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Above photo was taken while my parents & I lived on what had been Arlie Berryman's parents farm (James Monroe Berryman's farm). We rented "share-cropped" the farm from Lloyd & Ruth Berryman. Lloyd was the son of Felix Monroe "Roe" Berryman.
Arlie's brother, Troy Berryman, became my step-grandfather when my mother Dorothy (Selk) Berryman Ball married (3rd!) Troy & "Lizzie" (Stevens) Berryman's son Samuel Vernon Berryman in 1967.
To further "complicate" my Berryman lineage, in 1954 my grandfather, Frank Berryman, married Liona (Ritchie) Berryman, his brother Morgan Berryman's wife.
To see 1940 era photos of Arlie's childhood home, click on the above Link "NE Farm Life 1940s".
ARLIE BERRYMAN'S FAMILY HISTORY (written 1970)
J.M. Berryman, (James) son of John M. and Zeralda, born in Barren County, Kentucky November 19, 1858. Died January 17, 1934. When a young man he came to Nebraska and located at Weeping Water in Cass County and was married to Alpha Retter Hawley on September 21, 1882. She died October 20, 1914. She was also from Kentucky.
Five children were born to this union. Arlie G, born January 19, 1884, Curtis, born December 1885 died 19??. Troy born April 11, 1890 died October 1968 and Bertha born February 3, 1906. Curtis died at age 1 1/2 yrs of croup). Ira B., born Sept. 16, 1887, died 1950.
I married Effie Mae Stears on September 25, 1907 in Cozad, Nebraska in the home of Mr. and Mrs. J. F. Woodson. Mae passed away September 20, 1959.
We had four children. Eileen born April 17, 1909 died May 27, 1922 of acute appendicitis. Ruth born October 24, 1910 died October l914. Oakley was born in Brule, Nebraska October 27, 1914. Cortes born in Brule on April 22, 1920.
Troy Berryman Married Lizzie (Emily) Stevens in 1919. (Not sure of the date) Five children were born to them. Three sons; Verne, of North Platte, Nebraska, Virgil of Cozad and Charles of Cozad. Two daughters, Mary Ella, Mrs. Max Bourn of Cozad and Lola, Mrs. Charles Granger of Janesville, Wisconsin.
Bertha married Clarence Johnson who died in an accident, he was blown off a building on which he working. She then married Frank Bren and they live happily in Omaha Nebraska. Bertha and her first husband had 3 children. Margery Torpy, Bernice Miller and Bob Johnson. Clarence died in February 23, 1963.
Ira married Mabel Lattin in 1906 and had seven children. Ira was affectionately known to all of his nieces and nephews as "Uncle Dude." He had a large farm in Wyoming.
My father, Jim, was a farmer all of his life as were his brothers Marion and Billie (W.B.). They came to Dawson County in 1884 and bought 160 acres of land each from the Union Pacific Railroad nine miles northeast of Cozad. Times were really hard, no one had any money but all were hard workers and good managers and got along. We managed to get a couple of cows, a few chickens and some eggs and made and sold butter. This was enough to buy their sugar and coffee and we always had a garden for vegetables and we butchered our own animals and had meat. During the summer we went to the hills and picked the wild fruit. Plums, grapes, currants and choke cherries. We always came home loaded with chiggers.
Yes, things were cheap those days - corn was six cents a bushel, wheat twenty cents, oats fifteen cents a bu. which you could hardly sell at any price. One could buy a good milk cow for 10 or 15 dollars. Overalls sold at 50 cents a pair, blue chambray work shirt 35 cents, work shoes $1.25 to $1.50 a pair.
In the winter time we burned corn instead of coal. I used to walk 2 1/4 miles to school and now-a-days kids won't walk 2 1/2 blocks if they can help it. But, you know, everyone was happy and really enjoyed life those days. No cars, telephones, radio and no T.V. but still everyone was content and happy and thankful for what they had. Everyone lived in peace with no wars or rioting.
The community where the Berrymans lived was known as a Kentucky neighborhood. There were many people from Kentucky located tbere in later years.
