Daniel H. Beam
Though it is nearly twenty-five years since the death of Daniel H. Beam, formerly one of the best-known farmers and stockmen of Caesarscreek township, his memory is still fresh in the neighborhood, and it is but fitting that in a volume of this character there should be paid a tribute to that memory. Daniel H. Beam was a native son of Greene county and all his life was spent here. He was born on a farm on the Bowersville pike in Xenia township in February, 1833, a son of Daniel and Ann (Haines) Beam, Virginians, who had settled on the farm just referred to upon coming from Virginia to this county and there spent the remainder of their lives. Daniel Beam and his wife were the parents of seven children, William, Silas, John, Daniel, Mary, Julia Ann and Jane, all of whom are now deceased.
Daniel H. Beam grew up on the home farm in Xenia township and received his schooling in the little old log school house in that neighborhood. For three years after his marriage in 1854 he continued to reside on the home farm. He then bought the Lutz farm of one hundred and eight acres near the Zoar church, on the pike leading from Spring Valley to Middletons Corner, in Caesarscreek township, the place on which his widow is still living, and there spent the rest of his life. As he prospered in his farming operations Mr. Beam bought an adjoining tract of one hundred and twelve acres and thus had two hundred and twenty acres of land on which he built a comfortable house and made other substantial improvements. In addition to his general farming Mr. Beam gave considerable attention to the raising of live stock. During the early '90s Mr. Beam's health began to break and his death occurred on September 27, 1893, he then being in the sixty-first year of his age. A contemporary newspaper mention of his death says that "Mr. Beam was an unfaltering Christian, which fact is admitted by all who knew him. He walked in the same attitude of faith the year around. He was a friend to the poor and needy and never turned one away ernpty. His kind Christian counsel will be missed, but never forgotten. He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church and held membership at the Zoar church, to the support of which he was the most liberal contributor. Hundreds of times have his prayers echoed within its walls."
On December 21, 1854, Daniel H. Beam was united in marriage to Susan Ann Keiter, who also was born in this county and who survives him, continuing to make her home on the farm in the neighborhood of Zoar church. Mrs. Beam was born on a farm in Caesarscreek township, daughter of Frederick and Mary (Weaver) Keiter, natives of Virginia, who were married in Hampshire county, that state, this county now being in West Virginia, and who after their marriage came to Ohio and settled on a farm in the woods of Caesarscreek township, where they spent the remainder of their lives, the former living to be seventy-five years of age and the latter, seventy-four. Frederick Keiter developed one of the best farms on the Wilmington pike and came to be a man of substance and influence. Reared a Whig, he later became a Republican. He and his wife were members of the Old School Baptist church. They had twelve children, of whom Mrs. Beam was the seventh in order of birth, the others being Elizabeth, Harrison, John, Mary, Margaret, Nancy, George A., Jane, James and Edward (twins) and Sarah. Further mention of the Keiter family is made elsewhere in this volume.
To Daniel H. and Susan Ann (Keiter) Beam were born ten children, William, Henry Alva, Emma J., Addie B., Euretta S., Daniel F., Anna N., Frederick K., Albert E. and Flora, all of whom are living save Addie B., born on January 20, 1862, who died on February 26, 1871, and Frederick K., born on June 4, 1871, who died on March 29, 1872. William Beam, who was born on November 30. 1856, married Sarah Peacemaker and is now living at Port William, in the neighboring county of Clinton, where he is engaged in the live-stock and milling business. Henry A. Beam, born on August 12, 1858, married Mrs. Blanche (Swindler) Hurley and is a farmer and stockman in Spring Valley township, this county. Emma J. Beam, bom on August 10, 1860, is the wife of Charles Hurley, a farmer of Spring Valley township. Euretta S. Beam, born on February 22, 1864, is the wife of Thomas Boyd, also a Spring Valley township farmer. Daniel F. Beam, born on December 16, 1865, married Elizabeth Johnson and is farming in Spring Valley township. Anna N. Beam, born on March 21, 1868, married Frank Woods and is living on a farm in the vicinity of Port William. Albert E. Beam, born on March 2, 1873, married Martha Scott and is engaged in farming and stock raising in Spring Valley township. Flora Beam, bom on June 8, 1876, married Clarence McKay, a farmer of the New Burlington neighborhood. As noted above, Mrs. Beam continues to make her home on the old home place where her husband died nearly twenty-five years ago and where she has lived for sixty years, during which time she has been a witness to the amazing transformation that has taken place with the gradual development of that section. She is a member of Zoar church.
From History of Greene County Ohio, Its People, Industries and Institutions, vol. 2. M.A.Broadstone, editor. B.F.Bowen & Co., Indianapolis. 1918