Transcript:Indiana, United States. Biographical and Genealogical History of Wayne, Fayette, Union and Franklin Counties/B/Beeson, Benjamin B.

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Benjamin Branson Beeson (p 645)

For generations the Beeson family has been identified with the Society of Friends and noted for sterling qualities. Patriotic and loyal to the government, strongly in favor of peace, right and justice, and faithful in the discharge of every duty devolving upon them, whether in their public or domestic relations, they have embodied the ideal citizen of this great republic.

Benjamin Branson Beeson, one of the most prominent men in Wayne County, is a worthy representative of his family, which, as old records show, was founded in the United States by two brothers of the name who accompanied William Penn to the colony in Pennsylvania. One brother settled in Philadelphia, and the other, from whom our subject is descended, went to Guilford County, North Carolina. Benjamin Beeson, the grandfather of the latter, was born in Randolph County, North Carolina, about 1765, a son of Isaac Beeson. In 1786 the marriage of Benjamin Beeson and Margaret Hockett was celebrated, and in 1826, they removed to Wayne County, Indiana, locating about a mile south of Franklin. Of their ten children who lived to maturity, five sons and three daughters eventually immigrated to this county, and, though most of them left children, only two, our subject and his cousin, Lewis Beeson, are left to represent the name in this county. The five sons were: Isaac W.; Benjamin F.; Ithamar; Dr. Silas Beeson, the first physician of Dalton Township; and Charles, who came here with his parents. The daughters were Hannah, who married Seth Hinshaw, and located in Greensboro, Henry County, Indiana; Margaret, who became the wife of Jesse Baldwin; Ruth, who married James Maulsby; and Rachel, who died unmarried. The father attained an advanced age and lies buried at the side of his wife in West River Cemetery, two and a half miles east of Dalton.

Isaac W. Beeson, the eldest son of Benjamin and Margaret Beeson, was born in Randolph County, North Carolina, December 19, 1789. Physically he was of medium size, with fair complexion, dark hair and light-brown eyes. Of a frame none too robust, he nevertheless endured the numerous privations and hardships incident to frontier life, and lived to the advanced age of eighty-two years. He was a student by nature, quiet and thoughtful, and in his early manhood taught several terms of school, successfully. Later he learned the wheelwright's trade, which he pursued to some extent throughout life. He possessed great determination and industry, and one rule which he followed, that of saving at least one hundred dollars a year from his earnings (and that at a time when money was especially scarce), is worthy of the emulation of all young men. His favorite brother, William, a man of fine business talent, and large and varied financial interests throughout North and South Carolina and Virginia, and subsequently to his death Isaac W., was occupied for about four years in settling his estate.

"All the world loves a lover," and one of the most pleasant things in the life of Isaac Beeson was his lifelong devotion to the woman who finally became his wife. As young people, they were fondly attached to each other, but, owing to some opposition on the part of relatives, their marriage was postponed from time to time. In the spring of 1822, Isaac Beeson started for Wayne County, Indiana, with a small outfit, which served him for many such journeys between his old and new homes. It consisted of a horse and rustic cart, a skillet, a small iron pot for boiling vegetables, a tin pan or two and a few pewter dishes. He usually traveled alone, sleeping nights in his cart, the trip taking seven or eight weeks. Upon his arrival here he made several entries of land, including two hundred and forty acres of the homestead in Dalton Township, now owned by the subject of this article. Here he made his headquarters, and here his death took place nearly half a century later. The autumn of 1822 found him on the return journey to the south, where he worked at his trade until 1828, when, there being a great wave of immigration into Indiana, he came with the tide and entered "congress" land in various parts of the state. Again, he went back to the home of his childhood, to which he finally bade a last farewell in the spring of 1833, casting in his lot with the people of the Hoosier State. He located near Franklin, Wayne County, where his father and several brothers were living, the firm of Beeson Brothers having already become widely known. The three brothers who were in this partnership were S. H., Benjamin Franklin and Ithamar, and among their numerous enterprises were the running of a gristmill, a tannery and a general mercantile business. The town, which sprang into being as the result of their industry and enterprise, was widely known as Beeson Town in honor of the family, and everything was in a most flourishing condition when the great financial crashes of 1837 came and swept away the fortune and prospects of the little community. Isaac W. Beeson lost heavily on securities, but he was not disheartened, and ere many years had passed he had retrieved his fortunes.

