JAMES BEAM farmer; P. O. Blue River; owns 120 acres in Secs. 14 and 23; he was born in Huntingdon Co., N. J., in the year 1816; he is a son of John and Lydia Arch; he spent the early years of his life in his native State, where his time was employed principally as a farm laborer; in the year 1850, he went to Illinois and located in Kane Co., and engaged in farming, remaining there until 1857, when he came to this county and bought some Government land, which he afterward sold, and bought the farm upon which he now lives. He was married in 1841 to Miss Celinda Blain, of New Jersey, by whom he had thirteen children, eight of whom are now living.

This biography generously submitted by Roxanne Munns.