“Grandpa” William J. McAfee: Geraldine’s Union Soldier

Remembering Our Civil War Heritage and Heroes:

1861-1865

“Grandpa” William J. McAfee: Geraldine’s Union Soldier

By Ken Robison

For The River Press

January 30, 2013

This continues a monthly series commemorating the 150^th Anniversary of the Civil War and the veterans that settled in Central Montana. This week features Civil War veteran Private William J. McAfee, known in early Geraldine as “Grandpa” McAfee.

In the words of a Confederate infantryman, “The air which was so silent and serene is now full of exploding and screaming shells and shot, as if the earth had opened up and let out the very furies of Avernus. The hurtling and death-dealing missiles are plowing amidst batteries, artillery and lines of infantry, crushing, mangling and killing until the groans of the men mingle with the tempest’s sound. The story of battle rages.”

Lt. James Crocker 9^th Virginia Infantry.

These dramatic words are testimony by an infantryman of the impact made by artillery during the Civil War. Some ten percent of all casualties in the Civil War came from artillery in support of cavalry and infantry engagements. Few artillery units fought in more major engagements than Captain James M. Knap’s Independent Battery E Pennsylvania Light Artillery, known as Knap’s Battery. Private William J. McAfee fought with Knap’s Battery from 1861-64 before settling in Geraldine late in life, and this is his story.

William McAfee was born May 10, 1838 in Belfast, Ireland. At age 14 he immigrated to America with his parents Hugh and Kate Griffin McAfee. When Captain Joseph M. Knap formed an artillery unit in September 1861, young William McAfee signed up. He enlisted in Pittsburgh as a private for a three-year term. Mustered in and beginning training at Point of Rocks, Md., Knap’s Battery was attached to the 28^th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment.

In early October 1861, Knap’s Battery was ordered to Camp Duncan located on East Capitol Hill in Washington D. C. In this camp for cavalry and artillery units, the battery received uniforms, guns and equipment making them a four-gun battery. During drills at Camp Duncan, Captain Knap obtained permission to fire their guns on targets on the Virginia side of the Potomac. This practice soon paid dividends when Camp Duncan came under fire from an enemy battery. Knap’s Battery promptly returned fire and succeeded in disabling and silencing the rebel guns within half an hour.

In December Knap’s Battery returned to winter quarters at Point of Rocks and Harper’s Ferry, taking part in occasional skirmishes while training and adding two more guns. Knap’s Battery and other light artillery batteries had 150 enlisted soldiers, five officers, and six guns. Each gun crew was composed of eighteen men and each two-gun section was under command of a lieutenant. The number of men actively in service of the six guns was 112 while the remainder served in supporting roles: Guidon bearer, bugler, artificer, blacksmith, drivers for the battery wagon and traveling forge, first sergeant, quartermaster sergeant, and the commander. Knap’s Battery was at times over strength by up to 100 men allowing for immediately replacement of casualties and for augmenting accompanying infantry units.

In March 1862, Battery E with the 28^th Infantry was posted at Salem and Front Royal on the Manassas Gap railroad in Virginia. On this march the battery participated in the capture of Leesburg, Middleburg, White Plains, and other towns on the line of march. A two-gun detachment of the battery with elements of the 28^th at Front Royal were attacked May 23rd and forced to retire to Winchester, Va. During this engagement an overwhelming force of 22,000 Confederates attacked some 700 Union men. The Union troops were driven back and began to withdraw in the face of the overwhelming Confederate force. Knap’s Battery kept the enemy at bay for a while with its artillery fire, but eventually Confederate cavalry gained the flanks and most Union troops were captured including the two-guns of Knap’s Battery with 28 men. These guns were shortly recaptured.

About August 1^st, Knap’s Battery was attached to Crawford’s Brigade in General Banks’ Corps, and moved toward Culpeper, Va. On August 9, 1862 at Cedar Mountain, Va. the battery was closely engaged and finally forced from its exposed position by Confederate guns. During this battle, the battery met its first man lost, Private Connelly. This major battle ended with a Union withdrawal with Knap’s Battery engaged in minor skirmishes during the Union retreat. The most memorable was at White Sulphur Springs when the battery silenced a rebel battery in half an hour, when earlier two Union batteries had failed to silence that battery after several hours of constant firing.

During General Robert E. Lee’s first invasion of the North in mid September 1862, at the decisive Battle at Antietam, Md. Knap’s Battery took up a line of march to Frederick City, Md, and on the 17^th took part in the battle, losing one man killed and several wounded.

Winter quarters were established at Fairfax Station and then Acquia Creek, Va. In the major Chancellorsville campaign in the spring of 1863, the battery did effective service. Arriving at Chancellorsville on the evening of April 30, the battery took part in the battle over the first two days of May with the 12^th Corps, and on the third day with the 1^st Corps on the right of the line. One the evening of May 4^th, the battery was ordered to occupy the north side of the Rappahannock River to protect pontoon bridges that were under enemy fire. In an artillery dual with rebel batteries, the enemy guns were silenced. Overall, during the battle, Knap’s Battery disabled three enemy guns, while losing one man killed and several wounded. Captain Knap’s horse was shot from under him, and he narrowly escaped death.

