SECOND GREAT GRANDSON OF ROBERT AND ELIZABETH CATE BERRY FAMILY
OCTOBER 16, 2007
WILEY P. BERRY was born in Orange County North Carolina on September 8. 1879
He lived there all of his life and died on May 8. 1965.W. P. Berry was
my grand father and I have a lot of memories and stories to record
about my grandparents. 
Grandpa married my grandmother on June 2, 1895
On the right is a the
oldest picture I have of my grandfather.
This picture must have been taken circa 1890. On the left is a tin type
picture that was taken in 1882 when my Grandmother, Ida Ann Wilson was
6 years old. After they were married John Robert Berry gave Grandpa a
100 acres of land and Grandpa built the house in the you see at the top
of this page.The other picture on the righ may have been taken in 1895
when Grandpa got married or graduated from School.
. The young family picture in the oval frame was
probably taken
around 1902. Mary Elizabeth Berry (Aunt Maye)
standing beside her father was about two years old and (Uncle Gene)
William Eugene Berry age five was beside his mother.
Grandpa was a tobacco farmer and also trapped wild
animals for their
skins. I am reasonably sure he learned these vocations from his father.I
can remember seeing the furs stretched on drying boards hanging on the
west side of Grandpa's House. Mother told me that when Grandpa sold his
tobacco in Durham N.C.or Danville Virgina
He would return home with new shoes, bolts of cotton material, Sugar,
Coffee, and other staples for the next year.
Grandpa was a great
hunter and fisherman and even in the thirties would
take trips to eastern North Carolina to hunt and fish. Once when he was
visiting us in Raleigh we went fishing. We were using cane poles and as
luck would have it the bass were biting but only my bate for some
reason. Grandpa was trying to tell me how to hold the line tight so the
fish could not get away. I was not a very good learner apparently
because they all got away and Grandpa was very frustrated by all of
this. The picture on the righti is Ida Ann Wilson Berry and Wiley P.
Berry Sr.
This picture on the left was taken in 1925. From left to right
is
Sally Malena Berry age 17, Mary Elizabeth Berry age 27, Woodrow Wilson
Berry age 13, William Eugene Berry age 29, Wiley Harold Berry age 11,
Ida Ann Wilson Berry age 49, Wiley P. Berry Jr. age 6, and Wiley P.
Berry Sr. age 56. This picture was most likely taken about June the
10th 1925. I say this because my Uncle Thomas Young Berry 
died on June 8, 1925 from typhoid
fever. 
I think this picture may have been taken after his
funeral.Thomas was only 22 years old. Thomas Berry and Hattie Davis
were planing (see picture on right)
to be married later this same month. These were all of the children
that Wiley P. and Ida Ann Berry raised to adulthood.
Grandpa served on
the Orange County Board of Commissioner from 1932 until 1936.
Tragedy struck our family again on May 4th 1941 when my grandmother was
hit and
killed by an automobile. Grandma was sixty five years old at the time
of the accident and most likely would have lived a great many more
years. Her Father died at the age of 96. I remember that Grandma Berry
was concerned about the war that was going on in Europe and she thought
we would be drawn into the it, but she never knew anything at all
about World War Two.
