LEWIS BEAL. A comparatively early settler of Delaware county, and
one who has borne his full share
of building up
the community where he located,
having been identified with the best
interests since casting his lot there up to the present time, is Lewis Beal, of
the town of Delhi, a brief biographical sketch of whom is here
inserted.
Mr. Beal is a New Englander
by birth and comes of a long and honorable line of New England ancestry. He was born in the town of Lyme, N. H., as were also his parents, Calvin and Sarah (Franklin) Beal. His father was born in 1791. He was reared in
his native place and resided there till after he reached his majority. He
married December 14, 1814. About the same date he moved to Madison county, N. Y., where he lived till 1821. Returning
to his native place he remained there till 1836, and moved thence to Woodstock, Conn. In 1843 he moved to Massachusetts, locating in the town of Natick, which continued to be his residence till the time
of his death, which occurred in 1851 while he was on a visit to his old home in
New Hampshire. He was a shoe-maker by trade, an industrious man and
met with reasonably fair success.
Mr. Beal's mother, who bore
the maiden name of Sarah Franklin, was born in 1794, and died in 1852,
surviving her husband only one year. She possessed many of the best virtues of
her sex, being attentive to her domestic duties, much devoted to her family,
and an earnest Christian, having been a life-long member of the Baptist church.
The parents of these, that
is the grandparents of the subject of this notice, lived during the period of
the revolution by which the independence of America was won, and they were in their several capacities
actors in the thrilling events of those times. James Beal, the paternal
grandfather, was born about
1762, being a native of Rhode Island. He entered the service of the colonies at the age of sixteen,
enlisting as one of the minute men, and remained in the service till after the
cessation of hostilities. When the war was over, he married, and shortly
afterwards started with his wife and one child, which had been born to them in
the upper country of New Hampshire. His child died on the way, but the parents continued their journey and
located in what was afterwards the town of Lyme, N. H., where they subsequently lived and died; he
dying in the year 1825. The wife of James Beal, being the paternal grandmother
of the subject of this notice, bore the maiden name of Urania Tucker. She was a
daughter of Captain Stephen Tucker, who served with distinction in the
Revolution, enlisting from Connecticut. She was born in 1765, and died in 1847.
Abel Franklin, the maternal
grandfather of Lewis Beal, was born about 1760 in the town of Norton, Mass. He was a volunteer in the colonies war with Great Britain for independence. After the close of that war he
settled in his native state and lived a number of years. He was a man of strong
religious temperament, having been for many years a deacon in the Baptist
church. His wife bore the maiden name of Mary Andrews. She came also of old Massachusetts stock, distinguished for their strong religious
convictions.
In the family to which the
subject of this notice belonged there were fourteen children, nine boys and
five girls, as follows— Sarah, Calvin F., Lewis (the subject hereof),
Charlotte, James M., Urania. George W., Cyrus H., Eleazar C., Jesse N., Merrill
C., Charles H., Mary A. and William H.
Lewis Beal, who is the
subject proper of this sketch, was born on the fourth day of January, 1818.
Being the third of a large family, and his parents being only in moderately
good circumstances, his early educational advantages were very limited. He
received only the rudiments of a common English education. He was bound out at
the age of fourteen to an uncle and lived with him till he was twenty-one years
of age, growing up on a farm and being trained to the habits of industry and
usefulness common to farm life. When he had reached his majority he started out
in search of his fortunes, bearing with him the good wishes of his uncle and
aunt with whom he had lived. The fact that he had their good wishes is
mentioned because it was only their parting benediction which he bore away
from their roof. He made his first stop in Connecticut, where he found employment as a laborer and followed
this for two years and a half. He then went to Natick, Mass., this being in 1840, where he was engaged as an
employe in a shoe factory. He worked hard and saved his wages, and by so doing
was enabled in 1844 to marry, taking at that date to share his life's fortunes
Miss Elizabeth Fogg, then of Massachusetts, but a native of New Hampshire, having been born in 1823. He resided in Massachusetts engaged in the manufacturing of shoes and later in
contracting till 1855. He then fell in with the great tide of emigration
streaming steadily towards the West, and came that year to Iowa, settling in the town of Delhi, Delaware county. As the result of his hard labor and
successful
business ventures, he
brought with him to this county about $8,000.00. This he invested in real
estate about Delhi. By the depreciation of values he lost the most of
it and in 1865 found himself where he had started twenty-five years before—on
the bottom round of the ladder. He purchased a farm near Delhi and located on it and heroically set to work to
regain what he had lost. By hard work and good management each succeeding year
since has witnessed an improvement in his condition until he now owns five
hundred and sixty-six acres of as good land as there is in the county, all well
improved and stocked with a good grade of cattle, horses and hogs.
Mr. Beal has a pleasant
home. He has reared up around him a family of six children, most of them now
being grown. He has three dead, the full list in the order of their ages, being
as follows— Sarah, who was married to Benjamin Clough, and died in 1868; two of
the name of Franklin L., who died in infancy; Rosina, wife of John D. Keith ;
Mary E., wife of A. L. Gleason; Franklin L.; James M.; Hattie, and Emma, wife
of J. P. Holden, of Delta, Iowa.
Mr. Beal has been too busily
engaged in attending to his own affairs to dabble in politics. He has
nevertheless filled a number of local township offices and has discharged his
duties in these offices with as much zeal and fidelity as he has exhibited in
his own matters. In politics he is a republican and supports the ticket in
full. Having been deprived of the advantages of a good education when growing
up, he knows the difficulties under which the young labor, who must needs win
their bread with the labor of their hands, and he has sought to relieve his
children of this embarassment by giving them the best training possible, at the
same time impressing them also with the necessity of those other virtues of
industry and economy which have been the sure foundations of his own success.
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