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BEAMAN, Henry H. 1843-1922

BEAMAN, BROOKS

Posted By: Tammy (email)
Date: 10/19/2016 at 11:32:42

Death Of Henry H. Beaman

Was a Grundy Co. Pioneer and Founder of the Town of Beaman

Henry H. Beaman, pioneer of Grundy county, founder of the town of Beaman that he platted and for years a resident of Marshalltown, died at his home, 402 West Main street, that city, at 10:30 Tuesday night of last week. His death was caused by anemia from which he had suffered for years and which had kept him bedfast for several months. He was 78 years old.

Equally well known in Marshalltown and at Beaman, it is at the later village and in Grundy county that he especially will be remembered.

He gave his name to the town that he established and in 1915 gave it a fine site of five acres for a consolidated school. He offered forty acres for the site, but the consolidation that followed did not meet the conditions he imposed.

The oldest of the residents of north Marshall and Grundy counties will recall Mr. Beaman was one of the promoters of one of the county's early railroads, the Farmers' Union, dubbed Tripp's Basswood railroad, because the rails were of that wood. Mr. Beaman engaged in the real estate and collection business for years until he moved to Marshalltown in 1898.

Mr. Beaman was born at Rock City, Ill., May 13, 1843. His parents brought him with the family to Grundy county in 1860, where he grew up on the farm. He was united in marriage Feb. 22, 1864, to Miss Sarah Ellen Brooks, of Marshall county.

From the day of their marriage until 1875, Mr. Beaman engaged in farming, and it was in 1875 that he platted the town of Beaman on the Beaman farm.

Among the hopes held out for the town's future was the coming of the railroad, the Farmers' Union, being built out of Liscomb. Beaman was to be the eastern terminus.

Mr. Beaman backed it with his money, influence and time. A narrow-gauge track was built, and operated for six months. Then the bubble burst, operations ceased, the rolling stock and little locomotives were sold and the rails and ties fell into decay, the right-of-way was abandoned and disappeared in fields of growing grain.

When Mr. and Mrs. Beaman moved to Marshalltown they built the home at 402 West Main where both died, Mrs. Beaman, Jan. 8, 1917.

Since coming to Marshalltown Mr. Beaman had not been actively engaged in business, but came to be highly esteemed for his many good qualities. The death of Mrs. Beaman was an especially severe blow to him and since then he had spent some time in Florida and California.

Only one brother, H. S. Beaman, of Monrovia, Calif., survives of his own family.

The funeral was held at the home at 2:30 Thursday in charge of W. B. Wood. The body was placed in the vault in Riverside and in the spring will be buried alongside the body of Mrs. Beaman in Oakland cemetery, Beaman.

--The Grundy Republican (Grundy Center, Iowa), 12 January 1922, pg 8


 

Grundy Obituaries maintained by Tammy D. Mount.
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