A CIVIL WAR FRIENDSHIP 1st in series

(Portions taken from the book: MARTHA BERRY by Joyce Blackburn)

Unlike the other dinner guests, the speaker was not wearing evening clothes. Perhaps it was the surprising combination of his firm tone of voice with a soft, refined drawl...

"Gentlemen, the only thing I have to offer in exchange for your credit is my land...my land and my good name."

His name was Thomas Berry, Captain Thomas Berry, a Georgia planter of uncommon integrity who had sold the last of his wife's jewelry in order to make the long trip to Philadelphia.  There, business associates of better days were honoring him with a private dinner party.

"As recently as 1861, four years ago, you trusted me," the Georgian continued. "And I settled all my accounts with you before communications were cut between the North and the South_ before the fighting started.  But the War has changed everything. My fortune is gone. Our Confederate money is so much worthless paper.  Our banks and insurance companies are ruined. My own fields are seared and desolate. There are no fences. No cattle. Without our help, I cannot even buy seed." 

No one in that elegant room could avoid the contrasts. While they dined on pheasant and hothouse peaches, Southerners were bartering for corn meal and sweet potatoes. The money spent on the grand cuisine of this single dinner could support Thomas Berry's family for a year. 

But the man standing before them, so proud and so humiliated, was not bitter. "I said the War had changed everything Your very presence assures me it has not changed our friendship, our mutual respect, our common goal to restore the Federal Union of the States. And so, I have come here to ask you to trust me again."

Applause and cheers exploded as Thomas Berry sat down. Stunned by the warmth and enthusiasm of the Yankees, he looked from one reassuring face to another and smiled. When he left for home the next day, he had negotiated a loan for $50,000.00 dollars. The canny Wall Street investors could not resist his charm and honesty.

Back home at Oak Hill, in North Georgia, Thomas told his wife the extraordinary news: "We can rebuild Frances! We rebuild our dreams, the land, the business. And besides that, we can help our neighbors!" 

(Captain Berry did not live to see everything that he had hoped for in rebuilding his part of the South, but his daughter, Martha Berry, reached out to the poor and built a school, which is a fine University to this day, with the help of more gentlemen of the North.

 Pictures below are of the present day Berry University in Georgia.