Ralph Beers is a retired merchant living in North Branford, where he spent most of his life. For a long period he was closely connected with its commercial interests but at length turned over his business to the management of his son and is now enjoying a well earning rest. He was born in North Branford, August 29, 1843, his parents being Frederick W. and Amelia (Palmer) Beers. The former was born in North Branford, as was his father, Samuel Beers, and his grandfather, Pitman Beers. The latter was a son of Wheeler Beers and the ancestral line is traced on back to Westcliff, County Kent, England, where the family flourished at a place called Bere’s Court. William deBere, of Bere’s Court, was bailiff of Dover about 1275. Nicholas deBere held the manor of Bere’s Court in the twentieth year of the reign of Henry III. The first ancestor of the American branch of the family was Martin deBere, of Rochester, Kent, who was living in 1486. He married a daughter of Thomas Nyssell, of Wrotham, England, and among the descendants of this couple in the fifth generation was Captain Richard Bere, who was born in 1607 and was a son of John and Mary (Selby) Bere, the former of Gravesend and the latter of Yorkshire. Captain Bere came to America in 1635, making his home in Watertown, Massachusetts. He represented that town in the general court for thirteen years and during the trouble with the Pequot Indians he commanded a company in several battles and was killed by the Indians near Northfield, Massachusetts, in 1675. He was accompanied to America by his nephew, James deBere, who was the father of Wheeler Beers, the line of descent coming on down through Pitman and Samuel to Frederick W. Beers. The last named was a joiner and carpenter and to some extent engaged in farming, spending his entire life in North Branford. He died in 1860, when his son Ralph was seventeen years of age. His father, Samuel, and his grandfather, Pitman Beers, had also been farmers, while Wheeler Beers was a cloth weaver. Pitman Beers served as tax collector and constable in his home town. Frederick W. Beers married Amelia Palmer, who was also a native of North Branford, and they became the parents of two children, the daughter being Adelaide, who was the wife of James Patterson, of North Branford.

     The only son, Ralph Beers of this review, acquired a district school education in North Branford and there learned the blacksmith’s trade. On the 21st of May, 1866, he became a clerk in the store of Russell Clark at North Branford, there remaining for a few years, after which he was in another store for the same employer at Branford. At a subsequent period he engaged in clerking for Duncan & Bradley at Branford and for F. F. Andrews, a cigar and tobacco merchant of New Haven, with whom he continued for ten years. In 1883 he returned to North Branford and entered into partnership with his former employer, Charles Bradley, becoming half owner of the general mercantile store where seventeen years before he had served as a clerk. This partnership was maintained only a few months, when in the fall of 1883 Mr. Beers bought out the interest of Mr. Bradley and carried on the store under his own name until the fall of 1910, when he turned over the business to his son, Ralph Earle Beers, since which time he has lived retired, enjoying well earned rest.

     On the 2d of June, 1880, Mr. Beers was united in marriage to Miss Sarah Smith, of Northford, Connecticut, who was there born and is a daughter of George Smith, a native of Northford, where he followed the occupation of farming. To Mr. and Mrs. Beers have been born two children: Florence, the wife of Virgil M. Rose, of North Branford, by whom she has one daughter, Helen C.; and Ralph Earle, who is mentioned elsewhere in this work.

     In his political views Mr. Beers has always been a stalwart republican since attaining his majority. He represented his district in the state legislature in 1897 and was made a member of the finance committee. He has also served as a member of the school board. Fraternally he is connected with the Widows Sons Lodge, No. 66, A. F. & A. M., also has membership in Totoket Grange and was secretary of the Congregational Society of North Branford for nine years. His has been the creditable record of a well spent life, in which he has ever recognized the duties and obligations as well as the privileges of citizenship and in which he has been loyal to every trust reposed in him, whether of a public or private nature. His business integrity has ever been unassailable and his enterprise won for him the measure of success that now enables him to live retired.