David, John, and Robert Berwick, Ogle County

The three sons of David and Jessie Douglas Berwick were sent west in 1893. According to family trees, Jessie Berwick died in 1890 or 1891. David, the eldest, was born in Glasgow Scotland in 1879 and the second eldest, John, was born in Brooklyn in 1881.

The three boys are not reported in any of the censuses during their lives in Illinois, but we know that they were assigned homes close together in Ogle County. John wrote in his letter that he saw his brothers often. John (1881 - 1964) left Illinois at about age 15 to go to Idaho according to another orphan's letter in 1894. He was assigned to the Darwin D. Emory family in Ogle County, but this family remained in Illinois. While with the Emory family John reported that he attended school and church regularly and that the family treated him kindly. He served in the Navy from 1901 to 1905 aboard the U.S.S. Oregon. In 1908 he married Dollie Morgan at Ft. Scott, KS. Dollie died in 1919, and John remarried in Oregon to Mossie Hill (1923). Between his marriages (1920 census) he lived in Santa Cruz CA where he managed a lumberyard. John and Mossie had one son, Douglas William Berwick and a daughter, Doris M. Berwick. In 1930 they were living in Salem, OR where John was working as an accountant with the State Industrial Commission. John died in Salem on Jun 8 1964. John apparently saw a great deal of the world after going West!

David, (1879 - 1954) the eldest, was assigned to Frederick Brayton. David did not write any letters, but census records show that he moved to the same county in Idaho (Blaine) by 1900 as his brother did. He boarded with the William and Dora Eastwood family on their farm. In 1910 David was married to Elsie Mann and had two children, Glenn and Ernest. they lived in Monterey, CA where David was a "sticker" in a mill. In 1920 David was a mail carrier in Monterey and the family had added a daughter, Davida. In 1930 David and Elsie owned their own home in Monterey CA. David was still working as a mail carrier in Monterey. He died in 1964 in Walnut Creek, CA.

Robert Berwick, (1886 - 1964) the youngest of the Berwick brothers was assigned to Jacob Wagner, a farmer in Myrtle, IL (Ogle Co.). Mr. Wagner wrote a letter in 1894, stating that he and his wife had no children and enjoyed the fact that little "Robbie" called them mama and papa. The first official record of Robert Berwick comes from 1912, when he was a mail carrier in the Concord district of Contra Costa CO, CA. He also registered for the draft in 1917 and served during WWI at the age of 30. He never married until he was 41 years old. His wife was Emma Vessing and they had no children. David was the last of the brothers to die, in 1964.

These boys enjoyed seeing each other often while living in Illinois and after Robert and David moved to California, their visits to each other frequently appeared in news items in the Contra Costa newspaper.