In the series of heavy engagements over the four days at Chancellorsville, Union forces lost over 17,000 while the Confederate casualties totaled about 13,000. While this battle showed inept Union military leadership and a significant victory for the South, the combination of heavy Confederate casualties and the devastating loss of Lt. Gen. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, tempered the victory. General Lee likened the loss of Stonewall Jackson to “losing my right arm.”

Shortly after Chancellorsville, Captain Charles A. Atwell assumed command of Battery E, upon the resignation of Capt. Knap to accept a position at his family’s Fort Pitt Foundry in Pittsburgh, maker of large caliber artillery pieces for the Union Army. Private McAfee’s unit continued to be called Knap’s Battery in honor of their popular first commander.

After the battles of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, the South believed that Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia was more than a match for the Federal Army of the Potomac. At Gettysburg during the first three days of July 1863, General Lee’s second invasion of the North was decisively defeated in a series of major engagements. Knap’s Battery was attached to the 12th Corps, and it was actively engaged throughout the Battle of Gettysburg. The 12th corps, commanded by Maj.-Gen. Henry W. Slocum was composed of the two divisions of Brig.-Gens. Alpheus S. Williams and John W. Geary, and the artillery brigade under command of Lieut. E. D.
Muhlenberg. Altogether the Army of the Potomac had 65 batteries numbering 370 guns.

The first active service by Knap’s Battery at Gettysburg was by a two-gun section on Culp’s Hill, when with another artillery section eight Confederate guns were silenced in thirty minutes during a hot artillery dual. Knap’s Battery lost one man. One of two monuments to Knap’s Battery for their service at Gettysburg is on Culp’s Hill showing the position of the battery’s guns on July 2. A second monument is on Powers Hill showing the position of the battery on July 3. Battery E was commanded by Captain Charles A. Atwell and brought six 10-pounder Parrott rifles to the field manned by 4 officers and 135 men with a loss of three men.

On the 24^th of September, the 11^th and 12^th Corps with Knap’s Battery were ordered by rail to join the Army of the Cumberland at Chattanooga, Tenn. Part of a Union division with Knap’s Battery arrived in camp at Wauhatchie Junction, near Chattanooga, on the evening of October 28th and were almost immediately attacked by a superior rebel force under Lt. Gen. Longstreet. Heavy fighting raged all night with neither side gaining an advantage as the Confederate force was being rapidly decimated by grape and canister being poured forth by the only Union artillery present, Knap’s Battery. Gen. Longstreet gave up the contest and retreated leaving his casualties on the field. Knap’s Battery suffered six killed and eighteen wounded, and Captain Atwell was mortally wounded and died soon after the battle. After the battle, the 12^th Corps Artillery Commander gave Knap’s Battery “the credit of having repulsed the enemy. Too much praise cannot be awarded them for their coolness and courage with which they served their guns in the presence of almost overpowering odds.”

After the death of Captain Atwell, Lieut. J. D. McGill succeeded to command of the battery. In November 1863 the battery participated in the battles of Lookout Mountain and Mission Ridge without loss. After winter quarters at Wauhatchie, Tenn., the 12^th Corps with the battery became the 20^th Corps in support of Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman’s army as it began its March to Georgia. On the way to Atlanta, Knap’s Battery, attached to Gen. Geary's White Star Division, participated in many battles—Rocky Face Ridge, Resaca, Pine Knob Mountain, Pumpkin Vine Creek, New Hope Church, Kolb’s House, Dallas, Kennesaw Mountain, Peach Tree Creek, and the siege and capture of Atlanta on July 22, 1864.

Private William J. McAfee had survived many battles and the dramatic capture of Atlanta, Ga., but his three-year term of service with Knap’s Battery was up, and he had had enough of war. On October 13, 1864 at Atlanta Private McAfee was mustered out of the Army. He returned to Pennsylvania and began farming in Clarion County, western Pa. The following year 1865 he married Mary E. Hummel, and they raised a family of seven boys before Mary’s death about 1884.

With the death of his wife, William and his family moved west and he remarried Eliza Lydia Prince Law in 1886. They began a second family of three girls and four boys. By 1890 the McAfee family lived in west central Missouri. In the early 1900s William and Lydia McAfee with several children moved on to Ward County, North Dakota.

Three of William’s sons from his first marriage, George, Willis, and Henry moved west to the Geraldine area during the Chouteau County homestead boom of the 1910s. While Lydia remained in North Dakota operating a boarding house, the aging civil war veteran William joined his sons near Geraldine.

In June 1916 William, known fondly as “Grandpa” by local settlers, suffered a serious injury at the ranch of his son Henry in the Big Sag. The frail 78 year old was attacked by a buck when his back was turned while he was driving a flock of sheep to water. William suffered broken ribs, a broken thumb, and a crushed chest. He recovered, and as the town of Geraldine began to grow after arrival of the Milwaukee Railroad, he moved into town to operate a harness and shoe store. Although increasingly feeble, William became Geraldine’s oldest resident and a familiar figure on the streets, noted at all time in the best of spirits. He died during the early morning hours of March 30, 1922.

