Montgomery County NcArchives Obituaries.....DeBerry, Edmund November 12, 1859 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/nc/ncfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Carolyn Shank Carolynshank@msn.com November 18, 2007, 3:10 pm Thurs. Dec. 22, 1859 North Carolina Argus -- Another of North Carolina's venerable and distinguished citizens is gone. The HON. EDMUND DeBERRY died at his residence in Montgomery County on the 12th instant at an advanced age. This announcement will be received with deep regret by his numerous friends. He was a man universally respected for his integrity of character and kindness of disposition, and known for the sterling qualities of his mind, which had been enriched by extensive reading and varied experience of the world. MR. DeBERRY was truly a self-made man, the architect of his own fortune -- and one of the numerous examples in this republican government of a poor and relatively obscure young man rising to eminence and distinction by the force of his intellect and moral rectitude. In early life, he was a mechanic, (a carpenter and a mill wright), and with but limited English education, but such was his taste for reading and knowledge, that everything he could spare from the support of a large and increasing family, he laid out for books and accumulated a large and well selected library, such as is rarely met with in any community. Mr. DeBERRY filled the office of Justice of the Peace in his county for a number of years, and for ought the writer of this brief notice knows to the contrary, from his early manhood until the day of his death. He also represented the County of Montgomery in the Senate of the State Legislature several years with ability and credit to himself, and the constituency that sent him there. In 1829, the Whigs of his Congressional District brought him out as a candidate for Congress in opposition to the HON. JOHN A. CAMERON of Fayetteville, the Democratic candidate, and elected him by a handsome majority over his Democratic competitor. In 1831, he was a candidate for reelection, but was opposed and defeated by LAUGHLIN BETHUNE of Cumberland County, Democrat, by a majority that MR. BETHUNE had gotten over him at a preceding election. He was then elected over MR. BETHUNE IN 1835, '36, and '37, by large and increased majorities at each election. In 1839 he was opposed by WILLIAM A. MORRIS, of Anson County, a talented and popular Democrat, but was elected over MR. MORRIS by a majority of about 700 votes. He was again elected in 1841, if the writer's memory serves him correctly, without opposition. The State was then redistricted and Randolph, Guilford and Davidson Counties taken in his district instead of other counties left out. In 1843, over GEORGE C. MENDENHALL of Guilford County, by a large majority,( both of the same politics). He then retired from public life for several years. The district was again altered and two talented and distinguished Whigs, A. LITTLE, ESQ. of Anson and GENERAL ALFRED DOCKERY of Richmond were candidates opposed by HON. GREEN W. CALDWELL of Charlotte, Democrat. Neither of the friends of MR. LITTLE or GENERAL DOCKERY were wiling to give way to the other, nor were they willing that their party should suffer defeat. They, therefore, magnanimously submitted the matter to a district convention, which resulted in the nomination of the faithful and well-tried veteran, EDMUND DeBERRY, who accepted, with the declaration that it should be the last time that he would appear before the public as a candidate for political favor. With the expiration of his term in that Congress ended his political career, except occasionally by particular request he would address political assemblages; and the last time the writer ever heard him was in Wadesboro' at a large Whig meeting in April last, and the earnest appeals of the venerable patriot to the conservative Whigs in behalf of the Union and his country, ought to be long remembered and cherished. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/nc/montgomery/obits/d/deberry939ob.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/ncfiles/ File size: 4.4 Kb