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WHO WAS - George Beers
in Plum Township
Venango County, Pennsylvania
By H. W. Strawbridge July 3, 1959

The Beers family was once a well known family in Plum Township. The following data describes the apparent origin of the family and name:
In England long, long ago there were, among others, two clans that lived a long distance apart. Eventually the southern clan, the stronger one, ventured north to the preserves of the northern clan. The northerners resented them very much, but were unable to do anything about it. Finally the two became reconciled and took the name that the northerners had applied to the invaders, "Bears," so named because of their great strength. The name was later changed to "Beers." They of course were of Irish origin and were Catholics.

As time rolled by, two or three brothers sailed for the New World and landed in Canada. From this segment of the family was descended the subject of this sketch, George Wellington Beers.

Born Aug. 9, 1838, in Montreal, Canada, George was a son of William and Margaret Sheridan Beers. His father's occupation was that of a maker of combination safe locks. The family belonged to the Catholic Parish of Montreal where most of them were baptized.

In 1843 George's father died when a bad epidemic of smallpox went through the city and killed a large number of people. George was then taken in by a wealthy Presbyterian uncle who was a strict disciplinarian. This uncle had what was then the largest store in Montreal.

At around the age of eleven, George left his uncle and went to work for a farmer named Alexander Tate. After working there three years he was offered better wages from a nearby farmer named Snowden, so he worked for him one year. The agreement was that George was to be paid at the end of the year. Snowden backed down on his word and refused to pay him. Then George went back to Tate for another three years at wages higher than Snowden had promised.

From his saved farm wages George apprenticed himself to a firm of building contractors. Here was a large carpenter shop in which everything was made by hand. At that time Canada was sluggish and offered but little opportunity for young men to get a start, so many went to New York City, including George Beers. This was apparently in 1860. At once he got employment with a professional stair builder for around two years.

On Feb. 3, 1863, George and his best friend, William Hopp, enlisted in the Brooklyn Naval yard as a landsmen for Civil War service. George served aboard two ships, the "North Carolina" and "Clara Dolsen", only for a brief period, when he was assigned to the war ship, "Benton", which was put in the Mississippi Squadron commanded by Admiral David D. Porter.

First, Admiral David G. Garragut's fleet was divided after the fall of New Orleans, and the then Commodore Porter was put in command of the part that was to go up the Mississippi River. Porter eventually acquired the title of Admiral. George Beers was in Porter's division.

After destroying all the forts along the river, they started to run the blockade of Vicksburg, helping Grant to take the city. While in the line of duty at the Battle of Grand Gulf, Miss., George was struck by a splinter of wood, injuring his nose.

Once George happened to be looking out a porthole watching the Confederates firing. Porter was at the next porthole. He asked Beers: "Aren't you afraid to stand there?" Just then a shell came through between the two portholes and Beers said Porter never moved a muscle. However Beers didn't take it so calmly!

George also had made some torpedoes during his service aboard the Benton.

He was honorable discharged below Vicksburg, Miss., on Feb. 7, 1864. Apparently he came back to Brooklyn. The years from 1864 until 1867 are rather vague, as far as George's life is concerned.

Nevertheless it is known that he, his mother and two brothers ventured to the Dempseytown vicinity where they bought property. George resumed the carpenter trade. He had spent a season in the building business in Pithole, and another in Titusville, but it isn't know what years. They may have been 1865 or 66. In 1873 he was foreman for Howe & Hulins, Franklin. They had an early planing mill and were engaged in building many of the fine houses in that city, which was the result of oil profits.

In 1867 George and Israel Mark of near Dempseytown were engaged to build a new house for James Richey of Plum Township. It was finished in 1868. It is believed that this fine house contained the first open railed stairway in the township. George worked 50 days longer on it than Mark.

It was here that he met Miss Nancy Ellen Richey, one of James and Mary Jane Cowan Richey's daughters. Nancy was born in Oakland Township Nov. 9, 1849. She and George Beers were married in the Richey home on June 3, 1868 by the Presbyterian minister of Sunville, Rev. William Elliott. They began housekeeping in the old house of her parents.

During the late years of the 1860s several easterners had the urge to go West, due to the saying Horace Greeley had previously uttered - "Go West, young man, go West". He established what was called the "Greeley Colony', about 50 miles northeast of Denver, Colo. A train of emigrants was made up mostly of New Englanders, but also some from other eastern states, among them being George W. Beers and William Green of near Wallaceville. Both men boarded the train at Meadville when the 1869 portion of winter was well along.

When the train arrived at the colony many were disappointed. No buildings were in sight, only several feet of snow, a lot of timberland, and a string of boxcars where the colonists were to "shanty". Those who had money left, and they were in the minority, took the next train back East. Among them was George Beers. William Green stayed.

George stopped off at Salina, Saline County, Kan., and homesteaded an eighth of a section. He left someone on the farm and came back to Wallaceville. He never went out there again. He paid the taxes on it, and about 1904 he sold it for a good price.

George's family lived awhile in Franklin, also a short while near Dempseytown, then back to Wallaceville.

On Jan. 1, 1876, the family moved just outside of Chapmanville on 56 acres of land which George bought from Duane Pierce (father of famed Dr. R. V. Pierce) for $900. There were no buildings on it at the time. It is presently the home of Mr. and Mrs. Lester Snyder and Mrs. Hattie Proper.