Private William McAfee was a member of Sheridan Post #28 of the Grand Army of the Republic in Great Falls. Although he left no known account of his Civil War service, he was a proud veteran. Today he rests in Geraldine Cemetery.

[Sources: McAfee Line by Katherine Grace McAfee; Fold3McAfee Service Record Online; Ancestry.com Knap’s Independent Battery Online; Civil War Schedule 1890 Census; James P. Brady, Hurrah For the Artillery Knap’s independent Battery “E,” Pennsylvania Light Artillery; Geraldine Review 24 Jun 1916, 5 April 1922]

Photos:

1.     Knap’s Independent Battery E, Pennsylvania Light Artillery at Antietam Battlefield.

2.     Corporal William J. McAfee’s Gravestone in Geraldine Cemetery.

James Berry: The End of Outlaw Berry And the New Life for His Family in Montana Territory—Part III

Remembering Our Civil War Heritage and Heroes:

1861-1865

James Berry: The End of Outlaw Berry And the New Life for His Family in

 Montana Territory—Part III

By Ken Robison

For The River Press

January 2, 2013

This continues a monthly series commemorating the 150^th Anniversary of the Civil War and the veterans that settled in Central Montana. This week outlaw James Berry meets a violent death in Missouri. After his death, his widow and children come up the Missouri River to Fort Benton to settle with her family. This concludes the escapades of Confederate veteran James F. Berry.

After holding up a Union Pacific express train at Big Springs, Nebraska, east of Cheyenne on September 18, 1877, the Sam Bass-Joel Collins gang divided their loot and split up. James F. Berry returned to his home near Mexico, Missouri. Almost one month later Sheriff Henry Glasscock led a posse that tracked Berry down. In a brief shoot-out, Jim Berry was shot in the leg, captured, and taken prisoner to the Ringo House in Mexico. The narrative from the Mexico Weekly Ledger of October 18, 1877 continues:

   “The Sheriff and posse will receive a reward of about $4,000. This reward will be divided between the captors, just how we do not know. Glascock got the clue, planned the capture, but of course could not do the work by himself, at least he did not think he could before he started . . . Berry is now resting very easy [at the Ringo House]. He has an ugly leg on him.

   “Later. At 20 minutes to one o’clock last Tuesday [Oct. 16] James Berry, one of the Union Pacific train robbers, died at the Ringo House, with little pain or dread of death.

   “After receiving his wounds near Kazy’s [R. T. Kasey] house Sunday morning, there was no reaction at all, and Monday night gangrene set in and from this he died Tuesday. Berry did not seem to dread death at all, and often told those around him that he would not die. His brother-in-law, James Craighead of Fulton was with him in his last moments. His sister and friends came in on the 3 o’clock train from Martinsburg, but were too late to see him alive. Lanny Jones went in a buggy for his wife [Mary Elizabeth Price] only in the morning, and she arrived about 4 o’clock and was surprised to find her husband dead. She has the sympathy of all, in this her bereavement. She has 6 children, one boy and five girls, all dependent on her for food and protection. We learn that she is a most excellent lady and worthy the sympathy of all. What ever he may have done, his wife and children still cling to him as a tender love, such as becomes the true woman.

   “Monday night Berry made a confession, and said he was in the [Union Pacific train] robbery, but said he was not sorry for it. He made this confession in the presence of several witnesses. He spoke of [Joel] Collins . . . as the leader. He would say nothing about those of the gang who are yet alive. He said he would not ‘squeal’ on them. Dr. Lacy prayed with and for him, several times during the night before the day of his death. He paid no attention to this, except once, when the Dr. had left the foot of his bed and gone out. Berry asked ‘who in the Hell was that?’ He said he was not afraid of death. When told he must die, he seemed to think that he was being scared into telling something and would hoot at the idea of death. He died without scarcely a struggle.

   “He suffered much the night previous, but everything was done that could be, to make his illness and death as easy as possible. About half past 3 o’clock Tuesday, Dr. S. N. Russell, County Coroner, summoned . . . a Jury of Inquest [who] produced the verdict that ‘The deceased came to his death by gunshot wounds, eight in number, inflicted on the left leg, by a shot-gun in the hands of H. Glascock, on the morning of October 14^th, 1877, as we believe, a necessary act in the discharge of his duty.’

   “The remains were on Wednesday morning, interred by friends in the Richland grave yard, in Callaway county.”

   “What adds solemnity to the occasion is that only a few hours previous to Berry’s death, his aged mother departed this life, and side by side with his venerable mother the unfortunate boy was laid. What could be more impressive than the thought that the aged widowed mother, and the erring son, both reaching each other and their Maker, as it were, in the same hours. [Jim Berry was buried next to his mother in the Liberty Church Yard Cemetery, approximately three miles north and west of Shamrock Mo.]

   “Sheriff Glascock. No one was more unrelenting in their attention to the patient, than Sheriff Glascock. He spared neither time nor trouble to make Berry easy in his affliction and Berry showed no hard feelings and expressed himself in a way that he harbored nothing against his captor. Glascock, of course, feels bad, and will always remember the death bed scene, but he has nothing to blame himself with and no honest, justice-loving citizen can ever bear a hard feeling for what the Sheriff did in the matter. He gave Berry two chances to save himself. He issued a challenge to halt and when he did not do it, he shot over him thinking that would bring him to a pause, but no, Berry still kept on and yet the Sheriff called to him again to halt, but Berry paying no attention, Glascock shot at his legs, thinking to cripple him, and thus capture him, but his Allwise Creator saw best to make his wounds deadly, and for this Glascock is sorry, but perhaps if Berry had his choice, he would have preferred death to long confinement, for at that time, he begged the Sheriff to shoot him, that he did not want to live.

