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Facts and Events
References
- ↑ A. Donovan Faust (Foust). A Family History: The Ancestors of Thomas Wilson Faust. (1997).
- Family Recorded, in Hinshaw, William Wade; Thomas Worth Marshall; and John Cox. Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy. (Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States: Edwards Brothers, 1936-1950)
6:469.
FAIRFAX MM
Thomas [Beales], s John and Sarah [Bowater] Prince George's Co, Md. and gr s of John and Mary [Clayton] of Chester Co, Pa;
m 12-9-1741 9 [cs] Sarah Antrim, Prince George's Co, Md.
[Note: They had declared m intentions in Va., doubtless at Hopewell MM, whose early books were lost in a fire 1759]. Living within the verge of Fairfax MM, Va when that MM was established & set off from Hopewell MM, VA. were automatically transferred from Hopewell MM to Fairfax MM 1744/5.]
Thomas & Sarah [Antrim] Beales & their 4 oldest ch [listed below] gct Carver's Creek MM, Bladen Co, NC, 26-6-1749. They were transferred to Cane Creek MM, Orange Co, NC, when Cane Creek MM was set up 7-10-1751 & were charter mbr, when New Garden MM, NC was set up in 1754 the fam was transferred to that MM, the fam, supposedly never having rem from their first place of settlement.
Ch:
Mary b. 15-6-1742 O.S. evidently died young
Mary & Sarah b. 30-8-1743, OS
Thomas b. 28-10-1746 OS
Patience b. 9-12-1747 OS
(ch b in NC see H Vol I , page 490)
(Historical times H-VI pp 525-526)
William b: 13-6-1750 OS
Daniel b: 15-2-1753 NS
Elizabeth b: 25-4-1755
Margaret b: 12-10-1757
Hannah b: 13-12-1759
Rachel b: 9-3-1763
John b: 9-3-1763
Jacob b: 26-10-1768
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Family Notes, in Source Needed.
[idahojo.ged]
Thomas Beales was the first Friends minister of record to cross the Ohio River and preach in the limits of the Northwest Territory. He moved with his family from PA to NC in 1748/49, first stopping at Cane Creek. Then, with his family, he moved to New Garden, NC, which was frontier territory. He came forth into the ministry in the year 1753. How long he lived at New Garden is not known, but we presume it was for several years. The next move he made was to Westfield, Surry Co., NC. Here he was very instrumental in the development of a large meeting. He lived at Westfield and New Garden for about thirty years during which time he paid several lengthy visits to the Indians.
In 1775, twenty years before Wayne's Treaty with the Indians at Greenville, OH, Thomas Beals, accompanied by four Friends, started to pay a visit to the Shawnee Indians and some other tribes and after passing a fort not far from Clinch Mountain in VA, they were arrested and carried back to the fort to be tried for their lives on the charge of being confederates with the hostile Indians. The officers, understanding that one of the men was a preacher, required a sermon before they went in for trial. Beales thought it right to hold a meeting with the soldiers, which proved to be a highly favored season. A young man in the fort was converted and, sometime after, moved among Friends and became a member. After this meeting was over Thomas and the other Friends were released to be at liberty to continue their journey. Beales told his Friends that he saw with his spiritual eye the seed of Friends scattered all over that good land and that one day there would be the greatest gathering of Friends there of any place in the world.
In 1781, Beals moved from Westfield, NC to Blue Stone, Giles Co., VA, where he lived but a few years. While there, their sufferings were very great in many ways, not only from the lack of necessities of life, but his son-in-law, James Horton, was taken prisoner by the Indians and put to death. This move to Blue Stone does not appear to have had the approval of Beales Friends, for Nathan Hunt states that they sent a committee to send his group back to NC. The little meeting of twenty or thirty families was entirely broken up at Blue Stone, when they returned to Westfield, NC.
In the year 1785, he moved to Lost Creek, TN and in 1798 he moved to Grayson Co., VA.
In 1799, Thomas Beales moved to Quaker Bottom, OH along with other members of his family and in the spring of 1801 he moved to Salt Creek, near the present town of Adelphia, OH.
He died in Aug of 1801 and was buried in a coffin of regular shape, hollowed out of a solid butternut tree by his ever faithful friend, Jesse Baldwin, and sons Daniel, John and Thomas Beales, and covered by a part of the same tree, which was selected for this purpose by Thomas while he was living. His grave has been located and Friends have erected an appropriate monument to his memory.
In planting Quakerism in the old Northwest, the story of Thomas Beales and his faithful wife, and devoted family is but one illustration of the hundreds that might be given, nor was he the only one buried in a log coffin. Many were buried in nothing but boards laid around them among the lone mountains, never to be seen or marked by loved ones, but to Thomas Beals belongs the credit of having been the first Friend to carry the message of Christ into the vast region north and west of the Ohio River.
At 2 P.M. on Sunday, September 19, 1937, a public ceremony was held in a little walled plot on the Jacob Caldwell farm near Richmond Dale, OH, marking the grave of a man who played a big part in the history of OH and Ross Co., OH. In this two-rod square burial plot is interred the body of Thomas Beales, the first Quaker or Friends Missionary to work among the Indians and early settlers of southern OH and KY.
The final resting place of Thomas Beales would be lost forever if it were not for records made by Gershom Perdue. The grave went untended until 1854, when Gershom Perdue, an enthusiastic church organizer among the Friends, prevailed upon the yearly meeting of Friends to take steps to preserve the resting place of their patriarch.
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