Born 09/17/1844 Wilmington, New Hanover County North Carolina
Died 12/31/1915 Wilmington, New Hanover County North Carolina

Whiteford Robbins Beery was born in Wilmington NC. The family residence was located at the South West corner of Fourth and Redcross Streets. The story has been told that during the Yellow Fever Epidemic the servants took the smaller children to the basement and kept them there for the duration of the epidemic. His parents died when he was young and a guardian was appointed for he and the other minor children. Whiteford was later sent to a private school (perhaps college) in Washington DC. He left the school and joined the Confederate Army during the Civil War. It was during a march of his company through Eastern NC that they stopped at a farmhouse (probably to get food and water) that he met a young girl who later became his wife, this was near Kinston, NC. After the war he moved his family to Wilmington, NC and worked as Captain on one of the tug boats owned by his brother (half brother) Benjamin Beery. His guardian accidentally met him on the street and asked "where he was living, and why he had not come to see him about a place to live?", he also told him to "come to his office the next day and he would give him the deed to a house which was his by inheritance". He did this and lived there until after the death of his first wife. After a few years he left his brother and went to Savannah, GA to work in the same business. His youngest child was just two years old when his mother died so after a short time he remarried. He lived in Savannah until all of his children were grown. He and his youngest son (Samuel) came back to Wilmington and he bought a truck farm on Myrtle Grove Sound. He lived there for a few years but returned to Savannah. After he retired from the sea the second time here he returned to Wilmington, and purchased a small grocery business at Winter Park and suburb of Wilmington where he resided until he became ill while residing with his oldest son William Benjamin until his death six months later.

He was a very kind patient man, loved people and was also loved by young and old, particularly after he retired. He never liked arguments or dissention which was the reason he neglected to take any interest as to what inheritance had been left to he and his younger brothers. He seemed to realize near his last days that he had been very negligent in not doing so, if not for himself, for his children. He requested that at his death his children could do what he had not done. Some time after his death one of his grandsons (W.B. Berry, Jr) went to New Hanover Court House and had two copies of the will of Samuel Beery made and sent one copy to one of the heirs who resided in Brooklyn, NY. However, after having them examined by legal advisors it was found that the Guardian (a Mr. Wallace and uncle, his mother's brother) was authorized to use his judgment in investing for the children's benefit, therefore, it would be financially impossible to ascertain if any properties etc.. were disposed of after the minor heirs where of age, so the matter was dropped.

Here on this page above, I have endeavored to record those things told me by my grandfather, Whiteford Robbins Beery, and my mother, while I was a child and on through the years. To be sure, the over-all facts I remember are expressed in a manner that a fair picture may be gained of some of the past.

Written by Beulah Edlin Beery Brittain. Transcribed by Debbie Personette (great, great grand-daughter)