James Henderson Berry

James Henderson Berry (15 May 1841 - 30 January 1913) was a Democratic United States Senator and served as Governor of the State of Arkansas.

Berry was elected to the Arkansas House of Representatives in 1866. He was reelected in 1872 and in 1874. In his last term he was selected to be Speaker of the House. Berry was the chairman of the Democratic State Convention in 1876. In 1878 he became a judge for the Fourth Circuit Court and served in that post until 1882 when he was elected Governor of Arkansas.

The Berry administration focused on reducing the state debt, creating a State Mental Hospital. Berry did not run for reelection.

James H. Berry died in Bentonville, Arkansas. Berry is buried at the Knights of Pythias Cemetery, Bentonville, Arkansas.

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Arkansas' gross domestic product for 2005 was $87 billion. Its per capita household median income (in current dollars) for 2004 was $35,295, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The state's agriculture outputs are poultry and eggs, soybeans, sorghum, cattle, cotton, rice, hogs, and milk. Its industrial outputs are food processing, electric equipment, fabricated metal products, machinery, paper products, bromine, and vanadium.

Several global companies are headquartered in the northwest corner of Arkansas, including Wal-Mart (the world's largest public corporation by revenue in 2007), J.B. Hunt and Tyson Foods. This area of the state has experienced an economic boom since the 1970s as a result.

In recent years, automobile parts manufacturers have opened factories in eastern Arkansas to support auto plants in other states. Additionally, the city of Conway is the site of a school bus factory.

Tourism is also very important to the Arkansas economy; the official state nickname "The Natural State" was originally created (as "Arkansas Is A Natural") for state tourism advertising in the 1970s, and is still regularly used to this day.

BERRY, James Henderson, (cousin of Campbell Polson Berry), a Senator from Arkansas; born in Jackson County, Ala., May 15, 1841; moved to Arkansas with his parents, who settled in Carroll County in 1848; attended a private school in Berryville, Ark.; entered the Confederate Army in 1861 as a second lieutenant, Sixteenth Regiment, Arkansas Infantry; lost a leg in the Battle of Corinth, Miss., in 1862; studied law; admitted to the bar in 1866 and commenced practice in Berryville, Carroll County, Ark.; elected to the State house of representatives in 1866; reelected in 1872, and served as speaker in 1874; moved to Bentonville, Ark., in 1869 and continued the practice of law; chairman of the Democratic State convention in 1876; judge of the circuit court 1878-1882; elected Governor of Arkansas in 1882; elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate in 1885 to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Augustus H. Garland; reelected in 1889, 1895, and 1901, and served from March 20, 1885, to March 3, 1907; unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1906; chairman, Committee on Public Lands (Fifty-third Congress), Committee on Engrossed Bills (Fifty-ninth Congress); died in Bentonville, Benton County, Ark., January 30, 1913; interment in the Knights of Pythias Cemetery.

Mount Holly Cemetery is the original cemetery in downtown Little Rock, Arkansas and is the resting place for numerous Arkansans of note. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and has been nicknamed "The Westminster Abbey of Arkansas".

The cemetery is the burial place for 10 former Governors of Arkansas, 6 United States Senators, 14 Arkansas Supreme Court Justices, 21 Little Rock Mayors, numerous Arkansas literary figures, Confederate Generals, and other worthies.

Every year in October several drama students from Parkview Arts and Science Magnet High School each select a person buried in the cemetery to research. They then prepare short monologues or dialogues, complete with period costumes, to be performed in front of the researched person's grave. Audiences are led through the cemetery from grave to grave by guides with candles. The event is called "Tales from the Crypt". Although it takes place around the same time as the American holiday Halloween, the event is meant to be historic rather than spooky.

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James Berry Senate Biography

Mount Holly Cemetery

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