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Size | 5.0 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 2400 items) |
Abstract | Born in Hillsborough, N.C., the daughter of John and Mary Strayhorn Berry, Harriet Morehead Berry graduated from the State Normal and Industrial College at Greensboro, N.C., in 1897 and taught school from 1897 to 1901. From 1901 to 1921, she was employed by the State Geological and Economic Survey. During the absence of State Geologist Joseph Hyde Pratt during World War I, Berry acted as director of the Survey. During this period, she also took over Pratt's duties as secretary of the North Carolina Good Roads Association. After losing her job with the Geological and Economic Survey in 1921, Berry became editor of industry and commerce for the Greensboro Daily News, 1922-1924. In 1924, she was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention and was an early supporter of John W. Davis. During 1924 and 1925, she was secretary of the North Carolina Credit Union Association. From 1925 to 1937, she was employed by the State Department of Agriculture as an editor of Market News and director of publicity for credit unions. In 1927, she was appointed state superintendent of credit unions. Bad health forced her resignation in 1937. The collection contains correspondence, circulars, press releases, articles, speeches, and clippings concerning H. M. Berry's activities in the Good Roads movement and the promotion of state roads legislation of 1921; her work with the North Carolina Credit Union Association, 1923-1931; the Democratic National Convention of 1924; and state and national party campaigns, 1920-1932. Also included are minutes of the North Carolina Good Roads Association, 1916-1923, and Berry's unfinished compilations of materials for a history of the movement. |
Creator | Berry, H. M. (Harriet Morehead), 1877-1940. |
Curatorial Unit | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection. |
Language | English |
Processed by: Carolyn Hamby and Suzanne Ruffing, February 1996
Encoded by: Russell Michalak, April 2006
Back to TopThe following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.
Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.
H. M. (Harriet Morehead) Berry (22 July 1877-24 March 1940), leader in the good roads movement in North Carolina and a civic and political activist was born in Hillsborough, N.C., the daughter of Dr. John and Mary Strayhorn Berry. Harriet M. Berry was educated at home and at the Nash-Kollock school in Hillsborough. In 1892, she entered the State Normal School (now the University of North Carolina at Greensboro) and graduated with honors in 1897.
Berry began her long association with North Carolina's road system in February 1901. She was hired as a stenographer to Dr. Joseph Hyde Pratt, mineralogist on the North Carolina Geological and Economic Survey. Berry quickly became involved with many phases of the survey's work. Under state geologist Joseph Austin Holmes, the North Carolina Geological and Economic Survey had taken the lead in movements to encourage conservation and, particularly to promote the building of better roads. Working with both Pratt and Holmes, Harriet Berry assumed much of the responsibility for providing the staff work on which the survey's technical investigations and its reform activities rested. In 1904, she became secretary to the survey.
In 1906, Joseph Hyde Pratt succeeded Joseph Holmes as both state geologist and as secretary of the North Carolina Good Roads Association. Working with Pratt, Berry became increasingly involved with the good roads movement. During World War I, while Pratt was in the army, she became acting head of the survey. In 1919, she led the North Carolina Good Roads Association in an attempt to create a state highway commission with authority and to fund a state system of paved roads. Despite her efforts, the General Assembly did not enact what she considered an effective law.
From 1919 to 1921, Berry canvassed the state. She spoke in 89 of the state's 100 counties and flooded the state with news releases, letters, petitions, and circulars. Her initiative increased the membership of the North Carolina Good Roads Association from 272 to 5,500 members and built its treasury from less than $2,000 to more than $12,000. Her efforts were rewarded in 1921, when the General Assembly passed a road law that created a powerful state highway commission and committed the state to the construction of a modern highway system.
Berry left the Geological and Economic survey in 1921. A change of administration and bitter feelings from the legislative fight prompted her resignation. In 1922, she joined the staff of the Greensboro Daily News as editor of the Department of Industries and Resources. While working at the newspaper, she campaigned for better schools and for the creation of an organization to advertise North Carolina's advantages for industry, tourism, and resource development. In 1924, she became the secretary of the North Carolina Credit Union Association, which encouraged farmers to form local cooperatives, pooling their financial assets to create a fund from which members could borrow at a cost substantially below bank interest rates.
