The Extraordinary Life and Losses of J. P. "Pink" Berry

The Extraordinary Life and Losses of J. P. "Pink" Berry

Historical research often begins with a single newspaper clipping. In the case of Joseph Pink Berry, better known as "J. P." or simply "Pink" Berry, that clipping described a tragedy almost difficult to believe.

A September 30, 1927 article in The Daily American Republic reported that Berry had already lost his home in the devastating Poplar Bluff tornado of May 9, 1927, where his wife was killed. Seeking a fresh start, he moved to a farm near Broseley. Then another tornado struck, destroying the second home only months later.

The brief article raises an obvious question:

Who was J. P. Berry?

Genealogical records show that Joseph Pink Berry was born April 13, 1874, in Clay County, Arkansas, the son of William John Berry and Martha A. Douglas. By the 1890s he had settled in Butler County, Missouri, where he married Mary Rosa Collins on May 13, 1893.

The couple's son, John William Berry, was born in Poplar Bluff in 1896. Rosa died only a few years later, leaving Berry a widower.

On April 3, 1901, he married Sadie St. Clair, beginning a marriage that would last more than twenty-six years. Together they raised a large family in Poplar Bluff, including Arthur Joseph Berry, George Lee Berry, Hershel Clyde Berry, Ethel Irene Berry, Wanda Berry, Goldie Berry, Ilah Maxine Berry, and Clarence A. Berry.

The Berry family appears in census records and city directories throughout the early twentieth century. During these years Berry worked for the Brooklyn Cooperage Company, one of the largest industrial employers in Southeast Missouri. The company operated a massive stave and barrel manufacturing plant on the east side of Poplar Bluff and was considered one of the largest producers of barrel staves in the United States.

Brooklyn Cooperage represented the height of the region's timber economy. The company even constructed the Butler County Railroad to move timber from remote logging operations to its manufacturing facilities. Hundreds of local families depended upon the cooperage for employment, and J. P. Berry was among them.

The surviving records suggest that hardship visited the Berry family repeatedly.

Family records indicate that daughter Inez Berry died in 1911 at only two years of age. Another daughter, Minnie Berry, died in 1919 at age fourteen. Newspaper reports from December 1919 also mention a stillborn infant born to J. P. and Sadie Berry.

Further tragedy appears in court records. On June 7, 1924, The Daily Republican reported that Sadie Berry had filed suit against the Frisco Railroad, alleging that a sudden jerk of a train caused her to be thrown to the floor, resulting in the death of an unborn child.

Then came the tornado.

On May 9, 1927, one of the deadliest storms in Butler County history struck Poplar Bluff. The Berry home was destroyed and Sadie St. Clair Berry was killed. Newspaper accounts published after the disaster indicate that an infant grandchild of the family also perished in the storm.

A family notice published days later thanked friends and neighbors for their kindness during the deaths suffered by the Berry family. While later records do not clearly identify the child, contemporary accounts suggest that a young grandchild was among the victims.

Most families would consider such losses overwhelming. Yet Berry's misfortunes were not over.

Only a few months later, having left Poplar Bluff and established a farm near Broseley in hopes of rebuilding, Berry found himself once again in the path of disaster. A second tornado struck in September 1927 and demolished the replacement home.

The newspaper account summarized the situation with remarkable simplicity:

"J. P. Berry of Poplar Bluff lost his home in the tornado of May 9th and his wife was killed. He decided to move to the country and secured a farm near Broseley. The tornado of Thursday demolished this second house."

Berry eventually left Missouri and relocated to Sumter, South Carolina. Family accounts indicate he brought members of his family there for employment connected with the Brooklyn Cooperage Company's operations.

He remarried in 1928, but tragedy struck again when his second wife died in 1931. In 1932 he married Clela Moore Barfield, with whom he spent the remainder of his life.

Joseph Pink Berry died in Sumter County, South Carolina, on November 5, 1963, at the age of eighty-nine.

Today his story survives through a combination of newspaper accounts, census records, city directories, court filings, and family genealogies. Together they reveal not only the hardships endured by one Poplar Bluff family, but also the resilience required to continue after repeated personal and natural disasters.

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Sources

• Butler County city directories (1919 and later)
• 1920 United States Census, Poplar Bluff, Missouri
• The Daily Republican, June 7, 1924
• The Daily American Republic, September 30, 1927
• Family genealogical records of the Berry and St. Clair families
• Brooklyn Cooperage Company historical records
• Butler County tornado accounts, May and September 1927