Madison County Farmer, Canal Builder and Probate Judge James A. Berry [otd 08/06]

Idaho pioneer and Probate Judge James Allen Berry was born August 6, 1854 in Bristol, England. His father, foreman at a basketmaking plant, suffered from ill health, so James began working at the age of nine. Sadly, the father died in 1870. Two years later, the widow brought the family to the United States. They settled in Salt Lake City.

James A. Berry. [Hawley]

Berry found work with the Utah Northern Railroad. He married in 1876 and they had three children within four years, but only one of them survived infancy. His first wife died in late 1880 and he remarried two years later. The couple would have much greater success, raising a brood of nearly a dozen sons and daughters.

Some time during that period, James was promoted to a foreman’s position with the railroad. By the summer of 1879, the company, now called the Utah & Northern Railroad, had laid track across eastern Idaho beyond Eagle Rock (today’s Idaho Falls). Berry supposedly took up land near Rexburg the same year the town was established, in 1883. He was not listed among Rexburg’s founders, however.

Barry continued as a railroad foreman for quite some time, possibly until 1890-1892. General Land Office records show that he filed on a 160-acre homestead about three miles northwest of Rexburg in 1890. The following year, he also filed on a 160-acre plot about eight miles northwest of Dubois. It seems not unlikely that he started holding acreage as a “squatter” while he still had a steady job with the railroad.

In any case, Berry does not seem to have developed the Dubois land, perhaps because he could not count on a reliable water supply. That area was (and is) sheep country, and there is some possibility that he ran stock there. On the other hand, he quickly upgraded the property near Rexburg. James was described as a “forceful factor” in building the first irrigation canals, and served the Teton Island Irrigation Canal Company as Secretary, Treasurer, and then Director. After about 1904, he returned to the position as Secretary and remained in the job until at least 1920.

Berry was also active in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons). He was a member of a Quorum of Seventies and the first president of the local Young Men's Mutual Improvement Association. In 1905, he was called for a mission back in England. (His passport application stated that he had become a naturalized U. S. citizen in 1887.) In December 1907, it was reported that his wife was in Salt Lake to meet her husband upon his return.

A year after he got back, Berry helped organize a Commercial Club in Driggs, Idaho. He became the Club’s first vice president. Besides his mixed-crop farm, he owned an interest in a Rexburg furniture outlet as well as a general merchandise store. Somewhat further afield, he had a share in the Beet Growers Sugar Company of Rigby.

Early Rexburg. Rexburg Historical Society.

In public office, Berry was a Justice of the Peace for four years and, from 1895 to at least 1910, he was a Notary Public. He also served as a Police Judge. In late 1913, the legislature split off a new county, Madison, from Fremont County. The governor then appointed Berry as Probate Judge for the new county. He held that post by re-election for almost a decade.

Berry and his wife retired to Salt Lake City in 1923 or 1924. James passed away there in the spring of 1927.
                                                                                 

References: [B&W], [Hawley]

“[Berry News Items],” Idaho Statesman, Boise; Deseret News, Salt Lake City, Utah (February 1895 – November 1913).

Progressive Men of Bannock, Bear Lake, Bingham, Fremont and Oneida Counties, Idaho, A. W. Bowen & Co., Chicago (1904).