In 1925, Berry joined the North Carolina Department of Agriculture, editing the department's Market News. She then served as director of publicity for credit unions. In 1927, she became the state superintendent for credit unions, continuing in that position until poor health forced her to retire in 1937.
Berry was a lifelong Democrat, serving her party on local, state, and national levels. She was a member of the state Democratic executive committee and a delegate at large to the Democratic National Convention in 1924. She was a member of the Legislative Council of Women in World War I and was a supporter of woman suffrage. She served as head of the Chapel Hill Equal Suffrage League and at one time as vice-president of the North Carolina Equal Suffrage League.
Remembered as a delicate woman of refined tastes, she was also a person of inflexible will and a skilled political infighter. She was guided by an intellectual and moral conviction prefigured in her honors address as a college senior, "The Jingle of the Guinea." In this essay, she argued that the health of a society lay in the well-being of all its members, not in the wealth of a minority. Berry died in Chapel Hill in 1940 of heart trouble. An Episcopalian, she was buried after a graveside service in the Chapel Hill Cemetery.
(Adapted from Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, Volume 1, pages 144-145.)
Back to TopThe collection includes correspondence, circulars, press releases, articles, speeches, and clippings concerning H. M. Berry's activities in the Good Roads movement in North Carolina and the promotion of state roads legislation of 1921; her work with the North Carolina Credit Union Association, 1923-1931; the Democratic Party national convention of 1924; and state and national party campaigns, 1920-1932. Also included are minutes of the North Carolina Good Roads Association, 1916-1923, and Berry's unfinished compilations of materials for a history of the movement.
Back to TopArrangement: chronological.
Correspondence, press releases, speeches, and other related material. This series contains chiefly letters received and sent by H. M. Berry dealing primarily with good roads, credit unions, politics, and North Carolina development. Correspondents include people prominent in North Carolina government or business, 1918-1940. There are also press releases, speeches, and routine business items of the North Carolina Good Roads Association.
Arrangement: chronological.
Correspondence and other items dealing primarily with the Good Roads movement. Correspondence includes routine business of the North Carolina Good Roads Association, plans for the annual conventions, financial matters, legislative activities, and lobbying for the road bills of 1919, 1921, and 1923. Other topics include conditions of jails in Orange County, N.C., patronage and political appointments, and letters from Good Roads Associations in other states. Principal correspondents include W. A. McGirt, T. L. Gwyn, Heriot Clarkson, Hugh McRae, John Sprunt Hill, Joseph Hyde Pratt, Julian S. Carr, and others.
Folder 1 |
1914-1918 |
Folder 2-8
Folder 2Folder 3Folder 4Folder 5Folder 6Folder 7Folder 8 |
1919 |
Folder 9-16
Folder 9Folder 10Folder 11Folder 12Folder 13Folder 14Folder 15Folder 16 |
1920 |
Folder 17-24
Folder 17Folder 18Folder 19Folder 20Folder 21Folder 22Folder 23Folder 24 |
1921 |
Folder 25-27
Folder 25Folder 26Folder 27 |
1922 |
Folder 28-32
Folder 28Folder 29Folder 30Folder 31Folder 32 |
1923 |
Arrangement: chronological.
Letters chiefly concerned with the establishment of credit unions in North Carolina and the political campaigns of 1924 and 1932. Berry served as a delegate at large to the 1924 national Democratic Party convention. This subseries contains miscellaneous items from the convention, mostly invitations. Other items include press releases about North Carolina roads, April-May 1934.
Folder 33-35
Folder 33Folder 34Folder 35 |
1924 |
Separated Folder SEP-2259/1 |
Letter, Franklin Delano Roosevelt to Harriet Morehead Berry, regarding improvement of the Democratic Party, 5 December 1924Restriction to Access: The original item is not available for immediate or same day access. Please contact staff at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu to discuss options. |
Folder 36 |
1925 |
Folder 37 |
1926 |
Folder 38 |
1927-1931 |
Folder 39 |
1932-1933 |
Folder 40 |
1934 |
Arrangement: chronological.
