Page 100 - WPA Book
P. 100
Works Project Administration – Articles from Rockingham County
HOUSES
1. SUBJECT:
John Beery Home. [Beery and Beery are apparently used interchangeably in this entry.]
2. LOCATION:
Three miles northwest of Harrisonburg, Virginia, at Edom, Route 250.
3. DATE:
1804.
4. OWNERS:
Names of original to present day owners, records burnt.
John Berry from ____ record burnt, 1796.
Henry Beery by inheritance from father, John Beery, 1834.
Henry C. Beery from father, Henry Beery, February 21, 1873, $11,550; 231 acres.
J.P. Swank from Henry C. Beery, March 31, 1894, $11, 450, 223 a, 3 r, 35 p, D.B. 48 page 499.
J.R. Liskey from J.P. Swank, April 2, 1906, $11,000, 233 a, 2 r, 22 p. D.B. 80 page 65.
J.N. Swank, present owner, from J.R. Liskey, February 28, 1912, $8,190, 129 ¾ acres. D.B. 95, page 271.
5. DESCRIPTION:
None.
6. HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE:
John Beery (1767-1834) third son of Abraham and Mary Beery (the name has been variously spelled—Beer,
Bier, Biera, Bera, Piere, Piery, Beary, Beery).
Abraham Beery, the progenitor of the family in Virginia, came from Switzerland via Rotterdam, Holland, and
the origin of the name is supposed to have been from the province, Beira.
Abraham Beery, the progenitor of the line, immigrated at the age of eighteen years from Switzerland arriving at
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, October 19, 1736, and later settled in Adams County, of that state. He had been
persecuted in his native country not only from the standpoint of his religious views and faith but also from the
force of law which compelled every able-bodied man at the age of eighteen years to do military service. This
induced him to emigrate to a land of liberty. The Beerys were Mennonites in their religious views and faith,
holding non-resistant principles, and were made a target for fierce persecution at the hands of the European
government as well as from many of its private citizens. Hunted, persecuted, driven from their homes, and
burned at the stake, many of these people in Europe sought safety in America where freedom was promised
them.
By occupation, they were mostly tillers of the soil, and to a great extent settled in colonies where they could
more easily assemble for worship. During the first hundred years of their sojourn in America, they were
engaged strictly in farming pursuits, undergoing the hardships and perils of pioneer life in the colonial new
world, among wild beasts and savage Indians. Beginning in the forest, they by industry and honest methods,
have changed that wild country into meadows, wheat fields and happy homes and secured for their descendants
a financial basis far beyond that which they themselves had the privilege of beginning with.
Among the Beerys in America, there are toda, thousands of their descendants scattered from the Atlantic to the
Pacific, and from Canada to the arid south, the great majority of them a fine people and as in the past so in the
present, devoting their lives to religious principles. Among them are to be found ministers of the gospel in the
various denominations of today, while others of them are still loyal steadfast to their original faith. Included
among them too are many to be found in the various vocations, filling large and responsible places as doctors,
lawyers, teachers, farmers, and intelligent professional men and women in vast numbers.
Page 99 of 482
HOUSES
1. SUBJECT:
John Beery Home. [Beery and Beery are apparently used interchangeably in this entry.]
2. LOCATION:
Three miles northwest of Harrisonburg, Virginia, at Edom, Route 250.
3. DATE:
1804.
4. OWNERS:
Names of original to present day owners, records burnt.
John Berry from ____ record burnt, 1796.
Henry Beery by inheritance from father, John Beery, 1834.
Henry C. Beery from father, Henry Beery, February 21, 1873, $11,550; 231 acres.
J.P. Swank from Henry C. Beery, March 31, 1894, $11, 450, 223 a, 3 r, 35 p, D.B. 48 page 499.
J.R. Liskey from J.P. Swank, April 2, 1906, $11,000, 233 a, 2 r, 22 p. D.B. 80 page 65.
J.N. Swank, present owner, from J.R. Liskey, February 28, 1912, $8,190, 129 ¾ acres. D.B. 95, page 271.
5. DESCRIPTION:
None.
6. HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE:
John Beery (1767-1834) third son of Abraham and Mary Beery (the name has been variously spelled—Beer,
Bier, Biera, Bera, Piere, Piery, Beary, Beery).
Abraham Beery, the progenitor of the family in Virginia, came from Switzerland via Rotterdam, Holland, and
the origin of the name is supposed to have been from the province, Beira.
Abraham Beery, the progenitor of the line, immigrated at the age of eighteen years from Switzerland arriving at
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, October 19, 1736, and later settled in Adams County, of that state. He had been
persecuted in his native country not only from the standpoint of his religious views and faith but also from the
force of law which compelled every able-bodied man at the age of eighteen years to do military service. This
induced him to emigrate to a land of liberty. The Beerys were Mennonites in their religious views and faith,
holding non-resistant principles, and were made a target for fierce persecution at the hands of the European
government as well as from many of its private citizens. Hunted, persecuted, driven from their homes, and
burned at the stake, many of these people in Europe sought safety in America where freedom was promised
them.
By occupation, they were mostly tillers of the soil, and to a great extent settled in colonies where they could
more easily assemble for worship. During the first hundred years of their sojourn in America, they were
engaged strictly in farming pursuits, undergoing the hardships and perils of pioneer life in the colonial new
world, among wild beasts and savage Indians. Beginning in the forest, they by industry and honest methods,
have changed that wild country into meadows, wheat fields and happy homes and secured for their descendants
a financial basis far beyond that which they themselves had the privilege of beginning with.
Among the Beerys in America, there are toda, thousands of their descendants scattered from the Atlantic to the
Pacific, and from Canada to the arid south, the great majority of them a fine people and as in the past so in the
present, devoting their lives to religious principles. Among them are to be found ministers of the gospel in the
various denominations of today, while others of them are still loyal steadfast to their original faith. Included
among them too are many to be found in the various vocations, filling large and responsible places as doctors,
lawyers, teachers, farmers, and intelligent professional men and women in vast numbers.
Page 99 of 482
