Tom Berry 1879-1951
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brwhiz
N 43° 50.480 W 101° 16.287
14T E 317401 N 4856758
This South Dakota Historical Marker is located on the east side of Main Street (South Dakota Highway 63) on the south edge of the Interstate Highway 90 Exit 163 interchange north of the town of Belvidere, South Dakota.
Waymark Code: WMGADW
Location: South Dakota, United States
Date Posted: 02/05/2013
Views: 5
Tom Berry 1879-1951
The 14th Governor of South Dakota serving two terms, 1933 – 1937.
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Tom Berry was the first of three Governors elected from West of the Missouri River since statehood in 1889.
Berry with his wife, Lorena McLain, (1879-1963), are buried in the family plot in the Belvidere Cemetery ½ mile north of this marker.
The Tom Berry Family settled on a homestead ranch along Black Pipe Creek, 15 miles south of Belvidere, near the former Washabaugh-Mellette County line. Their immediate family were Baxter and Lyndall Berry; Nell and Burrell Phipps; Faye and Ralph Jones and Paul and Elaine Berry.
Berry assumed office as Governor in the grip of drought and grasshoppers in the 1930's. He called for a less expensive government and by 1935 new sources of revenue had been enacted to ease the strain of the Great Depression.
He was one of the state’s most colorful cattlemen and was known for his western humor. Berry was one of the leaders of the South Dakota Stockgrowers Association and of the Cowboys of 1902. He continually pushed for conservation of grass in the West River and improvement of cattle breeds in the area.
Tom Berry had implicit faith in the West River as a cattle country, and was a strong advocate of law enforcement.
This marker made possible in 1986 by the Tom Berry Family; the South Dakota State
Historical Society; and the South Dakota Department of Transportation
Text © by Esther Serr.