared at Washington, and the state of Texas had joined the Confederacy.
Mayor Neal and Captain Berry will be accredited by all students of the history of Corpus Christi as the two first mayors entitled to head the Roll of Fame for our city.
However, it is only just to state that in those formative years of city government, both were assisted in their heroic endeavors by men of equal foresight and courage. No doubt you are thinking of at least one man, who stood gallantly by with advice, donations and publicity, which, in the latter item, almost circumnavigated the globe. Need I say that I refer to Col. H. L. Kinney!
The first State Fair of Texas, the Lone Star State Fair, was so well advertised that the whole state sent exhibits of stock and agricultural products.
Pioneer Corpus Christians, descendants of the founders of Corpus Christi, will you go out to the Old Bay View Military Cemetery, established by Zachary Taylor, 1845, when Captain Berry was a soldier boy in that army, and pay a silent tribute to this man of heroic deeds for your city, at his tomb in that sacred spot? Do not forget to stand by the monument of the first mayor, and devoted friend of Captain Berry, Mayor B. F. Neal, whose dust lies in that “God’s Acre.†— Ref. Times, Jan. 15, 1936.
Source:
DeGarmo, Mrs. Frank. Pathfinders of Texas, 1836-1846. Austin: Press of Von Boeckmann- Jones Co., 1951.
Transcription by: Rosa G. Gonzales