Skip to content
Orange County Public Library (opens the library’s website in a new tab)

Local figure

Harriet Morehead Berry

Harriet Morehead Berry (1877–1940) was born in Hillsborough and worked in Chapel Hill for the North Carolina Geological and Economic Survey from 1901, rising to acting head in 1917. Her Good Roads lobbying led to the 1921 state highway law. She died at her Chapel Hill home; I-40 through Orange County bears her name.

Source: NC Department of Natural and Cultural Resources: Harriet M. Berry 1877-1940 (G-100)

Orange County Indexed has not yet linked an indexed work directly to Harriet Morehead Berry. The biography and the dated events on this page provide sources about Harriet Morehead Berry’s life and work. Suggest a source.

Research sources

Life and Orange County connections

Storylines this person is part of, in date order. Each has its own page.

StorylineHighways through Orange County, 1911–19241911–1924 · 17 events · Hillsboro fought to be on the Central Highway, and between 1911 and 1924 hard roads were built across Orange County. In 1911 Hillsboro, joined by delegations from Durham and Mebane, pressed its claim, and the trustees chose the route by way of Hillsboro and Mebane. In 1919 the commissioners let the national highway across the county. The 1921 Highway Act, championed by Harriet Morehead Berry of Hillsborough, paid for a state network whose Central Highway ran through the town. The state bridged the Eno at Hillsboro in 1922, and the Durham-Hillsboro highway opened in 1924, after paving had sent traffic through Chapel Hill and onto a private detour whose owner charged drivers. StorylineLiberty Loans in Orange County, 1917–19191917–1919 · 9 events · Orange County passed its allotments in the later Liberty Loan drives of 1917 to 1919, and women's committees raised much of the money. Hillsborough banker Paul C. Collins chaired the county men's committee for all four loans. For the second, a women's committee under Mrs. James H. Webb raised $79,800. In the third, with Harriet M. Berry as county chairman, women organized in every township made $59,600 of the county's $99,150 in sales. Influenza called off a Liberty Day meeting in 1918, but Orange passed its fourth-loan allotment, and a committee of Black residents in Hillsborough Township raised $1,350 from 27 Black subscribers. In May 1919 the county passed its Victory Liberty Loan allotment too. StorylineThe Central Highway route fight, 1921–19221921–1922 · 8 events · The route of the Central Highway, the trunk road of the state network paid for by the 1921 Highway Act that Harriet Morehead Berry of Hillsborough championed, set off a fight in Orange County. In August 1921 the county commissioners weighed eastern and western 'Frog Pond' routes, and eastern Chapel Hill township residents demanded County Attorney A. H. Graham's discharge. In November a Hillsborough mass meeting resolved to fight the State Highway Commission's plan to carry the highway north of the courthouse. A Hillsborough group protested in Raleigh on March 1, 1922, Commissioner John Sprunt Hill was burned in effigy the next day, and the town board vowed to keep fighting in the state courts.

Dated events connected with this person, in date order. See these 8 dated events in the chronology →