   “Berry’s Guilt. There can be no mistake about Berry’s being guilty, for he confessed it before witnesses, and for this reason Glascock can not feel the remorse he would, if he had made a mistake in his man, and in addition to his confession we have other proof, which is sufficient in itself, for we took occasion on Tuesday to interview Detective Leach, on this point, thinking that his evidence might be pertinent to the occasion. We were introduced to Leach at the depot, just before he left, by Sheriff Glascock, and was surprised at the personal appearance of the man. He was a short wiry-looking little fellow, dressed in a very outlandish manner. He had on an old pair of shoes, almost worn out pants, a new hat and a loose coat with the tails cut off. The only thing in his appearance that would strike a casual observer was that brilliancy of his eye. He had an eagle eye surely; under his coat he had a long ‘45’ caliber pistol with two belts full of cartridges. He was evidently ‘fixed’ for any body. During our conversation with him, he stated that he could identify Berry if it was necessary, but as he had confessed there would be no need of it. He says he knew Berry about 2 years ago, when he [Berry] was in business at North Platte, Neb., with a man named Garretson. He said that they broke up and left their creditors in the lurch . . .

   “After that Berry went to the Black Hills. The next time [Leach] saw Berry he came to [Leach’s] store in Ogallala [Nebraska], (for he had a store there and attends it when not scouting) to get a pair of boots on ‘tick’ [credit]. Leach would not let him have them; Berry then went and got this man Collins to come and pay for the boots, Collins raked up money sufficient to pay for the boots and Berry put them on. A few days after this the train was robbed . . . and Leach went at once to the scene of the robbery and took the trail and followed the robbers two hundred miles through the wilds by himself. At last he came up on their camp and saw them sitting around the fire counting the money. He saw Berry and Collins and recognized them both, as the men that came for the boots. He heard them all talk about their plans and learned their different addresses, and he says the deceased is the same Berry that bought the boots and the same one he saw in the camp with the money. This and Berry’s confession settles without the shadow of a doubt, the fact that Berry was guilty.

   “We could give you a full account of Leach’s movements on Berry’s trail, but they are of no interest, so we will close this painful story with a short account of the robbery.

   “The Reward. The individual reward offered for Berry was $500, and ten per cent of the money recovered, one of the $500 packages was $35 short, so that left the amount of money recovered, $2,769, ten percent of that added to the $500 makes the total reward $776. At a meeting of the captors last night it was declared that each of the 4 men that assisted the Sheriff, were to have $100 each and Glascock was to have the $376. As it will take $76 dollars to pay the expenses of the trip, which falls on the sheriff, he will get as his portion $300. We understand that there is a good chance for a large reward which was offered in Omaha, Nebraska.

   “Leach’s Say. During our interview, Tuesday, with Leach, the detective who followed the Big Spring robbers through 200 miles of wilderness in Nebraska, until he obtained information as to their destination, he took occasion to say that one night, when he was taking a peep into the camp of the robbers, he heard Collins administer the oath to Berry and the rest of the gang, to the effect, that as one of them should ‘preach’ on the other; and each one took a solemn oath that he would not be taken alive. The next night he slipped into the camp after the band were all asleep, and did not think a human being was in hundreds of miles of them, and stumbled upon the money [$60,000 in gold coins], sewed up in a blanket, fixed for strapping upon a mule. He tried to pull it out of the camp, but it was so heavy he could not move it, and while he was endeavoring to get into it and carry it off by piece-meal, some one of the gang awoke, and he (Leach) made himself scarce, and only the darkness saved him. He says in his scout after them, he crawled miles after them, through the grass, on his hands and knees. He often saw them, and knew Berry, Collins and some of the others.

   After the gang separated, Leach followed after Berry . . . to this place [Mexico], where Berry stopped for supplies . . . “ Thus ends the Mexico Ledger account.

At least three mysteries remain about the Jim Berry story:

(1) How was Jim Berry captured? The Mexico Ledger details Sheriff Glasscock’s version—that he shot Berry after ordering him to surrender and firing a warning shot in the air. But was this the true version? Relatives and friends of Berry dispute the Sheriff’s claim. By their account, Sheriff Glasscock came up behind a sleeping Jim Berry, who was laying on his side in the shade of a large tree. The sheriff fired a shot at the sleeping Berry, a horse neighed, and the wounded Berry emptied his two six-shooters simultaneously with the shot that wounded him. Only then, wounded and out of ammunition, was Berry captured. Perhaps we’ll never know with certainly how Berry was captured, but the weight of evidence seems to support Sheriff Glasscock. After all, Berry lived and talked with several people before his death. Berry does not seem to have disputed the sheriff’s version before he died.

