Tom Berry, who lived from 1879 to 1951, was the first of three Governors elected from west of the Missouri River since statehood in 1889. He and his wife, Lorena McLain, who lived from 1879 to 1963, are buried in the family plot in Belvidere Cemetery. The Tom Berry family settled on a homestead ranch along Black Pipe Creek, 15 miles south of Belvidere, near the former Washabaugh-Mellette county line, and their immediate family were Baxter and Lyndall Berry, Nell and Burrell Phipps, Faye and Ralph Jones, and Paul and Elaine Berry. Berry assumed office as Governor during drought and grasshoppers in the 1930's, called for a less expensive government, and by 1935 new sources of revenue had been enacted to ease the strain of the Depression. One of the state’s most colorful cattlemen, he was known for his western humor, was a leader of the South Dakota Stockgrowers Association and of the Cowboys of 1902, continually pushed for conservation of grass in the West River and improvement of cattle breeds in the area, had implicit faith in the West River as cattle country, and was a strong advocate of law enforcement.