George built the original house, a double-boarded frame one, which stood approximately where the present house stands. About 1879 he moved it across the road.

On Sept. 18, 1880, Mrs. Nancy Ellen Beers died. At the time of her death George had rough lumber on hand to build what is now called a "ranch-type house", which was what Mrs. Beers wanted. The new two-story house was built and the family moved into it in 1882.

In 1877 George had planted 30 apple trees just west of the original house. When he moved the old house across the road, he dug up the apple trees and replanted them east of the house. After the present house was built, George again dug up those apple trees and replanted them about where they had formerly been!

Just after George moved the apple trees the first time, he took his team and stoneboat to Johnny Bell's cooper shop in Chapmanville to get some kindling. All seemed quiet. Bell's shop was closed, the store was closed, and a crowd was coming down the road from the original Baptist Church. George remarked there must have been a funeral. The he was informed that it was Sunday. He was astonished. He went home and told Nancy. She had done a large washing that day, and then cried, wondering if the Lord would forgive her for doing that. Being Christians, they never worked on Sunday. They never could account for the lost day.

Concerning the above mentioned death of Mrs. Beers, it was either scarlet fever or typhoid fever that took her. She was ill about three weeks. She was buried at Sunville following a service there in the Presbyterian Church of which she had been a member.

She was a large woman and well proportioned. She probably weighed 160 or 170 pounds. She was very religious.

George and she had four children, as follows: James Wellington Beers, born April 10, 1869; Clyde Windfred Beers, born May 19, 1873; Harry Elton Beers, born Feb. 19, 1879; and George William Beers, born May 19, 1880.

Little George died at the age of 18 days from suffocation. The reason was never discovered. He is buried at Chapmanville.

James was born near Wallaceville. He married Miss Etta Maria Ferringer of Cooperstown on May 10, 1892. They had three children, two of whom survived - Mrs. Winnie Allen and George W. Beers. James, 90, is the only living child of George Beers. He originated the Beers System of shorthand which was widely used for years. He also served as chief of training of auditors and accountants in the Bureau of Internal Revenue, Washington, D. C., for 19 years. He also had done considerable carpentry work in the earlier years. His wife died May 28, 1952. Now retired, he lives with his daughter and son-in-law at Gaithersburgh, Md.

Clyde was born probably near Wallaceville. He was married to Miss May Moffatt. They had seven children, one boy and six girls. They lived in the Meadville area. Clyde worked for his brother, James, for a few years, then he went into house contracting for several years. Following that he conducted an auto agency in Meadville in later years. He died Nov. 23, 1958.

Harry E. was born at Chapmanville. He never married. He also carpentered for several years, working some of those years for his brother, James. He was a veteran of both the Spanish-American War and World War I. Besides those, he was in the brief scrimmage between the United States and Mexico about 1916. His last 20 years were spent on the main corner of Chapmanville where he served as a justice of the peace. He was then commonly called "Squire Beers". He died suddenly on April 25, 1946.

The father, George, weighted 155 or 160 pounds. He was 5 feet 7 1/2 inches tall. He was an indefatigable worker, no mater what it was at. He never drank liquor, chewed tobacco, gambled, nor used profane language. He was very stern and more or less meant business. Both he and Nancy liked to sing, especially the oldtime gospel hymns.

George was a longtime member of the Chapmanville Methodist Church, which building he had the contract to construct in 1878. He served as Sunday School superintendent about 1877 when a Union Sunday School existed a short time between the two churches there. He also served as a church trustee.

He constructed many, many buildings. Besides the above mentioned church, a few other public buildings he carpentered were the Plum Center school, Donation Hill school, Chapmanville store and rink, Wallaceville store and Cooperstown creamery, besides working for some time on the Lamey Church and remodeling the Troy Center Church. He quit the carpenter business in 1889 and then principally farmed.

For years he made many railroad ties which he sold. He never sold any timber off his farm. His son, James, recalls of his father selling only one tree, an immense red oak. When oil men were drilling on the adjoining William Grove farm, the walking-beam played out. The men bought this particular tree from George for, believe it or not, three dollars!

George married a second time, on Aug. 1, 1881, the lady having been Mrs. Mary Ann Clark, a widow. Her parents were Jacob and Mary Bault Grove of Plum Township. She first married Reese Clark, also a Civil War veteran, and a native of Huntingdon County, Pa. There were two daughters by her first marriage. Mr. Clark, whose occupation was a miller, died in 1870. Mary Ann, who was a Methodist too, and George lived on his Chapmanville farm until about April 1, 1908, when they moved to Titusville. They sold their farm to Simeon O. Proper.

Besides periodic attacks of grip, George had had three spells with pneumonia in his life. The first was at Wallaceville during the early 1870s, the second at Chapmanville in the winter of 1881, and the last which took his life at 12:10 A.M., Jan. 26, 1911.

Following services at his home on E. Main St., he was buried in the Greenwood Cemetery just outside Titusville on Jan. 29. The G.A.R. had a part in the service.

Mrs. Mary Ann Beers died in her home, 737 E. Main St., on March 24, 1932, at the age of 93. She had been ill about a year due to infirmities of old age. She was buried beside her second husband in Greenwood.

Transcribed by Penny Kulbacki Minnick
minnick862@verizon.net

Disclaimer:there may be errors due to transcription ofinformation from both early and late (current contributors) work.