When my father and mother went to get married, they went in a lumber wagon. W.B. (Uncle Billie) and mother's sister, Aunt Dice also got married but their transportation was by horseback.
Those were the good old days! Billie and Dice had a long and happy life together and had nine children. One of their children is still living, Mary. Charlie lived until this summer, 1970. Charlie lived at Arthur, Nebraska and Mary lives in Powell, Wyoming. Charlie was 86 at the time of his death and I don’t know Mary’s age although I think it must be about 80.
My mother was considered the best cook in our community and when it came to making biscuits she was tops. She taught my dad how to make them and Oakley often remarks that no one could make biscuits as good as Granddad Berryman.
J.M. and Alpha Retter (Ret) Berryman were charter members of the Bethel Evangelical Church and seldom missed a service. We lived three miles from the church but every Sunday dad hitched the horses to the lumber wagon and mother got us kids ready and we were off.
In 1903 this church was destroyed by a cyclone. Everything was destroyed but the pulpit and pedestal and on the pulpit the large Bible rested unharmed. The church was rebuilt again but now since everyone has automobiles, the church has been sold and membership transferred to the Cozad church.
Father was a long time member of the church board, those days they were called Stewards, and it was his job to see that the preacher got paid. Those days money was so scarce he was paid mostly by produce. Dad would hitch up his team to the wagon and go around the neighborhood getting what people could spare. He got very little money but people were very generous with what they had such as beans, flour, cornmeal, potatoes, ham, cured bacon, butter, eggs and vegetables. He also collected corn and oats for the preacher's horse and it was all very acceptable to the preacher. Yes, those were the "good old days" you read about today.
In those early days the farmers would have to take their wheat and corn to Cozad to the flour mill and have it made into flour and corn meal of which the mill would take a share for their pay.
In 1910 father sold his farm in Dawson County and went to western Nebraska (Keith County) and bought more land and lived there until his death in 1934. Both he and my mother were buried in the Brule, Nebraska Cemetery. Both my girls, Eileen and Ruth are buried in the same cemetery.
When my mother and father moved to Brule, Mae and I also moved there. My Uncle Marion (Dad's brother) and I opened a general merchandise store at Brule in 1910 and operated it until fall of 1918 when we sold it after World War I.
Father was a good farmer and generally raised good crops but corn (white) was his favorite and one year at Brule he raised 90 bushels per acre on dry land farm. He always did his planting by the signs of the moon. Crops that grew above the ground he planted in the light of the moon and things that grew under ground he planted in the dark of the moon. He always planted potatoes on Good Friday, even if there was snow on the ground. I can remember one time at Brule helping him and he had good potatoes that summer. He had a favorite time to start planting corn which was May 8 if the moon was in the right phase.
I was the administrator of father's estate and I have in my possession a note given to father dated February 27, 1925 for $150.00 for a horse (Charley) that he sold to a neighbor. On the back of this note is an endorsement of $77.00 dated February 10, 1928 and two years later he brought the horse back to father saying he just couldn't finish paying for it. Dad offered him his note back but he told Dad to just keep it. Yes, people were hard up those days, but were as honest as the day was long. I am keeping this note as a remembrance of a good friend and neighbor of years ago.
The Bethel Church and Cemetery are located five miles north and three miles east of Cozad, Nebraska on a five acre tract of land donated by a farmer (Capt. T. A. Taylor) on the southeast side and the cemetery was back of the church. In 1903 the church was destroyed by a cyclone as described on another page. My grandmother Zeralda and two of her sons, Marion and Tom and daughter, Aunt Sis are buried there. In later years after the church was destroyed the name of the cemetery was changed from Bethel to Cottonwood Cemetery. It will always be Bethel cemetery to me. There is no church there now.
John M and Zeralda Berryman and family. (My grandparents)
John was Irish [sic: English, MB] and Zeralda was Scotch, born in Kentucky and married there. All of their children were born there. I think grandfather died in Kentucky and grandmother took her seven children to Weeping Water, Nebraska and later to Cozad in the early eighties. All the children except Marion and Monroe (Roe) moved to Cozad with their mother.