(2) Is this a photograph of Jim Berry? According to The Black Hills Pioneer of Deadwood City, S.D., the men in this photo are Left to Right: Joel Collins and Jim Berry standing; Frank Towle and Jack Farrell seated. Yet, Perhaps the most authoritative website on Sam Bass and his gang is maintained by Round Rock, Texas where Sam Bass is buried. This Round Rock site is

            http://www.roundrocktexas.gov/home/index.asp?page=1768

            According to this site, this is the only known authenticated photo of Sam Bass,           and Jim Berry is not one of the men. Left to Right: Sam Bass, Joe Collins, John           E. Gardner, and Joel Collins. The photo is attributed to Robert G. McCubbin, Jr.           The Round Rock site is likely correct. No known photo of Jim Berry has been    located, although a sketch of his likeness appeared in the Mexico Ledger.

            (3) Less than one-third of Berry’s cut of the Union Pacific loot was      recovered—what happened to the other $7,000? Although Berry’s home was searched, had he been able to hide the money? Did his wife benefit from           this stolen money? Mrs. Berry and the six children continued to live on the       farm for three years after Jim Berry’s death—they had relatives and friends,            but it seems very likely that the stolen money helped them survive.

The Union Pacific stolen money may also have helped Mrs. Mary Berry pay the passage for her family to come to Fort Benton on the steamboat Red Cloud three years later. On June 10, 1880, Mrs. Mary E. Price Berry with her children stepped ashore at Fort Benton after a long trip up the Missouri River. The children were Jennie Lee born Aug. 30, 1864 at Reece River Valley, Nevada; twins Anne Natalie and Adelaide “Addie” Price born May 14, 1867; three more children were born near Mexico, Missouri, Nora (1869), John R. (Dec. 14, 1871), and Myra (Sep. 19, 1877).

Mrs. Mary Berry brought her family to Fort Benton to join her father Cyrus Price and brothers Charles W. and Kyle Price who came to Montana Territory in the 1860s and became successful ranchers. The 1880 census, shortly the Berry family arrival, has Mrs. Berry keeping house in her father’s household at Ulida, Chestnut Valley near today’s Cascade. Mrs. Berry lived in the Highwood Mountain area until 1885 when she married C. B. Houser and moved to Butte. In February 1885, daughter Addie Price Berry married prominent Highwood rancher John Harris and descendants remain in this area.

In 1898 Mrs. Mary Price Houser moved on to Kalispell and lived there for twenty years. After the death of her son, John R. Berry, at the Montana Soldier’s Home, she came to Great Falls to make her home with her daughter, Mrs. Anne Townsend, until her death in 1927. Mary E. Price Berry Houser rests today in Riverside Cemetery, Fort Benton with her father and brother.

Confederate veteran James Berry lived a life packed with adventure dashing headlong from Quantrill’s Raiders to Nevada Territory to early Montana Territory to outlaw days as a stage and train robber to his violent death. Fortunately, his family survived to become prominent in Montana history.

[Sources: US Census 1850-1880; 2012 http://www.legendsofamerica.com/we-jamesberry.html; http://penningtons.tripod.com/roster.html ; Sam Bass & Gang. By Rick Miller. Austin, TX, State House Press, 1999; The Tenderfoot Bandits Sam Bass and Joel Collins, their lives and hard times. By Paula Reed and Grover Ted Tate. Tucson, AZ: Westernlore Press, 1988; “John Harris and Addie Berry Harris Family” Collection of Harris-Berry Family Material Collected by William H. Patterson Held at OHRC; “Historical Sketch of James F. Berry (1838-1877)” by John F. Harris (Great Grandson); Sedelia Weekly Bazoo 23 Oct 1877; The (Jefferson City Mo.) State Journal 19 Oct 1877; http://www.roundrocktexas.gov/home/index.asp?page=1768]

Photos: [please run both photos!]

1.     Sam Bass—Joel Collins Gang without Jim Berry: Bass standing left; Joel Collins seated right. (Courtesy of Round Rock, Texas)

2.     Sketch of James F. Berry—the only known image of Berry. (Courtesy of OHRC)

James Berry: Confederate Veteran Turns to a Live of Crime and Joins the Sam Bass Gang —Part II

Remembering Our Civil War Heritage and Heroes:

1861-1865

James Berry: Confederate Veteran Turns to a Life of Crime and

Joins the Sam Bass Gang —Part II

By Ken Robison

For The River Press

December 26, 2012

This continues a monthly series commemorating the 150^th Anniversary of the Civil War and the veterans that settled in Central Montana. This month Confederate soldier James Berry, who had served with Quantrill’s Raiders before coming to Montana Territory during the Civil war, returned to Missouri in 1867. Berry would turn to a life of crime and join the Joel Collins-Sam Bass gang to take part in a spectacular train robbery. This continues the escapades of Confederate veteran James F. Berry.

While Mrs. Mary Elizabeth Price Berry with her three young children left Montana Territory by steamboat for a tough late season journey down the Missouri River in August 1867, her husband James Berry apparently proceeded overland to join his family on their farm near Mexico, Callaway County, Missouri. Little is known of the family over the next decade. Their fourth child, Nora Dickinson Berry was born in March 1870 followed by son John R. Berry in December 1871, both in Mexico, Mo. The census of July 1870 recorded the Berry family living in Bassetts Mill, El Paso County, Colorado Territory with James listed as a stock raiser.

