... born in Washington county, Pennsylvania, in 1797, and was a son of Colmore Beall, who was of Scotch lineage. Representatives of the family have become very numerous in the country since the first of the name took up his abode in the Keystone state. The family there founded has since scattered until it is now represented in various states of the Union and its members have become prominent in business, professional and political life. The father of our subject was reared in the country of his nativity and was there married to a Miss Albert, by whom he had two children - Zenas, now deceased, and Mrs. Jane Chance, now a resident of Todd township, Crawford county. The father was a farmer by occupation. His first wife died in Pennsylvania and afterward, when a young man of about twenty-seven years, he came to Ohio, settling in Harrison county, where his father had entered land from the government.
James P. Beall, Sr., settled in the midst of the wild forest, becoming one of the pioneers of the county, where he resided for thirty years. He then sold his property there and came to Crawford county, where he resided until his death, which occurred in 1870, when he was seventy-three years of age. After taking up his abode in Harrison county he had formed the acquaintance of Minerva Huff whom he married. She was of a Virginian family and was born in the Old Dominion. By her marriage she became the mother of ten children: ...