Meeting minutes, resolutions, annual convention records, press releases, and other related records of the North Carolina Good Roads Association. Also included are speeches, circular letters, and financial statements. Folder 61 contains a volume of records for the NCGRA for 1916-1917.
Folder 44-45
Folder 44Folder 45 |
1918 |
Folder 46-47
Folder 46Folder 47 |
1919 |
Folder 48-55
Folder 48Folder 49Folder 50Folder 51Folder 52Folder 53Folder 54Folder 55 |
1920 |
Folder 56-57
Folder 56Folder 57 |
1921 |
Folder 58 |
1922 |
Folder 59 |
1923 |
Folder 60 |
Manuscript for History of Good Roads Association, 1940 |
Folder 61 |
Good Roads Association records, 1916-1917 |
Arrangement: chronological.
Clippings from various North Carolina newspapers about good roads, credit unions, and North Carolina development. Other clippings include inspirational poetry and other topics of interest to H. M. Berry.
Folder 62-64
Folder 62Folder 63Folder 64 |
1918 |
Folder 65-66
Folder 65Folder 66 |
1919 |
Folder 67-68
Folder 67Folder 68 |
1922 |
Folder 69 |
Clippings, 1922 |
Folder 70-71
Folder 70Folder 71 |
1923 |
Folder 72 |
1924-1929 |
Folder 73 |
1930-1934 |
Folder 74 |
1935-1940 |
Folder 75 |
Undated: Good Roads Association |
Folder 76 |
Undated: Credit unions and North Carolina development |
Folder 77 |
Undated: Articles and speeches |
Arrangement: chronological.
Letters, speeches, clippings, scrapbooks, biographical material, and related items on H. M. Berry. This subseries contains papers pertaining to the Plaque Dedication ceremony in the lobby of the State Highway Building in Raleigh for Berry on 25 October 1962 as well as speeches, clippings, and programs about this event. There are also two scrapbooks organized by Berry, one of newspaper clippings on her contribution to the Good Roads Association and related material and another of inspirational poetry, stories, and quotations of interest to Berry. Also included are articles and other collected material about Berry and her family that were used for a biography about Berry.
Folder 78 |
Materials for biography, collected in 1960 |
Folder 79 |
Plaque dedication, 1962 |
Folder 80 |
Scrapbook: Good Roads Association and related materials, 1920-1923, 144 pages |
Folder 81 |
Scrapbook: Inspirational poetry, stories, and quotations, 204 pages |
Oversize Volume SV-2259/2 |
Volume |
Image P-2259/1 |
H. M. Berry, circa 1915Caption: "Mother of N.C. State Highway System, Chapel Hill, N.C." |
Image P-2259/2 |
H. M. Berry and unidentified man, circa 1915 |
Image P-2259/3 |
H. M. Berry and five unidentified men, circa 1915 |
Image P-2259/4 |
Possibly H. M. Berry and four unidentified men, 26 April 1924On verso: "First car poultry shipped cooperatively out of eastern North Carolina" |
Image P-2259/5 |
Members of North Carolina Good Roads Association, 10 July 1917, Battery Park, Asheville, N.C.H. M. Berry on first row, second from right |
Image P-2259/6 |
Unidentified group, circa 1920Possibly H. M. Berry on second row, third from left |
Image P-2259/7 |
Edwin Bedford Jeffress, circa 1920 |
Image P-2259/8 |
William Archibald McGirt, circa 1920 |
Image P-2259/9 |
Albert Cabell Ritchie, circa 1923Campaign literature printed below photo proclaiming "Maryland's Great Governor" |
Image P-2259/10 |
Joseph Austin Holmes, circa 1890 |
Image P-2259/11 |
Thomas Contee Bowie, circa 1915 (negative on file) |
Image P-2259/12 |
John Sprunt Hill, 1935Photo is captioned "State Senate, 1935" |
Image P-2259/13 |
Frank Page, circa 1915 |
Image P-2259/14-15
P-2259/14P-2259/15 |
Three unidentified men, circa 1915 (two copies) |
Image P-2259/16 |
Unidentified man, circa 1915 |
Image P-2259/17 |
Unidentified man, circa 1915 |