Despite occasional excursions, the Berry family remained settled on their rented farm near Mexico, Mo. According to Sam Bass biographer Rick Miller, wandering Jim Berry left his family about 1875 for the Black Hills. At North Platte, Nebraska, he operated a grocery store with a partner. This business suddenly folded after Berry and his partner “swindled a prominent man out of money that he had posted with them for the purchase of goods.” Jim Berry was turning to a life of crime, very likely not for the first time.

Moving on, Jim Berry joined the gold rush in the Black Hills, yet he failed to strike it rich by the early spring of 1877. Earlier that winter, young Sam Bass and his boss Joel Collins arrived at the booming new town of Deadwood, Dakota Territory after driving a herd of cattle from Uvalde County, Texas. Collins sold the cattle, and paid off his cowboys. At this time Deadwood was a tough, wide-open gold mining town populated by miners, cattlemen, adventurers, and gamblers. Collins had bought his cattle on credit from friends in Texas, and he owed most of the money he’d received for them. Yet, while drinking, he gambled away the money he’d received for the herd. Bass and Collins decided to stay on in Deadwood playing poker for a living and enjoying life in the boomtown. Collins built a house and bought a quartz mine. The mine proved a dud, and Collins realized his money was gone. He became desperate, and with Sam Bass decided to form a gang. They tried mining and failed. They tried freighting and failed to make money. Out of desperation the fledgling Collins-Bass gang decided to rob stage coaches.

Known as the Black Hills Bandits, the gang consisted of Joel Collins, Sam Bass, Jim Berry from Missouri, Jack Davis an experienced stagecoach robber, Bill Heffridge, Canadian Tom Nixon, Frank Towle, and Robert “Reddy” McKimie. Rick Miller described Jim Beery “as 5’ 9” or 5’ 10”, 180 pounds, sandy or red hair with a little gray in it, a sandy beard and moustache with a long chin beard. He had a red florid complexion, blue eyes, talked a great deal, and when he was drinking his full round face became quite red.”

The Cheyenne and Black Hills Stage Company ran a stage line to and from booming Deadwood, and this seemed an attractive target for the new gang. Traffic each day brought nine Concord coaches, each with six horses, and each coach carried some eighteen passengers. The first task for the gang was to steal good saddle horses, and this they proceeded to do.

After biding their time, the gang decided to strike for the first time the evening of March 25, 1877. Under cover of darkness the gang rode two miles out of Deadwood and hid in the brush. Hearing the clatter of the coach approaching, the bandits charged from the brush and challenged the driver to stop. From this point their plan fell apart. Reddy McKimie, against orders, shot the coach driver. The horses bolted down the road leaving the robbers afoot. Two trailing mounted armed guards, alerted by the shot, rode up to the scene as the Collins-Bass gang fled into the brush.

Despite their disastrous beginning, the gang continued to rob coaches through the summer with only modest success. After six more robberies, they had little to show for their dangerous efforts. After deciding to move on to train robberies, Jim Berry with Collins rode in to Ogalalla, Kansas for Berry to acquire a new pair of boots. He entered the store of shopkeeper and part-time detective M. F. Leech and asked for a pair of boots on credit. Leech refused, and Berry had to scramble with Collins to raise the price of the boots. Leech would later play an important role in Berry’s story.

Collins conceived, planned and carried into execution one of the boldest train robberies that ever occurred in the United States up to that time. When all was ready the Collins-Bass gang including Jim Berry, heavily armed and masked, on September 18, 1877, held up the Union Pacific express train at Big Springs, a small station a few miles beyond Ogallala. The day after the robbery, on September 19th Mrs. Mary Elizabeth Berry gave birth to daughter Myra Berry at Mexico, Mo.

The Mexico Missouri Weekly Ledger reported the sensational train robbery a month later on October 18 under the headline: “THE TRIGGER. One of the Pacific Train Robbers Captured. Our Sheriff a Terror to the Banditti. Frantic Attempt of Berry to Escape. A Well Regulated Shot-gun Does its Duty. Great credit is Due Sheriff Glascock and the men with Him, For Their Indomitable will and Courage. $2,804 of the Stolen Money Recovered.

    “Omaha, Neb., Sept. 19.—News reached [Omaha] at an early hour this morning that a Union Pacific express car on the morning train that left Cheyenne yesterday about 2 p. m. was robbed at Big Spring by masked men with drawn revolvers, who threatened to shoot Messenger Miller, compelled him to unlock the safe containing $60,000 in cold coin, and succeeded in escaping with the whole amount.

   “The telegraph operator at the station was compelled to break his instrument to prevent his reporting the occurrence. A half-dozen men were in the party. They went northward, but it is believed to be a feint, and it is believed that their ultimate destination is southward. E. Moreman [E. M. Morsman], superintendent of the Union Pacific express office offers a $10,000 reward for the capture of the parties and the return of the money . . . A pro rata of the said reward will be paid for the return of a portion of the money or the capture of any of the men.

