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Friar Moses Berry
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an ordinary or extraordinary man?
Ozarks African American Heritage Museum
http://www.oaahm.org/id3.html
&
Theotokos Unexpected Joy Mission
14617 West Farm Rd. 74
Ash Grove, MO 65604
credits at bottom of page.
Article from the Joplin, MO. Globe Sunday,
July 16, 2000, page 4A:
this article is located off site, please use your
"back" to return here.
Rev. Moses Berry, an extraordinary man.
The Philadelphia Sunday Sun, a african-american newspaper published an article relating the ancestry of Rev. Moses Berry.
" The stories of many of these Missouri African Americans have been passed down and have become part of individual family heritage. Through the vision of Father Moses Berry, one family memories have become a lens through which we can examine aspects of the Black experience from its roots in slavery, through reconstruction and into the twenty-first century.
Wallace White was a fourteen
year-old slave when Union troops happened upon him as he was
plowing in a field. Members of Missouri Sixth Cavalry invited
Wallace to join them and, without hesitation, he joined the
troop, riding off on his master’s mule with the padlock from
his chains as his only possession.
He served with the Union forces but in the end was the only troop
member to be denied a pension.
After the war Wallace settled in Missouri, where he was a carpenter and builder, and he and his wife Daisy had five children. Their daughter, Mamie, wed Luther Berry and moved to a forty-acre farm in Ash Grove, Missouri that had been purchased by Luther’s father, William Berry, in the 1870s. William, who was free-born, had married Caroline Boone from the plantation of Nathan Boone, son of frontiersman Daniel Boone.
William’s grandson, Father Moses Berry, inherited the farm in 1996. As the heir to the family homestead he also become the owner of numerous artifacts and the repository of countless stories and memories of the African Americans who populated the area. Family members had managed to maintain numerous documents, photographs, textiles and artifacts, some dating from the eighteenth century. Realizing that these items where both personally and historically significant, Father Berry began to work toward the creation of a museum that would present a more inclusionary Ozarks history.
The Ozarks African American
Heritage Museum (OAAHM) began as portable display of photographs
and artifacts that was exhibited around the state. Early on it
became apparent that the pieces were, because of both their
uniqueness and age, extremely fragile and were in dire need of a
museum quality exhibition space. In October of 2002 Father
Berry’s hard work came to fruition and the Ozarks African
American Heritage Museum opened for its first visitors.
The museum, while small, has an outstanding collection of rare
photographs, crafts, textiles, clothing and handcrafted
furniture. Every single item is a gem beyond price, but as
always, I have a few real favorites.
The quilt collection alone is
worth the trip. The oldest is a telling quilt that dates from the
1790’s, the most unusual is a yoyo quilt. The yoyo pattern
is extremely time-consuming and complicated and for that reason
this pattern was used most often in runners, rarely in quilts.
An unfinished quilt, sewn in the double wedding ring pattern, was
the most poignant for me. Caroline Boone began sewing the quilt
while she was enslaved and freedom came before she completed it.
She refused to finish the quilt after the war and when asked she
stated that she would not complete in freedom anything begun in
slavery. This beautifully crafted quilt, because it is
unfinished, offers the visitor an opportunity to carefully
examine the stitches on the underside of the piece.
The collection of slavery era artifacts includes neck chains, a
screw lock, ankle irons and a heavy iron ball used to limit a
slave’s mobility.
An authentic slave tag was donated to the museum and the tag
proved to be from lot number five of a group of slaves sold in
Alexandria, Virginia. As it turned out, this is the very lot in
which Daisy was sold.
Several pieces of handmade furniture are not to be missed. A
wooden cabinet given to Caroline’s mother, Marie Boone, by
Nathan Boone, who is believed to have been her father, is an
intriguing piece of the collection. Two chairs, a child’s
chair crafted by African American artisan L. Snowden, renowned
for his skill in the 1870s and a slave chair are equally
arresting. The chair made for a use in a slave residence is
noticeably smaller than average chair.
This is reflective of the fact that materials, even those as
accessible as wood, were often difficult to obtain.
There are many more things to see including a first edition of
Uncle Tom’s Cabin and an 1890s, hand-tatted topsy-turvy
doll. The doll, with a slave on one end and a Caribbean female on
the other, has an outstanding example of rare double tatting on
the blouse of the island lady.
Photographs, eight of ex-slaves, and portraits that precede the
art of photography, fill the walls of the museum. Many of the
pictures are family members but there are a number of non-related
individuals who lived in the area.
The museum is located at 107 W. Main Street in Ash Grove, MO,
twenty miles northwest of Springfield. It is open Tuesday through
Thursday from 9-1 and on Saturdays from 10-2. Private and group
tours are by appointment.
Nearby is the Old Negro
Cemetery, listed on the Greene County Register of Historic Sites
and the Missouri State Historical Registry. Dating from 1875, the
year in which William Berry designated a portion of his land for
the burial of slaves, Indians and paupers, it is one of the
oldest African American owned cemeteries in the United States.
