Olivia

Over the years among the Lumbee people a variety of stories have been shared and or written about what happened to Henry Berry Lowrie, a hero of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina. Some say that he was killed accidently and buried somewhere in Robeson County in an unmarked grave. Others say that he left the area dressed as a soldier and fled to another state, perhaps Tennessee or that he went to Texas. Some say that he left and that he took with him a large amount of money that was in a safe that he was said to have stolen. With the stolen money he was supposed to have started a new life.

My ancestry is from the family of Henry Berry. My father was the son of Abner Lowry who was the son of Henry Berry’s brother Calvin Lowry. Their parents were Allen Lowry and Mary Cumbo. That makes Henry Berry my great, great, great uncle. Calvin Lowry was saved at the last minute from being shot by the home guard with his dad and brothers. As a child and through most of my early years very little was said in my family about Henry Berry and I did not understand why. Later as I reached my early teen years I began to hear people outside of the family talk about him. When I asked questions of my father, Theodore Lowry, he continued to say very little. I had the feeling that there was an unwritten silence about him that either said that Henry Berry did something wrong or that the family was protecting him from something. As time went by and I found material written about him and what started his activities during the Civil War and what happened during reconstruction, I began to have a better understanding of the silence under which I had grown up. My family was still very much in the protective mode.

As a young adult I asked my father, who was born April 5, 1914, if he knew what happened to Henry Berry. The following is what he replied:

When I was a young boy of about seven or eight, one Sunday afternoon I was sitting with my father on the front porch of our house in the Hopewell community. It was either 1921 or 1922. A fine looking dark car pulled into the driveway and stopped in front of the house. My father remained seated until the car stopped and when the car door opened a well dressed man in a dark suit got out of the car and closed the door. Then my father got up and walked over to the car and greeted the man warmly and then the two of them walked toward the back of the house. Behind the house were the outdoor kitchen, barns, and some fenced in animal lots. I remained on the steps of the porch in the front of the house. After a relatively short period of time the two of them came back to the car and the well dressed man opened the door, climbed in, started the engine and drove away as my father stood and watched. When he came back to the porch he looked at me and said, “That was Henry Berry”.

My father was a man of very few words and when he spoke I listened. Even though there are many other stories out there I believe what my dad told me. It is even more believable because Henry Berry and my grandpa were close in age and grew up together. My father did not tell me where or how Henry Berry went when he left the area but the story certainly proves that he left his home alive!!!!!

My Family:

Theodore McClean Lowry

Dollie Vivian Locklear Lowry

Alvin Ray Lowry

Olivia Schwartz Lowry

Perry Christopher Lowry