Through all these years, the attachment between Isaac W. Beeson and Mary Branson had continued, and at last, in the fall of 1837, she left her girlhood's home and many sincere friends in the sunny south and set out on the long journey to become the wife of the man she loved. They were married near Green's Fork, in this county, on the 27th of February 1838. In less than thirteen years thereafter, Mrs. Beeson was summoned to the better land, and though he survived her a score of years, the devoted husband remained true to her memory and never married again. Her death took place October 10, 1851, and on the 26th of November 1871, he was laid to rest by her side in the Friends' burying ground at Nettle Creek.

In religious faith, Mr. Beeson was liberal, as might be expected of a man of his deep and broad views of life, his cherished hope being that some day the human brotherhood would be united on the central principles of Christianity, each reserving for himself the right of private judgment on minor forms and points. Needless to say, that he was strongly opposed to slavery and all forms of tyranny and injustice, and in common with those of his sect did not favor resorting to law, whether as individuals or as nations, but rather the submitting of all points of disagreement to arbitration. That he was a man of broad thought and an able writer, is amply demonstrated by manuscripts, which he penned at various times on diverse subjects. He was, so far as known to the compilers of this sketch, the original "Greenbacker" (not fiatist), for along in the '50s he earnestly advocated the issue of all paper money by the government, to be made equivalent to the coin money then in circulation, and the interest and profits to be applied to public improvements and the reduction of taxes.

Benjamin Branson Beeson, the only child of Isaac W. and Mary (Branson) Beeson, was born on the old homestead, which he now owns and carries on, March 17, 1843. He has always given his chief energies to farming and stock raising, and owns some eleven hundred acres of fine land, four hundred of which are comprised within the home place. He is public-spirited, and to him, perhaps, more than to any other person in his township, is the community indebted for the excellence of its highways. He has given considerable time, money and influence to their improvement, being specially interested in the Dalton Turnpike. When the company was organized in 1876, he became its secretary and treasurer, and he has served in similar capacities for many years for the Hagerstown & Blountsville Turnpike Company. He was a charter member of the Nettle Creek Grange, which he represented oft times in the county council and in the State Grange, and though the influence of that body has declined it has exercised a lasting influence for good upon this generation of farmers. It has been largely superseded by the modern agricultural societies, and in 1880 Mr. Beeson assisted in forming what is known as the Wayne, Henry & Randolph Counties Agricultural Association, of which he was president for twelve years. He upholds churches, schools, and all worthy institutions and methods of elevating the people, taking an active part in the political and moral questions of the day. He greatly admired President Lincoln and gave his support to General Grant at his first presidential election to office. For six years, from 1891 to 1897, he ably conducted the Richmond Enterprise, which attained wide circulation and won the most favorable notice of the public and contemporary journals. The columns of the paper strongly reflected his views on the prohibition of the liquor traffic, and it is conducted in the same lines by its present owner, the Rev. DeVore, to whom Mr. Beeson sold the journal in 1897, owing to other pressing business cares.

On the 14th of October 1865, the marriage of Mr. Beeson and Miss Olinda Lamb, a daughter of Thomas and Elvira (Finch) Lamb, was solemnized. Mrs. Beeson was born in Clay Township, Wayne County, in 1841, and by her marriage she is the mother of four children, namely: Isaac Francis, born August 13, 1866; Mary Lenora, born January 23, 1868, and now the wife of J. C. Taylor, of Dalton; and Edward Orton and Frederick Loten, twins, whose birth occurred July 3, 1877. The family are identified with the Society of Friends, following the example of generations of their forefathers, keeping ever in view the responsibilities and duties of life that rest upon them as individuals.