    “Account From Cheyenne. Cheyenne, W. T., Sept. 19.—Big Springs, the station where the robbery of the express train was committed last night, is a water station 162 miles east of this place. There are only one or two houses besides the station. The robbers rode to the station in the evening, and took possession of everything, tearing the telegraph instruments out and throwing them away. A red light was then hung out to stop the train which reached there about eleven o’clock. On the conductor’s stepping out to see what was wanted he was confronted by men who ordered him to throw up his hands. The engineer and fireman were secured and a guard placed at the end of the coach door. The station agent was compelled to knock on the express door and on its being opened for him, the robbers rushed in, overpowering Messenger [Charles] Miller and taking possession of the car. They secured

SIXTY FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS

in coin and about $300 in currency from the express car. The through safe, which is stationary and has a combination lock, they left undisturbed. It contained a very large sum of money. [In fact Miller was brutally beaten for not opening the safe.]

   “The arrival of a freight train evidently interfered with their plans, for after putting out the fire in the locomotive of the express train they mounted and rode away without disturbing the occupants of the sleeping car. . .”

After the robbery, the gang split up with Jim Berry making his way back to his home near Mexico, Mo. On arrival, the unshaven, dirty, weary Berry check into a hotel in Mexico carrying heavy saddlebags that he would not entrust to a porter. He got a haircut and shave with a trim goatee and mustache. He ordered $300 worth of groceries and arranged for them to be delivered to his family on the farm about twenty miles south of town. Berry also ordered a suit at Blum’s store. The day after his arrival in Mexico, just as soon as the town’s three banks opened, Berry made a fatal mistake—trading in $9,000 in gold coins for currency. Berry explained his bonanza by claiming that he had struck it rich mining in the Black Hills. The banks shipped the coins to St. Louis, Mo., where they were quickly identified as likely being from the Big Springs robbery. Just three days after trading the gold for currency, detectives including M. L. Leech arrived in Mexico to confer with the Audrain County Sheriff, Henry Glasscock.

   The Mexico Weekly Ledger of Oct. 18^th continued its account of the pursuit and capture of Jim Beery:  “Berry’s Capture. Monday, Oct. 15, 3 o’clock, p. m. We have just interviewed [Sheriff Henry Glasscock] H. Glascock and J. Berry, concerning the arrest of Berry, Sunday morning [Oct. 14], and we give you the facts as near as possible in our limited time . . .

   “It appears that last Saturday night [Oct. 13] as our Sheriff was eating supper about half past six o’clock, he received a message that a man was in town after the suit of clothes Berry had left at Blum’s. The man’s name was Bose Kazy [or R. T. Kasey], he lived near Berry’s. He told Blum that Berry had told him that he could have the clothes if he would pay the balance of $30 due on them. This was the way he had his ‘job’ fixed up. Glascock ran right down to Kabrick’s Hall and hid behind the counter and saw Kazy come out, [at] half past seven. Glascock followed him to Wallace & McKenny’s livery stable. Just as Glascock got near the stable he met John Carter and told him to come along. Carter, Glascock and Kazy all got to the stable at the same time. Kazy paid for his horse feed and started to get on his horse. Sheriff Glascock took Kazy by the collar, presented a pistol to his head and told him he would shoot him if he moved. Kazy did not move. Glascock ordered two more horses saddled. They then tied Kazy on his horse and the cavalcade moved off, Glascock leading Kazy’s horse. They went down to the branch near Tom Smith’s, in South Mexico, and as they thought no one would get wind of them there, they stopped.

   “Glascock then went and got John Coons, Bob Steele and a young man named Moore. All got horses and double-barreled shot-guns which were loaded with buck shot. They then told Kazy they would have to know where Berry was. He said he had not seen him since he (Berry) had told him he could have the clothes, which was about a week before. The posse then got around Kazy put their guns to his heart and told him if he led them into any trap or did not take them at once to his house they would shoot him down in a minute. He said he would take them to his home if it would do them any good.”

   The fact that Sheriff Glasscock felt he needed to raise a posse brought comment about Berry in the Sedelia Weekly Bazoo of October 23, “up to the time of receiving the shot, his bearing was that of a man who would fight to the last. Indeed, he had given previous examples of his desperate and daring nature. He was one of Bill Anderson’s most daring followers, and his unshrinking courage was tested in many a terrible fray which that bold partisan led all into who followed his banner. Indeed, so great was the terror of his name, that while in Mexico, where he exchanged his gold for greenbacks, although believed to be one of The Express Robbers, there was none bold enough to arrest him.”

   From the Mexico Weekly Ledger, “The men started out toward Kazy’s house and passed Jeff Jones about 12 o’clock Saturday night. About 3 o’clock they got to John Armstrong’s; Sheriff Glascock told him what they had done and wanted Armstrong to go with them and show them where Kazy lived, as he was afraid that Kazy would fool them. Armstrong said he did not know where Kazy lived and so would not go. We don’t know whether Armstrong knew or not. It was then 3 o’clock Sunday morning. When they got within about one-half mile of Kazy’s house they took Kazy off, tied him and left Bob Steele to guard him, then Glascock placed two men north of the house and stable. Moore and himself going on the south and west side and as the open timber was there they though he might be over in that.

