SARAH CATE BERRY PIGG
OCTOBER 3, 2007
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
Sara'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 the 12 1789 her older sister Hannah
Cate married William Berry who was the son of Robert and Elizabeth Cate
Berry. One year
later on August the 11th, 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 and Eleanor were only one and two years old at
the time of the sale. VIEW WILLIAM CATES 1803
ESTATE SALE RECORD.
In 1806 Thomas
sold his property in preparation for the expidition to
search for new land in the west.
There was apparently a large group of young men who were leaving Orange
County North Carolina in the hope of finding some free government land
in
Georgia or Tennessee. The CABIN PICTURE on the left was the home of
ELEANOR BERRY REED that
has been restored. This picture was taken in
2005 and the CABIN is where it has stood for almost 200 years, in
CYPRESS INN TENNESSEE. This site is just a short distance from the
Natchez Trace, a famous old indian trail
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 listed as head of house hold in 1810. She was the
very first listing after her father in law Robert Berry in 1810 Orange
County NC Census. In 1787 Robert bought Patrick Rutherfords plantaton
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. Sarah remaried on December 11 1815 (SEE MARRIAGE RECORD) in Williamson County Tennessee.Sarah and John Pigg had children after they were married, she also had David
and Eleanor to raise. 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.
After Sarah's second husband died she opened up an Inn just off of the Natchez Trace This is where Cypress Inn got it's name.
