Cabell Rives Berry (July 4, 1848 – August 27, 1910) was the

Speaker Speaker most commonly refers to: * Speaker, a person who produces speech * Loudspeaker, a device that produces sound ** Computer speakers Speaker, Speakers, or The Speaker may also refer to: Arts and entertainment * "Speaker" (song), by David ...

of the

Tennessee Senate The Tennessee Senate is the upper house of the U.S. state of Tennessee , Tennessee's state legislature, which is known formally as the Tennessee General Assembly. The Tennessee Senate has the power to pass resolutions concerning essentially any ...

from 1885 to 1887.

Biography

Berry was born in

Amherst County, Virginia Amherst County is a county, located in the Piedmont region and near the center of the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. The county is part of the Lynchburg Metropolitan Statistical Area, and its county seat is also named Amhers ...

, on July 4, 1848. He was raised on a plantation and educated at Higginbotham Academy, a preparatory school of the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. It was founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson and contains his The Lawn, Academical Village, a World H ...

. At the age of 16 Berry joined the

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army and fought in the

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, attached to Gray's Battery. After the war, Berry moved to

Tennessee Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...

and worked for the Tennessee, Virginia, and Georgia

Railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

. In 1868 he came to

Middle Tennessee Middle Tennessee is one of the three Grand Divisions of Tennessee that composes roughly the central portion of the state. It is delineated according to state law as 41 of the state's 95 counties. Middle Tennessee contains the state's capital an ...

and taught in the Davidson County schools, after which he studied

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...

in the office of John C. Burch, of

Nashville Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

, and was admitted to the

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. He then moved to Williamson County and was elected County Superintendent. In 1878, he married Mary Oden, daughter of Col. Thomas Oden of Williamson County. Berry was elected to the

Tennessee House of Representatives The Tennessee House of Representatives is the lower house of the Tennessee General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Tennessee. Constitutional requirements According to the state constitution of 1870, this body is to consis ...

as a

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in 1883, representing Williamson and Maury Counties. In 1885, he was elected to the Tennessee Senate, where he was named as Speaker. He was one of the youngest members of the Senate when elected. He finished his term in 1887 and was then elected to a new term in 1889. Berry retired from the Senate in 1891 and then served three terms as

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

Franklin, Tennessee Franklin is a city in and the county seat of Williamson County, Tennessee, United States. About south of Nashville, Tennessee, Nashville, it is one of the principal cities of the Nashville metropolitan area and Middle Tennessee. As of 2020 Uni ...

. After serving as mayor, Berry continued to practice law until his death. He died at home in Franklin on August 27, 1910, and is buried at Mt. Hope Cemetery.

References

*Whitson, L. D. ''Personal Sketches of Members of the Forty-Fourth General Assembly of Tennessee''. Nashville, TN: Southern Methodist Publishing House, 1885. *Hale, Will T., and Merritt, Dixon A. ''A History of Tennessee and Tennesseans''. Chicago, IL: Lewis Publishing Company, 1913. *Tennessee Vital Statistics, Death Certificate, 1910, No. ER 96067 {{DEFAULTSORT:Berry, Cabell R Mayors of places in Tennessee Democratic Party members of the Tennessee House of Representatives Democratic Party Tennessee state senators Lieutenant governors of Tennessee 1848 births 1910 deaths 19th-century members of the Tennessee General Assembly