Many strong hands and willing minds came to the opening of the fertile reservation country and they have made a wonderful and commendable progress in transforming the entire face of the country from a wilderness to fertile farms and pleasant and valuable estates. Among this worthy number we are constrained to mention the affable and skillful agriculturist whose name appears above. His farm, one mile north from Melrose, was obtained by government right and he has labored with assiduity and intelligence to make of it a valuable rural abode. He has good, comfortable buildings and other improvements and has demonstrated himself an upright man, a public spirited and progressive citizen and one who has won the confidence of all.
Thomas H. Berry was born in Gentry County, Missouri, on March n, 1860, being the son of James B. and Elenor (Grantham), natives of Illinois, mention of whom, with their family, is made in the sketch of L. L. Berry in this volume.
Our subject remained with his parents, a dutiful and industrious son, until the time of his majority, and then entered the realities of life on his own responsibility. He worked with his father some time after that age and went with him to Dakota in 1883. But Thomas returned to Gentry County and then made his way back to Dakota, after which he journeyed to Iowa and settled for a time near Marshall County. Again he went to Missouri and on February 14, 1888, he took the trip to Latah County, or rather completed the trip on that date. He farmed in the Cove, near Palouse, for ten years and on May 27, 1898, he came to the reservation and took his present estate.
On March 20, 1887, in Gentry County, Missouri, Mr. Berry married Miss Arminda J., daughter of John and Eliza A. (Hammonds) Finders, natives of Illinois and Kentucky, respectively. Mrs. Berry was born in Gentry County, Missouri, in 1870, and she has three sisters and one brother. To our subject and his estimable wife there have been born five children: Gracie Elenor, deceased: Thomas Frederick, and John Fay, Hester and Eliza Fern.
Mrs. Berry is a member of the Christian Church. Mr. Berry is a Populist in political matters and takes the part of the intelligent citizen in the affairs of the day.
Back to: Nez Perce Biographies
Source: An Illustrated History of Northern Idaho, Embracing Nez Perce, Idaho, Latah, Kootenai and Shoshone Counties, Western Historical Publishing Company, 1903