The children's names are below:
Wm. B. Berryman - Uncle Billie
Elizabeth Borders - Aunt Dee
Mary Berryman - Aunt Sis (never married)
James M. Berryman - my Father
Marion Berryman - never married
Thomas J. Berryman - never married
Felix Monroe Berryman - Uncle Roe - Roe never saw his father as he died before Roe was born.
Grandmother was 92 years old at her death, her farm was gotten from the government by setting out 20 acres of cottonwood trees and caring for them. This farm was at Cozad and this type of acreage was called tree claims. The small trees were furnished to her by the U.S. government. Some of those trees are still there. In the early days there were no trees in the country and this is the way they got started.
My grandmother was a grand lady and could and did more hard work than lots of the men. She, Tom and Sis lived on this tree claim together. They farmed the land and raised their own livestock - horses, cows and hogs for their own transportation and meat. Chickens were also raised and she always had a few sheep which she shirred for their wool. This she washed and carded and spun into yarn for knitting sox. She had a large spinning wheel which was at least four feet in diameter and how us grandchildren did love to see her spin this wool into yarn. One of the stores in Cozad bought all the sox she and Sis could knit. They dyed them into different colors. All of her grandchildren always had good warm soxs to wear for the long cold Nebraska winters. (Grandmas Brand)
How I used to like to go and stay all night at her house. She knew what kids liked and would fix it for us - all the coffee, cream and sugar till it was more like drinking syrup but that was what we liked so that was what we got. But one time I got sick on that sweet coffee and have never since been able to drink coffee with sugar in it. Another reason I liked to stay overnight at her house, she would always let us sleep with our sox on in the winter time. We thought that was great as mother wouldn’t let us do that at home. She was a wonderful woman and to my knowledge never had an enemy in this world. Everybody loved Grandma.
In those days most every one lived in sod houses. They were warm in winter and cool in summer as the walls were about two feet thick so the cold and heat couldn't get through.
Everyone had dug wells. Uncle Tom was an expert at digging them. They were about four feet in diameter were round and between 50 and 60 feet deep to water. He could sure dig a straight hole and used only a spade. You remember reading about the "Old Oaken Bucket" that hung in the well? Each bucket would hold two gallons of water and as you pulled the full one up the empty one went down for a refill. The good old days ! ! !
Uncle Billie (W.B.) who married my mother's sister had a farm adjoining ours so he and dad helped each other and exchanged farm equipment of which neither had too much. Uncle Billie and Aunt Dice had a large family of nine children, seven boys and two girls. One girl baby died when it was two days old.
In 1906 our government passed what was called the Kincaid Act, a land lottery giving one section (640 acres) of sand hill grazing land to any one drawing a lucky number. Charlie, Uncle Billie’s son, was one of the lucky ones. This land was located in Arthur County, 30 miles north of Ogalalla, Nebraska. He made this ranch his home until he passed away summer of 1970 at 86 years of age. His son Wilton operates the ranch which is stocked with cattle. They also have many acres of alfalfa.
I visited them in 1921, those days they just had trails for roads, there were 32 gates to open and close but my old "Model T" made it. Now they have a good highway through the sand hills.
Mary still lives in Powell, Wyoming.
Aunt Dee Borders and Henry had a large family and they left Nebraska in 1895 moved to Enid, Oklahoma, where they spent the rest of their lives. They have two grandsons living in Cozad, Charles and Roy Scrutchfield.
Uncle Roe (F.M.) stayed in Weeping Water, Nebraska, when grandma and the rest of her family came to Cozad and he bought and sold horses and mules for years. He shipped several carloads to Cozad and later years he came to Cozad and bought and shipped carloads back to Eastern Nebraska & Iowa. He married Sarah (Sadie) Holthans (Swedish) and to them one child, Lloyd was born and they finally moved to Cozad and bought farms in the Kentucky neighborhood. He bought grandma’s tree claim and in 1910 when father bought land in Keith County, Roe bought Dad's farm which is still in their family.
