Biography: Jacob Beals

JACOB BEALS - A CHRONOLOGY

JACOB BEALS' EARLY LIFE IN EASTERN PA Jacob Beals was born in Pennsylvania in 1806, reportedly "a native of Berks County, of German descent". The same source says that his wife, Elizabeth Bry, was born in Lehigh County, and various deeds show her family owned land in Upper Milford and Lower Macungie Townships there. Elizabeth Brey and Jacob Beals were married in about 1828, probably in Lehigh County. Their first three children, Flora Ann (b.1829), Samuel (b.1831), and Benjamin (b.1833), all reported being born in Lehigh County. Emmaus Moravian Church, Lehigh Co. PA baptismal records list the baptisms of Samuel (1831) and William (1839).

The birth of the children of Jacob Beals in Lehigh County in the 1830's is important to note. One researcher has erroneously proposed that Jacob was a son of the German immigrant David Beels, and arrived as a child in Clarion County in 1806. See David Beels research notes.

The birthplace for Jacob (b.1836) is not yet documented, but expected to also be Lehigh Co. PA, possibly Emmaus. Hiram Beals was born in 1840, in Venango County, and by 1841 the family had settled in Clarion County.

BEALS FARM LOCATIONS
Clarion County had just been formed in 1839, the northern part of the county being taken from the pre-existing Venango County. Jacob Beals' family settled that year in the border area of these two counties. In 1841, a year after Hiram was born in Venango County, the family settled on a 540 acre homestead in Beaver township, Clarion County. In later years the township lines changed and the Jacob Beals farm lay on the border of Richland and Salem townships. The 1870 & 1880 census show them living in Richland township. Pomeroy's 1865 map of Clarion County places the farm just across the border in Salem township, but the 1877 Caldwell's Atlas places it correctly in Richland township. The farm of daughter Flora Ann Beals (and husband Nathan Biery),was across the road from the Jacob Beals farm; Benjamin's land lay a bit east of the Biery's, on the same road. William Beals' farm was just north on the road to Mariasville. These three farms (Flora, Ben, William) were in Salem Township. Samuel and Jacob Beals, Jr. had farms in Beaver township, southwest of Knox and near the location of Emanuel Lutheran cemetery. Jacob's land lay nearer to Knox, and Samuel's farther southwest near the border of Salem township. James F. Beals bought a farm in Richland Twp., Venango County. (It lay immediately adjacent to and west of the homestead of the immigrant David Beels in Salem Township, Clarion County.) Levi inherited his father's farm in Richland township. Hiram Beals' land has not been located on the old maps. He lived in Richland township, apparently farther south than his father. The 1880 census actually places him in St. Petersburg. His family are buried at St. Petersburg.

LIFE IN CLARION COUNTY Jacob and Elizabeth Brey Beals settled in 1841 in what was then Beaver township. Levi was born in August of 1845, and James F. in 1846. Over time, the sons of Jacob purchased their farms nearby.

In the 1850 census, the family resided in Beaver township. Jacob and Elizabeth were in their early forties, and the youngest of their eight children would be about five years old. The oldest child and only daughter, Flora, was 21 and still at home. The older boys Sam, Ben, Jacob, William and Hiram, ages 10 – 19 years, were attending school and the older three were farming as well. It is noted that the mother, and possibly the father, could not read or write. Next to the Beals live Michael and Maria Brae/Brey, Elizabeth Beals' parents. They are 76 and 78 years old, and with them lives Elizabeth's 56 year old but mentally deficient sister Hatty. Their presence here reinforces the expectation that these two families may have migrated from Lehigh County together.

Two residences away lives the family of John Marsh, including daughter Catharine C., age 20. In 1852, two days before Christmas, Samuel Beals, who was then 22, married Catharine Charlotte Marsh. Over the years between 1853 and 1870 they would have seven children. At some point Samuel donated 2 acres of land to the Emanuel Lutheran Church to be used for a cemetery. Samuel was apparently a neighbor of Henry Best who had donated the land upon which the church was built. (Note: Samuel's first wife Catherine Marsh was buried at Emanuel Lutheran when she died in 1880. The church moved to Knox in 1917. Samuel and his second wife were buried in the Knox cemetery, Samuel in 1907, Lizzy in 1911. After 1917, the Emanuel Lutheran cemetery was abandoned and became overgrown.)

Jacob, Jr. married Clara Miller. They may have had one son who died in 1860 at 5 days old, and a daughter Mary A. Beals who died at 4 years old in 1865.

THE CIVIL WAR

When the Civil War began in 1861, Jacob and Elizabeth had been married for thirty-three years. Their older children were getting married and starting families. Flora, age 32, was married to Nathan Biery. Sam was 31, married and with children. Benjamin had married Sarah Shirey. All of the seven Beals sons were of an age to be eligible for military service. As the northern side in the conflict had a far greater pool of men to draw from, a lower percentage were called to serve. In the Beals family, the three brothers who fought in the Civil War were the older two of those still single, and Jacob, Jr.

On the 28th of August, 1862, son Jacob was enrolled as a private and served three years, for the duration of the war. On the same day, Hiram enlisted in Company G, 155th P.V.I., also to serve for three years. William Beals also served briefly. He was drafted on March 15, 1865, three months before the war would end and the boys would begin coming home. On June 2, 1865 Jacob mustered out of war service with his company. William was mustered out on July first.

