Biography: Jacob Beals
JACOB BEALS - A CHRONOLOGY
BEALS RESEARCH
The name Beals is English, but many immigrant families Anglicized their names. This particular Beals name may have been Biehl originally, of German origin. The family intermarried with other German families who migrated to western PA at about the same time from the Lehigh County area. (See Brey, Klein). In various records they spelled the name Beal and Beals. Jacob Beals is the progenitor of our line, and although he was born in Pennsylvania, his place of birth has yet to be proven.
Another family in the immediate neighborhood in Salem township, Clarion County PA uses the Beels spelling. While a relationship between these two families is expected, it is not established at present. In this Beels family, the spellings Beals, Beal and Biehl are found. David Beels arrived in Clarion County in 1806, having immigrated from Germany. The History of Clarion County, 1887, by A. J. Davis, p. 608 says that he arrived in Baltimore as a stowaway, was arrested and had to serve out his time (presumably in the Baltimore area). He then resided in Penn's Valley, where he was married. [Today there is a Penn Valley area in Philadelphia, but Penn's Valley, an actual valley, lies in Center County, primarily in Haines and Penn townships. State Rt. 45 running east from State College runs through Penn's Valley. It carried this name in the 19th century.]
In 1806, having two children, the David Beels family moved westward to Clarion County, and eventually settled on and "commenced improving the northwestern corner of the tract now comprising Salem Township." He was given a tract of land by the Fox family of Foxburg, PA, who had received their land grant from William Penn. David Beels is said to have been only the second settler in Salem Township. Eventually the property went to David's son Daniel, then to a grandson David, and today still remains in the family. The old original barn on this property burned in April 1994.
Immediately adjacent to and west of this Beels property was the farm of James Francis Beals, son of Jacob Beals, and our direct ancestor. .
JACOB BEALS' EARLY LIFE IN EASTERN PA
What is known of Jacob Beals is that he was born in Pennsylvania in 1806. A biography of his son Hiram (Commemorative Biographical Record of Central Pennsylvania, 1898 by Beers, p. 1408) says that Jacob was "a native of Berks County, of German descent." The same source says that his wife, Elizabeth Bry, was born in Lehigh County.
Elizabeth's father, Michael Bry/Brey, owned property in Lehigh County, one deed being for two acres in Upper Milford township in 1806. A second deed is for 47 acres, owned by Michael Brey and his wife Maria in Lower Macungie township from 1813 to 1821. Elizabeth Brey and Jacob Beals were married in about 1828, probably in Lehigh County. Their first three children, Flora Ann (1829), Samuel (1831), and Benjamin (1833), all reported being born in Lehigh County. The place of birth for the next two sons, Jacob (1836) and William (1839) is not yet known. Hiram Beals was born in 1840, in Venango County, and by 1841 the family was located in Clarion County.
[The birth of the children of Jacob Beals in Lehigh County in the 1830's is important to note. Some researchers have erroneously proposed that Jacob was the younger brother of the above mentioned Daniel Beels and a son of David Beels, arriving in Clarion County in 1806.]
LIFE IN CLARION COUNTY
The County of Clarion had just been formed in 1839, the northern part of the county being taken from the pre-existing Venango County. Jacob Beals' family settled near this boundary. In 1840 a son, Hiram, was born in Venango County. Levi was born in August of 1845, and James F. in 1846. In Clarion County, the Jacob Beals family initially settled in Beaver Township, northwest of Knox. Gradually the sons of Jacob purchased farms farther west, in Salem Township, except for oldest son Samuel who inherited his father's farm of 540 acres. Eventually Jacob's youngest son, James F. Beals, owned a farm just across the line in Richland Township, Venango County,( immediately adjacent to and west of the immigrant David Beels' farm in Salem Township, Clarion County).
In 1850 the family resided in Beaver Township. Jacob and Elizabeth were in their early forties, and the youngest of their eight children was five years old. Daughter Flora was 21, still at home. Sam, Ben, Jacob, William and Hiram, ages 10 – 19, were attending school; the older three were farming as well. Their mother, and possibly their father, could not read or write.
In 1852, two days before Christmas, Samuel, who was 22, married Catharine Charlotte Marsh. Over the years between 1853 and 1870 they would have seven children.
THE CIVIL WAR
By the time the Civil War began in 1861, Jacob and Elizabeth had been married for thirty-three years. Flora, age 32, was married to Nathan Biery. Sam was 31, married and with children. Benjamin had married Sarah Shirey but she died in March of that year, and was buried at the Emanuel Lutheran cemetery, also known as Beaver cemetery, situated on the Beals homestead.
In 1862 Benjamin married Elizabeth Shirey, a sister of his first wife. On the 28th of August, Jacob (the son of 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
In 1863, on 15 May, Ben's second wife also died and was buried at Emanuel Lutheran cemetery. It was said that he thought of marrying yet a third Shirey girl, but the family turned him away. In March of 1865 Benjamin married Mary M. Himes. They would have two children survive to adulthood, Edwin J. and Mary E. Beals.
William Beals also served briefly in the Civil War. He was not drafted until March 15, 1865, three months before the war would end and the boys would begin coming home. On June 2, 1865 Jacob Beals mustered out of war service with his company. William was mustered out on July first.
THE LATER YEARS
When the war ended Ben was 32, Jacob 29, William 26, Hiram 25, Levi 20, and James F. eighteen. While all had shouldered extra responsibilities at home, three had served directly, and all had survived. With the war over, the younger sons resumed their lives. They married, raised children, bought and improved their farms. They practiced other trades on the side, like butchering, carpentry, oil drilling, and huckstering (the sale of farm produce in town or door to door). Jacob married a woman named Clara. They apparently had no children who survived, and at some point they took in as a foster daughter, Olive Samantha Bower, whose father died in 1864 when she was two years old. (see biography of 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 married Susan Kline, thought to be a daughter of Reuben Kline (see biography of John Kline).
By 1870 Jacob and Elizabeth, in their early sixties, resided in Richland Twp., Clarion County. Two children remained at home, Levi, aged 2, and James F. aged twenty-two. Levi worked at carpentry and James F. hired out as a farm laborer.
Sometime after August of 1870, perhaps in 1871, James F. Beals married Adaline Kribbs. They had two children, a daughter Bernice, and a son Charles born in about 1874.
By January of 1877 Jacob (the son) 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 bequeath 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( Beaver) cemetery, and as stipulated in his will, a large marble gravestone was erected.
On June 3 1880 Catharine Marsh, wife of Samuel Beals, died and was buried at Beaver cemetery. A son of Sam and Catherine who presumably died as a child, Isaac Beals, is buried there also.
By 1880 Jacob and Elizabeth were living in Richland Township with the help of a young 14 year old servant girl. Jacob was 75 and Elizabeth was 72. They apparently lived adjacent to son, Levi F. Bells, 34, and his family (including 4 children), according to the census of that year. Family tradition has it that when Levi married Sara A. "Sade" Kribbs, they 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 remarried, this time to Lizzie Leavy. They had 3 children in the years1881-1884.
Ada 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 Samantha 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 this money to him. 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 Beals. Jacob and Elizabeth were transferred to the care of their daughter's family. Ann and Nathan Biery bought a house in Buttertown 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 did not long survive the move. With the newest grandson, Elgie, just 18 months old, Jacob Beals died, in October of 1890. He was 83 years old. Instead of being buried at the Beaver cemetery on the old homestead with his son Jacob and others of the family, Jacob was laid to rest at Salem Lutheran cemetery, nearer to where they lived in later years. 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.