Roe and Sadie are both gone now and so is Lloyd. They are buried in Cozad Cemetery. Lloyd married Ruth Nichols and they had three children, two sons and a daughter. Sons Donald & Keith are farmers and Marjorie married Cecil McConnell and they live in North Platte, Nebraska.
There is only Mary, my sister Bertha, and myself left in this generation of the Berrymans. I live with my oldest son, Oakley, here in Reno and enjoy good health. Eat and sleep good. But when it comes to walking - instead of picking my feet up and putting them down, I just push one ahead of the other one, but I get along.
I enjoy riding in airplanes and have been to Nebraska several times and I take a couple trips each year down to Hollywood to visit an old schoolmate and farm neighbor and friend since year of 1893. We attended the country school District 80 together. She is 84 years old and we have the best visits together just talking over the good old days. Her name is Cecile (Riggs) Berg. I went to school with her and she was to later become the school teacher in District 80. I always visit with my son Cortes in Fremont and his family on these trips to Hollywood.
I never played baseball but the Cottonwood Nine got its name after the Country School District 17, which was named the Cottonwood School, and how it got that name I don't know. But in 1889 I started my first year of school there and I still remember the pot belly stove there.
My boys, Oakley and Cortes, could hardly wait for my vacations to come around so they could visit Uncle Dude. Uncle Dude's boys would have some calves in the corral ready for them to ride. This was on the Bull Canyon Ranch. Uncle Dude also used to put them to work picking the grasshoppers out of the grain. Kids today don't really know what is a good time and how to make fun with little or nothing to go on.
After Mae's death in 1959 I went to Nevada to live with Oakley in Smith Valley. They had a small general merchandise store and I worked there with them until they sold it in 1964. I took up painting by number for something to do and just loved it but my eyes went bad and I couldn't see quite well. I finished five pictures and have them in my room. I just loved doing it but my eyes gave out.
I liked flowers, trees and mountain scenes. Dorothy Berryman, Noble's widow, who is Vern Berryman's second wife, has a son who is a natural born artist and he lives in Denver, Colorado. He is great - I have seen some of his work that he gave his mother for her and Vern's wedding. He does a wonderful piece of work. His specialty is mountain scenery. He also does work for magazines. He is very hard of hearing and has never married. Marvin Berryman is 32 years old. [34 in Nov. 1970, MB]
CORTES' FAMILY
Cortes Leroy Berryman, was born at Brule, Keith County, Nebraska, April 22, 1920. Served overseas in World War II. Married Ruth Flohr, August 25, 1941, in Reno, Nevada. They have two children, both girls. Robin Lee married to Charles Taylor and lives in Newark, California. They have one daughter, Stacia, born September 1970. Michelle Rae married to Roger Lein, lives in San Jose, California, daughter, Shannon Sherice, was born November 3, 1966. Robin is 28 at this time (1972?) and Mickey is 23.
Brady Ross Taylor made his appearance to Robin and Chuck in June, 1974.
OAKLEY'S FAMILY
Oakley Kenneth Berryman, born at Brule, Keith County, Nebraska, October 27, 1914. Served overseas in World War II. Married Ruthe Schwake, February 1, 1948. They have three living children. Norman Keith, 21, James Oakley, 13, and Jill Eileen, 9. (1972?) Denise Ardelle died at 8 years of age in 1960 from aplastic anemia.
Oakley started working in retail stores while in high school and is still at it. Guess he is following in his Dad's footsteps.
His wife Ruthe is a secretary in the College of Engineering at the University of Nevada.
Oakley always liked music and plays the violin and has a hillbilly band. They meet every week and you should hear his recording. He had a band while in the army and entertained at different army camps while in the service overseas.
Keith married Nadine Lawson, August 22, 1970 and have welcomed a daughter on February 15, 1972, Wendy Ranae.
1972 (Arlie died 2 Sept 1975)
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My new email address is Man2Berry 'at symbol' prodigy.net - Note: this method is to an attempt to foil email "address harvesters"
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