The cemetery contains forty-eight graves, some belonging to
relatives of Harriet Tubman, and three Osage Indian burial
mounds.
The Old Negro Cemetery can be reached by traveling north on Main
Street to Frasier Street. Turn left onto Frasier and travel to
Woodbine Road. Turn right onto Woodbine Road and follow the road
until you see the entrance to the cemetery on the right."
The other side of his life, his Eastern Orthodox ministry, was related in articles from the Rural Missourian; January 2002, the Midwest Diocese Theotokos "Unexpected Joy" Mission article
Theotokos
"Unexpected Joy" Mission
Clergy
Rev. Moses Berry, Priest-in-Charge
417-751-2761
From I-44
Take Willard/West Bypass
exit West towards Willard. Continue through Willard to Ash Grove.
Continue through Ash Grove past stop light to railroad crossing
at Frazier St. Left on Frazier to Woodbine. Right on Woodbine 1/2
mile to Church.
Parish Background
Theotokos "Unexpected
Joy" Mission was founded in 1998 when Fr. Moses returned to
his family home in Ash Grove in order to maintain an historic
cemetery on the family property. The parish was received into the
OCA in 2000. Members come from Springfield and surrounding
communities. We follow the Julian calendar, and all services are
in English.
Missouri
Mission Literally "Out of Room!" 
ASH GROVE, MO - Faithful at the Theotokos
"Unexpected Joy" Mission here have good reason to
appeal for funds to build a new church. With as many as 100
people attending services on major feasts and Pascha,
the mission's current building - a pre-fab
structure measuring a mere 30' x 15' - is simply too small! "We hope to raise
$70,000 to construct a simple but attractive temple and
hall," says Father Moses Berry. "The foundation
and flooring for the new building have already been donated,
along with a lot of `sweat equity.' But we welcome any
assistance faithful throughout the diocese could offer." Located on property that
also serves as home to an historic cemetery dedicated in 1875 for
the burial of "slaves, paupers, and Indians who were not
permitted in the town's main cemetery," according to Father
Berry, the mission has attracted a great deal of attention since
it was received into the Orthodox Church in America several years
ago. Father Berry also maintains the Ozarks Afro-American
Heritage Museum, which provides a unique venue to introduce the
public to Orthodox Christianity.
From the Northwestern Indiana (nwitimesonline )
Descendant of slaves conducts Lenten series at Virgin Mary Orthodox
Moses Berry, a priest with the Orthodox Christian Church in America, will conduct a series of Lenten talks, open to the public, next weekend at The Protection of The Virgin Mary Orthodox Church, 8600 Grand Blvd.,Merrillville.
While researching the roots of Christianity
in Africa, Fr. Berry, then a third-generation African Methodist
Episcopal pastor, discovered that the Orthodox Church has
sustained a significant presence in Africa since the first
century. Further studies led him to convert to Orthodoxy where he
has been a pastor of various congregations for more than 20
years.
In 1998, Berry returned to his family home in the small community
of Ash Grove, Mo., where he founded Theotokos "Unexpected
Joy" Mission, a tiny 30- by 15-foot church. In his frequent
talks around the country, Berry shares his experiences with many
people and organizations, especially encouraging children to
believe in themselves and to believe that they can achieve their
dreams.
Berry, whose ancestry can be traced to Daniel Boone's youngest
son Nathan, also is dedicated to the preservation of a treasury
of inherited family artifacts -- including slave neck irons,
shackles, more than 100 photos and quilts -- and the restoration
of an historic cemetery located on his property in Ash Grove. The
plot of land was set aside in 1875 by his great-grandparents,
former slaves William and Caroline Berry, for the burial of
slaves, American Indians and paupers. The cemetery has been
recognized by the Missouri State Historical Registry as one of
the Midwest's oldest slave cemeteries. The artifacts and cemetery
have become part of the Ozarks Afro-American Heritage Museum,
which opened in Ash Grove last October.
The mission, the museum and the cemetery have attracted many
celebrity visitors from nearby Branson. National Geographic
recently filmed and televised a program entitled
"African-American Heritage Museum of the Ozarks."
Berry, in his early 50s, is founder and president of the
Brotherhood of St. Moses the Black, an Orthodox society whose
mission is to bring the faith of Orthodox Christianity to African
Americans and others of African descent. Berry also has served as
a contributing writer of the book "An Unbroken Circle,"
and is co-publisher of "The Path to Confession."
Credits: All information above is
used for educational purposes only.
http://www.philasun.com/travel2.html Philadelphia Sun
http://www.nwitimes.com/articles/2003/03/08/news/community/b56a9e3899779a6986256ce2007cb1eb.txt
http://www.midwestdiocese.org/id83.htm
http://www.oaahm.org/id3.html