During their lifetime

  1. The Berry family moves to Sunnyside south of Hillsborough Dr. John and Mary Strayhorn Berry moved from their West King Street house, now known as Two Chimneys, to Sunnyside, the Berry family plantation two miles south of town. Mary Berry tutored her daughter Harriet at home until she was twelve. People: Mary E. Strayhorn Berry, Harriet Morehead Berry Place: Hillsborough · Also named: Dr. John Berry, Mary Berry · Also mentions: Sunnyside, West King StreetSearch the index · NC DNCR: Harriet M. Berry 1877-1940 (G-100)
  2. Harriet Berry works for the state Geological and Economic Survey in Chapel Hill Berry began work in Chapel Hill with the North Carolina Geological and Economic Survey in 1901 and rose from stenographer to secretary and, in 1917, acting head. She left in 1921, the year her Good Roads lobbying produced the state highway commission law. People: Joseph Hyde Pratt Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · NC Department of Natural and Cultural Resources: Harriet M. Berry 1877-1940 (G-100) · Also: Orange County Observer (Hillsborough), February 14, 1901, p. 3
  3. Orange County women's committees sell $59,600 in Third Liberty Loan bonds With Harriet M. Berry of Chapel Hill as county chairman, women organized in every township made $59,600 of the county's $99,150 in Third Liberty Loan sales, more than two-thirds of the allotment. Mrs. T. J. Wilson's Chapel Hill committee took 85 subscriptions for $18,500 and the Hillsborough committee raised $36,000. People: Harriet Morehead Berry Place: Orange County · Also named: Mrs. T. J. WilsonSearch the index · Documenting the American South: A Record of the War Activities in Orange County, North Carolina, 1917-1919, p. 63
  4. Orange County subscribes $331,700 to the Fourth Liberty Loan despite the influenza ban The county meeting planned for Liberty Day, October 12, 1918, was called off when the epidemic closed public gatherings, but Orange subscribed $331,700 against a $300,000 allotment. Hillsborough Township gave about $175,000 on a $55,000 allotment, and the women's committees raised $227,300. People: Harriet Morehead Berry, Paul C. Collins Place: Orange CountySearch the index · Documenting the American South: A Record of the War Activities in Orange County, North Carolina, 1917-1919, p. 65
  5. Orange County subscribes $137,050 to the Victory Liberty Loan In the fifth, or Victory, Liberty Loan the county subscribed $137,050 against a $112,500 allotment, from 202 men, 70 women and 4 corporations. The women's committee reported $67,300 obtained by direct solicitation. People: Harriet Morehead Berry, W. S. Roberson Place: Orange CountySearch the index · Documenting the American South: A Record of the War Activities in Orange County, North Carolina, 1917-1919, p. 69
  6. The legislature passes the Highway Act championed by Harriet Morehead Berry of Hillsborough The 1921 act paid for a state highway network tying together the main cities and county seats. Its trunk route, the Central Highway (later U.S. 70), ran straight through Hillsborough. Place: HillsboroughSearch the index · NC Historic Preservation Office: Richard L. Mattson, History and Architecture of Orange County (1996), p. 44
  7. Good-roads advocate Harriet Morehead Berry is buried in the Old Chapel Hill Cemetery Harriet Morehead Berry (1877-1940), who campaigned for North Carolina road improvements in the 1920s, died on March 24, 1940, at the Chapel Hill home of her sister, Mrs. Kent J. Brown, and was buried in the cemetery the next afternoon after a service there led by Rev. Alfred S. Lawrence. Place: Old Chapel Hill Cemetery, South Road (NC 54) and Country Club Road, Chapel Hill · Also named: Alfred S. LawrenceSearch the index · NC State Historic Preservation Office: Old Chapel Hill Cemetery, National Register nomination (OR0496), p. 23 · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, March 29, 1940, p. 4

After their death in 1940

Later events: estates and burials, and the buildings, honors and histories that remember them.

  1. I-40 through Orange County is named the Harriet Morehead Berry Freeway The Board of Transportation named a section of Interstate 40 through Orange County for Berry, the Hillsborough-born Good Roads campaigner. The Daily Tar Heel reported that the 12-mile stretch from U.S. 15-501 to Interstate 85 was to be dedicated to her on Thursday, February 27, 1986, as the first major North Carolina highway named for a woman. A state highway marker to her was cast the same year for NC 86 at I-40 north of Chapel Hill. Place: Orange County · Also mentions: U.S. 15-501Search the index · NC Department of Natural and Cultural Resources: Harriet M. Berry 1877-1940 (G-100) · Also: The Daily Tar Heel, February 24, 1986, p. 4

Places in this person’s story

Buildings, schools, churches and other sites named in the dated events on this page, the most often named first. The map shows them all.

Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Site locations from the N.C. State Historic Preservation Office survey, Open Orange, Orange County GIS, OpenStreetMap and a few other published sources named on each site’s page; town and community pins show approximate locations.

All places and the county map →

People named in the same events

People named in the same dated entries as Harriet Morehead Berry, those sharing the most entries first. Each line links one of the shared entries in the chronology, where its source is cited. A shared entry shows these people in the same event, not how well they knew each other.

Research sources

Sources and research tools for this person. For ready-made searches of other catalogs, see Search further. Research guide: Trace a family through historical records.

Background

Records of the time

Collections and databases

  • NC LIVE: prepared search for Harriet Morehead Berry Library card Search NC LIVE for this subject and Orange County. You can change the search terms. Sign in through your North Carolina library to access the materials.
  • Ancestry Library Edition In the libraryOrange County Public Library Census, birth, death and marriage records, and more, free on the public computers at OCPL libraries

Local help

Search further

Search other catalogs and collections for this name. Results may include other people with the same name and have not been reviewed by the Friends.

Books about Harriet Morehead Berry

Find copies at other libraries

Photographs, papers, and newspapers

Historical records and collections

These searches use Harriet Morehead Berry’s name without birth or death dates, so results may include namesakes. Links open in a new tab.

Found a book OCPL doesn’t own? You can often borrow it through interlibrary loan at OCPL.

More to discover

Keep Reading Local

The Friends connect people with new library materials, local writers and publishers, and resources documenting Orange County.

Browse New Arrivals → Meet Local Authors → Explore Local Publishers →
Two mice reading back to back against a leaf, with the hand-lettered words Friends of the Orange County Public Library
Illustration by Caldecott Medalist Matthew Cordell, gifted to the Friends 2026