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O'NEAL

Berry S. Rigdon (1787 - ca. 1865)

Berry was born in Georgia, the son of Thomas R.S. (1750) and Amy (O'Neal) Rigdon(ca. 1760). He moved to South Carolina after he was grown, married Sarah Blakeley in Barnwell County in 1805 in the Edgefield District, and lived there and in Barnwell District until he returned to Georgia about 1822. Sarah's father was Robert Partin who moved from South Carolina to Tattnall County, where he died in 1817. Her grandfather was John Blakeley. Berry and Sarah had the following children:

John (1809)
Marthenia (1811)
Margaret (1816)
Enoch Miles (1821)

The 1830 Georgia census lists Berry in Appling County. There were 2 males < 10, 1 male 10-15, 1 male 15-20, 1 male 40-50, 2 females < 5, 1 female 10-15, 1 female 15-20, 1 female 40-50. There may have been 2 others from the census records of 1830. After Sarah's death, he married Mary Taylor (1805) about 1823. She was the daughter of John and Mary Taylor. They had the following children, born in Appling County, GA:

Thomas Sylvester (1824)
William Dixon (1825)
Sarah Ann Jane (1827)
Elijah (1831)
Berry George (1838)
Jordan (1840)
Sytha (Sitha??) (1842)
Martha A. P. (1843)
Lucinda (Linda??) (1847)

The census shows him in Appling County in 1830, 1840, and 1850. The 1850 census shows he was a farmer who owned 100 acres of land. During the 1850's however he moved with his wife and some of their children to Irwin County where they located in the portion now Tift County, near the present village of Chula. He died there about 1865.