   “Kazy had pluck, for before they tied him they told him to tell where Berry was or he would be sorry for it, but he said he knew nothing. They did not alarm Kazy’s house at all, it was not quite daylight yet. They all secreted themselves in thickets as mentioned above to await results. Glascock told his men, “boys if you see him, halt him, if he shows fight shoot him down, if he runs shoot him in the legs, catch him ‘at all hazards.’

   “In about one-half hour Glascock heard a horse ‘nicker’ about one-half a mile off as he thought. Moore and Glascock then crept toward the noise, went 300 yards down the branch, came to a fence, saw fresh horse tracks; Glascock got over the fence and got into a thicket, heard the horse snort about 50 yards off in the brush. Glascock then crawled toward the horse about 90 steps, got upon his knees and saw the back of the horse 40 yards off. Glascock took off his hat and crept up 20 yards closer. Then he raised up and saw Berry unhitching the horse from a tree. Berry then led his horse aslant toward Glascock, as Berry now says to lead him to water. Glascock cocked both barrels of his gun, ran out about 20 yards, within about 20 feet of Berry and demanded him to halt! Berry started to run. Glascock shot, but aimed too high which caused the charge to go over Berry’s head. He shot again and 7 buck shot lodged in Berry’s left leg below the knee. Berry fell to the ground, when Glascock got to him he was trying to get his pistol out, but he could not get it out before Glascock was on him and snatched it away from him, he then asked Glascock to shoot him, that he did not want to live.

   “Glascock told him no; that he did not want to kill him. He wanted him to have justice. Just then Moore came up.

   “What strikes us as strange, is, that Berry, the ‘best man in Callaway county,’ thus taken by one man. Only last Sunday, when Berry was in the hands of Audrain’s sheriff, we heard men in Callaway county say that no 20 men could take Berry, and that when Glascock went out the first time, he did not want to find Berry, &c. they seemed to take pride in Berry’s being a bully, and then for Callaway’s best man to run at the ominous word ‘halt!’ The fact of the business is that Berry is no coward, but he was taken at a disadvantage, and the persuasive influence of a double-barreled breech-loader in the hands of a determined officer will make even the boldest criminal tremble. Berry, after being caught, even begged the sheriff to shoot him; but the sheriff being a humane man, declined to accede to his request. We take great pride in the fact that our sheriff captured Berry.

   “After Moore came up, Glascock called for the rest of the posse, when they all gathered round Berry. Glascock then searched him and found in his belt five $500 packages, and in his pocket book was found $304. He had a gold watch and chain, one dress coat, three overcoats and comfort. He had doubtless slept there within 10 feet of the horse. They then took him to Kazy’s house, when Mrs. Kazy got breakfast for the men, while a messenger was sent to Williamsburg for medical assistance.

   “Immediately after breakfast Sheriff Glascock and John Carter started for Berry’s house to look for the balance of the money. Upon arriving there, Glascock inquired of Mrs. [Mary Elizabeth] Berry the whereabouts of Berry; she replied that she did not know, as she had not seen him for four or five days, and thought he had left the country. Glascock then showed her the watch and chain, when one of the children said: ‘Oh, I thought that was papa’s.’ Glascock then told her that he had got Berry. When she asked if he had been taken alive and receiving an affirmative reply, said: ‘I never thought he would be taken alive. He has said a great many times he would never be taken alive.’ At this they all began to cry, the wife, one little boy and 5 little girls. It was a very distressing scene.

   “Glascock searched the house but found no money. The house was well provisioned for the winter. Hams without number, sacks of flour and coffee, kegs of molasses &c., &c.

   “After Glascock left Kazy’s about 40 of the citizens come around and some threats were made about taking him away, but they did not make any attempts at all, it all ended in talk.

   “Sunday night they arrived at Mexico, and placed Berry in a room at the Ringo House and summoned Dr. Russell to attend him. At this writing he is under the influence of chloroform. It is not thought that his wounds will prove serious. He will be sent to Omaha as soon as he is able to be moved. Kazy never did tell anything, he stuck up till the end that he knew nothing of Berry. He showed his nerve, but that did not keep Berry out of Limerick.”

To be continued next week.

[Sources: US Census 1850-1880; 2012 http://www.legendsofamerica.com/we-jamesberry.html; http://penningtons.tripod.com/roster.html ; Sam Bass & Gang. By Rick Miller. Austin, TX, State House Press, 1999; The Tenderfoot Bandits Sam Bass and Joel Collins, their lives and hard times. By Paula Reed and Grover Ted Tate. Tucson, AZ: Westernlore Press, 1988; “John Harris and Addie Berry Harris Family” Collection of Harris-Berry Family Material Collected by William H. Patterson Held at OHRC; “Historical Sketch of James F. Berry (1838-1877)” by John F. Harris (Great Grandson); Sedelia Weekly Bazoo 23 Oct 1877; The (Jefferson City Mo.) State Journal 19 Oct 1877]

Photos:

1.     Sketch of James F. Berry. (Courtesy of OHRC)

2.     Sam Bass—Joel Collins Gang: Bass standing left; Collins seated right. (Courtesy of Williamson County Historical Commission)

3.     Sketch of Union Pacific Train Robbery. (Courtesy of OHRC)