While all three sons survived the war and returned home, the family was not without sorrow in those years. On March 22, 1861, Benjamin's wife, Sarah, died and was buried at St. Petersburg Lutheran cemetery, in the Shirey plot. In 1862 Benjamin married again, to Elizabeth Shirey, a sister of his first wife. In 1863 this wife died also, and was buried with her sister at St. Petersburg. Three years later, in 1865, Benjamin married for a third time, to Mary M. Himes, and two children from this marriage survived to adulthood: Edwin J. Beals and Mary E. Beals.

THE LATER YEARS

In 1865 Ben was 32, Jake 29, Billy 26, Hiram 25, Levi 20, and James F. eighteen. With the war over, the younger sons resumed their lives. They married, raised children, and bought farms. They augmented their incomes by practiced other trades on the side, like butchering, carpentry, oil drilling, and huckstering (the sale of farm produce in town or door to door). Jake and Clara took in a foster daughter, Olive Bower. (Olive's father died in 1864 when she was two years old; she would grow up to marry Jake's youngest brother, James F. Beals).

In 1866 Hiram Beals married Sarah Eddinger, who, like the Beals family, came from Lehigh County. Sarah had a brother Andrew who was a member of the 155th P.V.I. during the war. William Beals married Susan Kline.

By 1870 Jacob and Elizabeth, in their early sixties, had two children remained at home, Levi, aged twenty-three, and James F. aged twenty-two. Levi worked at carpentry and James F. hired out as a farm laborer. The township lines had been revised, and their farm lay in Richland Twp., Clarion County.

In February of 1872 Levi married Sarah Kribbs. At about the same time, James F. married Adeline Kribbs. James F. and Adeline had two children, a daughter Bernice, and a son Charles born in about 1874.

By January of 1877, son Jacob, Jr. must have been ill and realized he hadn't long to live. He wrote out his will, providing for his wife and leaving a large bequest to his foster daughter Olive Bower, in the form of an annual stipend until she reached the age of twenty-one, at which time she would receive the remainder. Three months later, on Mar.9, he died. He was buried at Emanuel Lutheran Cemetery, and as stipulated in his will, a large marble gravestone was erected. Jacob's stone is in the second row and a bit to the left of the small front row stone that reads "infant son of J & C Beals died May (21) 1860 Aged 5 days". (In those days, burials were made sequentially rather than in family plots.)

On June 3 1880 Catharine Marsh, wife of Samuel Beals, died and was buried at Emanuel Lutheran cemetery. A son of Sam and Catherine who presumably died as a child, Isaac Beals, is buried there also.

By 1880 Jacob Beals, age 75, and wifeElizabeth, 72, were living in Richland Township with the help of a young 14 year old servant girl. They apparently lived adjacent to son, Levi F. Beals, 34, and his family, including 4 children. Family tradition has it that after marrying, Levi and Sara A. "Sade" Kribbs moved in with Levi's parents. Sade then asked that the Beals house be remodeled to face south rather than west, with a small addition built for parents Jacob and Elizabeth.

On Jan. 18, 1881 Samuel Beals, now 50 years old, remarried, this time to Lizzie Leavy. They had 3 children in the years 1881-1884.

Ada Kribbs Beals, wife of James F. Beals died, and by 1882 he remarried. He chose for his second wife the foster daughter of his brother Jacob, Olive Bower. In 1883 she attained the age of twenty-one and received her inheritance. It is apparent from the will of James F. Beals that she gave him this money with which to purchase a farm. Olive and James F. soon had two daughters, Arminta (Mint) born in March 1883, and Florence born in July of 1884. Five years later a son, James Elgie Beals, was born.on 24 April, 1889.

Care of the aging parents was proving beyond the skills or temperament of Sade Kribbs, wife of Levi F. Beals. Jacob and Elizabeth were transferred to the care of their daughter Ann. Ann and Nathan Biery bought a house in Buttertown, near the farm of Levi F. Beals, so that they could take in Ann's parents to live with them. (The Biery house in Buttertown eventually belonged to Fred Beals, son of Levi.)

Jacob Beals did not long survive the move. With grandson Elgie just 18 months old, Jacob Beals died, in October of 1890. He was 83 years old. Instead of being buried at the Emanuel Lutheran cemetery with his son Jacob, Jr. and others of the family, Jacob was laid to rest at Salem Lutheran cemetery. Elizabeth lived on for another nine years, attaining the age of 90 years. She died in January of 1899, and was buried beside Jacob at Salem Lutheran cemetery.

Note - The abandoned Emanuel Lutheran cemetery in 1991 was quite overgrown. Stones were broken and fallen, and graves sunken. By 2006 the cemetery had been cleared of overgrowth. White wooden crosses marked gravesties that lacked stone markers. A small marker noted the original Emanuel Lutheran Church location. One obituary published in the "Seneca Kicker" newspaper for Samuel Beals, son of Jacob, mistakenly says that Samuel was buried at the Beaver Cemetery, "which lies on the Beals homestead". Samuel was actually buried in the Knox cemetery. As to the "Beaver cemetery" (Emanuel Lutheran) being part of the Beals homestead, this too is apparently erroneous, but it does lie adjacent to a Beels farm, (according to Charles Walls of Emlenton PA). See the David Beels page for the Beels family research.

This biography was compiled by Elizabeth Wilson Williams from family knowledge and tradition, and from the data sources found on the pages for Jacob Beals and Elizabeth Brey, and their children.