(1810- 188)
« return to database listJob Berry with William Payne helped to found Dickerson Chapel A. M. E. Church in Hillsborough, where Job Berry was the first pastor. Enslaved to George W. B. Burgwyn of Wilmington and Hillsborough, Job Berry was baptized and became a communicant of St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in Hillsborough. He worked for Mrs. Burwell as a gardener. After Emancipation, he worked to found a freedman’s school in Hillsborough. He was admitted to the AME Church as a preacher April 2, 1867, and served in Mebane and Graham as well as Hillsborough [1].
Rev. Job Berry was the first pastor of Hillsborough’s first church for people of color, Dickerson Chapel A.M.E. Church, which he helped to organize. A strong, intelligent, free-minded man, Job Berry was well respected by all.
Job was baptized by William Mercer Green October 6, 1833, at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church. His baptism was sponsored by his owner George W. B. Burgwyn, an Episcopalian who believed slaves should have access to education and religious instruction. Job was confirmed the following year April 13, 1834 by Bishop Ives. He is listed in the Parish Registry as a communicant in 1838; in 1842 he was removed. Although a slave, Job served the Black community as a minister during the 1850’s when North Carolina law prohibited Black preachers. Job was also a painter, perhaps working for Hillsborough builder John Berry. After the Civil War, he took the surname Berry.
After Emancipation, Job Berry was instrumental in founding a Freedman’s School in Hillsborough. The September 13, 1865 Hillsborough Recorder ran the following notice: “The colored citizens of Hillsborough propose to hold a Fair on Friday, the 23rd instant, for the purpose of raising money to purchase a building wherein they may have a school. We invite all those who wish to aid in this laudable enterprise to be present on that occasion. Job Berry” The school and church were located in the old Orange County courthouse/Baptist Church at the corner of Queen and Churton Streets. Friends Freedmen Association of Philadelphia appointed teachers. In 1868 one of the first teachers was Robert Fitzgerald (grandfather of Pauli Murray). Other teachers were B. V. Harris of Oberlin College and Heywood Beverly. The school enrolled over three hundred children and adults.
When the A.M.E. denomination arrived in North Carolina, Job Berry was licensed by the Conference as a local pastor, which formalized the congregational identity and ministerial status of Job Berry which had existed informally in the antebellum period. The North Carolina Conference of the African ME Church assembled in Greensboro in April, 1867, under the leadership of Bishop Weyman. Job Berry was admitted on trial as a preacher in the A.M.E. Church North Carolina conference April 2, 1867, and was assigned to Mebanesville and Graham. His friend and co-founder of Dickerson Chapel AME Church, Rev. William Payne, was assigned to Payne’s School House (Payne’s Chapel). The Hillsborough and Chapel Hill churches were assigned to Rev. S. E. Williams
In addition to his pastoral work, Job Berry was a painter and a gardener. In Anna Burwell’s diary entry of March 8, 1855, she notes “Thursday, fine, clear day. Job and Peter at work, planted a square of potatoes.”
Job Berry married Rebecca Nash.
Orange County deeds include a transaction October 9, 1865, in which Job Berry for $300 purchased from Henry N. Brown parts of lots #20 and #17 off South Wake Street “together with the houses or huts on the western part of Wake Street” totaling one acre. This property was adjacent to the Nash Kollock School. Job Berry’s wife Rebecca Nash had been enslaved to the Nash family. Their son Lisbon worked at the Nash Kollock School as a boy; the teachers Sally Nash, Maria Nash, and Sarah J. Kollock enabled Lisbon to attend college at Biddle Institute.
The 1870 Federal Census lists Job Berry as sixty years old, living in Hillsboro with his wife Rebecca, age 47, and eight children. Also in the household are Job Badger, 70, laborer, and Dolly Badger, 70, keeping house.
March 30, 1872 Job Berry was appointed by the Orange County Republican Convention as a delegate from Hillsboro to the Republican State Convention of 1872. The delegates successfully supported President Ulysses S. Grant and Governor Tod R. Caldwell. (Caldwell, one of the founders in 1867 of the North Carolina Republican Party, had studied at the Bingham School in Hillsborough and married Minerva Ruffin Cain of Hillsborough).
The Registry of St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church June, 1873, lists Job Berry as sponsor for the baptism of Aaron Stroud.
The marriage license for Job and Rebecca Berry’s daughter Susan, August 28, 1884, gives her father Job Berry as deceased. He is probably buried with other family members at Crestmont Cemetery in Hillsborough [2] [3] [4] [5] [1] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10].
Job Berry was born 1810. He died between 1873 and 188.
