William du Berry [1779] ^130,143

  General Notes:

Berry Family by Jane-Denson Russell found in Rothrock source.
Now as to my mother's family, it is only what I have learned from older members of the famil y, so if I make a mistake it will be their fault, not mine.
My grandfather on my mother's side was named William Berry. His parents settled in this cou ntry long before the Revolutionary War, but I don't know the location. They were farmers , I take it, as a party of hostile Indians fell upon them in an unexpected hour and massacre d the whole family except my grandfather who was then a lad of about 12 or 14. Him they too k captive, and carried a long ways till they came to an encampment of Indians. Here they ado pted him into a family of their tribe.
The country was one vast wilderness. How much he had to endure can never be told. Witnessi ng, as he must, his own people murdered in cold blood, taken away from all he knew and loved , and exposed to the savage way of living, his suffering must have been terrible.
It seems however, that the squaws who had him in charge were disposed to be kind to him in t heir way. He soon became helpful to hem in many ways. It is well known that their life is o ne of perpetual slavery. They do all the drudgery of their tribe. The boy captive, being us e to work, would carry water, cut wood and help dress the game that the Indians brought int o camp. After a time the Indians began to take him out on their hunting tours, and he soon b ecame expert in their hunting tactics, and seemed to become an Indian indeed to all outward a ppearances. But not so at heart, he was ever brooding on the means of escape. Being take n when captured far away through a pathless wilderness, and being yet young, he had no way o f knowing where to find white people. However, he studied the course of the sun and streams , and by the time he arrived at young manhood was determined to make an effort for his freedo m.
He had been in the habit of staying in the camp part of the time so thought thus to fool th e Indians in that way, so one morning when the men started out to hunt he started unnoticed i n another direction, having with him three cornmeal dumplings that he had saved from time t o time for this purpose. As the squaws supposed him to be with the men and the men thought h im with the squaws, he was not missed until late in the day. Being grown to manhood and endu red to hardships he was enabled to make good progress, and winged by hope and fear, he put i n all his powers. In hopes to find civilization and once more be free, and with fears of hor rible torture and death if he failed, he seemed to gain an almost superhuman distance throug h the day, but ere the night shade began to fall he heard the hounds of the hunters on his tr ack. Now came the trying time of his life. He knew the Indians were on his trail and presse d forward with all his might, but soon the hounds came up to him. Being familiar with them h e succeeded in sending them past him for game as he had so often done before. After they ha d passed he hid himself in an old hollow tree, it now being quite dark. He had not been ther e long before the Indians came up. They came to the hollow tree where he lay hid in great te rror and sat down on it and talked over the situation. As the hounds had not found him, the y concluded they were not on the right trail. Then they decided to return. That was the las t he ever knew of them. He lay in his hiding place till the first glimmer of light then star ted on his journey, traveling in a direct line as possible. At night he crept into the bes t shelter he could find. There he slept in more security that the night before. The third d ay dawned and no sign of human habitation yet discovered. His little stock of food was exhaus ted and hunger began to prey on him. He ate wild berries, dug roots and ate of anything he d ared to put into his mouth that he could find in the forest.
That is all that is known about his journey, but he reached civilization and became a soldie r in Sullivan's Army in the Revolutionary War.
After peace was declared, he, William Berry, became a citizen of Hunterdon Co., N.J. Was ma rried and had four children, one son Joseph and three daughters. The son died young and in h is death the name ran out. One daughter married a Mr. Moore, one a Mr. McCarty and the other , my grandmother, Elizabeth Berry, married Thomas Denson.
The wife of William Berry, in her old age died a tragic death. It seems that he had risen e arly one morning to help a neighbor butcher, leaving his wife at home, she now being an old l ady. Later in the morning a neighbor happening to go in found her sitting in an open firepla ce on the fire, burnt to a coal. Her breakfast sat on the table untouched and a teapot sat o n some coals before the fire with the handled turned toward her as if she had taken hold of i t and was taken in a faint or fit and in turning around, lost her balance and sat down on th e fire.

William married.

  Marriage Notes:

1 REFN 1643