Gabriel Beach (abt. 1807-?)We currently know very little about the Beach family. The nearby hamlet of Lew Beach was said to have been named (in 1886) after a man named Lewis Beach who was born in New York City March 30, 1835. Presumably he had some sort of early tie to this area in that there is now a town named after him. Lewis Beach graduated from Yale Law School and was elected to the House of Representatives in New York State in 1880, representing Cornwall NY. Memorial addresses printed in 1887 praised his “outstanding service and adherence to his convictions of the right in spite of all opposition, from whatever source it came.” Currently there is also a road in this general vicinity (2007) named “Howard Beach Road”. Howard Beach has not yet been identified either but he may have also been a descendant of this family. In the 1820 Sullivan County census (Town of Rockland) there is a Samuel Beach (spelled Beech but the name is seen spelled both Beach and Beech) who may have been Gabriel’s father. No other individuals with the name Beach are found in these 1820 records. Research indicates that a Samuel Beach of New Jersey relocated in New York but little more is known about this man. This may be the Samuel Beach found in Rockland. Samuel Beach had a number of children, one of whom may have been a daughter named Rachel (a sister of Gabriel) and the Rachel Beach who married Jacob Mott, a nearby neighbor of Gabriel Beach. It appears that some of Samuel’s children once grown may have moved from the area. The aforementioned Lewis Beach may have been Samuel’s grandson. (This is pure speculation though and more research needs to be done regarding this) Gabriel married first abt. 1834, Julia ______? b. abt. 1817. Julia’s surname is currently unknown but she may have been the daughter of James Purvis who lived in the vicinity. He was the father of fifteen children and one daughter was supposedly named Julia. (No documentation yet to support this so this will be further researched). Julia at the age of 40 is found in the 1860 census of Sullivan County (Town of Rockland) in the household of Solomon and Deborah Overton Steele as a “domestic”. (She would have actually been around 43 based on an earlier census record.). She appears to have been only around seventeen when she married Gabriel since their first child, Phebe, was born in 1835. Her son Franklin’s obituary though states that his mother was a woman named Nancy Steele. It is possible that Nancy Steele was his step-mother though. Julia may have died and Gabriel re-married. Nancy ironically was the daughter of Solomon and Deborah Overton Steele whose household Julia was working in. Deborah Overton Steele’s nephew, Alexander Overton lived nearby. Gabriel and Julia had the following children: 2 i. Phebe (abt. 1835-?) 3 ii. Hiram (abt. 1838 – 1918) 4 iii. Gabriel Jr. (abt. 1841 - ?) 5 iv. Orrin (abt. 1842 --?) 6 v. Julia (abt. 1844 - ?) 7 vi. Nancy (abt. 1846 - ?) 8 vii. Franklin (abt. 1849 - ?) 9 viii. Helen (abt. 1855 - ) Gabriel married second Nancy Steele. Second Generation * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 2. Phoebe Beach (Gabriel1). Born abt. 1835 3. Hiram Beach Gabriel1). Born abt. 1838. Hiram died in 1918; he was 77. About 1863 when Hiram was 25, he first married Rachel E. Doll, daughter of George L. Doll & Nancy Overton. Born in 1838. Rachel E. died in 1880; she was 42. (Rachel’s maternal grandparents were David and Elizabeth Purvis Overton) They had the following children: i. Mary ii. George iii. Aggie iv. Harriet About 1881 when Hiram was 43, he second married Jennie Snider. Born in 1855. Jennie died in 1886; she was 31. Hiram is listed as a farmer with 50 acres living in Purvis in the Sullivan County Directory 1872-73 compiled by Hamilton Child . 4. Gabriel Beach Jr. (Gabriel1). Born abt. 1841 5. Orrin Beach (Gabriel1). Born abt. 1842 Orrin is listed as a farmer with 66 acres (with his brother Franklin Beach) and living in Purvis in the Sullivan County Directory 1872-73 compiled by Hamilton Child. While we currently do not know all that much about the Beach family we do have a detailed description of the farm area where they lived, as well as life in those days from the memoirs of Adelbert M. Scriber (1864-1948 - former owner, publisher and editor of The Republican Watchman). After Mr. Scriber’s father John Eli Scriber was left nearly penniless (Approximately in 1870 as the result of an unsuccessful attempt in the mercantile business in Parksville NY ), he moved his family into a house on the Beach farm on Beach Hill (as it was known). At this time the property was owned by “aged bachelors, Frank and Orrin Beach who lived in an old fashioned farm house of two stories.” according to Mr. Scriber, but based on Franklin’s obituary he was not a bachelor although he may have not yet been married when the Scriber family came there. He would not have been aged either, although to a young child may have seemed old! The Scribers had lived in this same neighborhood a few years earlier, their farm being located on Mott Flats adjoining the nearby Mott farm, and therefore probably had been friends with the Beach family. Mr. Scriber would have been only six or seven at the time the family moved back to this area and they remained at this location throughout Mr. Scriber’s youth. Also while the family lived in Parksville, Mr. Scriber had met with an unfortunate accident at the tender age of five. While trying to hoist himself onto an ox driven wagon (as the older boys did) on his way to his very first day of school, he slipped and his foot got caught in the spokes of the wheel. His little leg was twisted and twisted around as the wagon moved forward, the driver completely unaware that this was unfolding. Fortunately someone saw this happening and stopped the wagon but Mr. Scriber’s leg had to be amputated just above the knee. While most young men of this area grew up to become farmers, Mr. Scriber’s physical limitations prevented him to do so. He loved to read and write and eventually ended up pursuing those interests instead. In his memoirs Mr. Scriber describes life back in Livingston Manor at the Beach farm, “There was a fireplace in the main room of the lower floor which was used as a sitting room and dining room. A bedroom was in the rear of the sitting room and several bedrooms were on the second floor. I loved the farm with its apple orchard, its chestnut trees and its sugar bush.” “The house sat on a strip of flat land perhaps a hundred and fifty feet wide, and there was a barn near the house, possibly within a hundred and fifty feet wide and was less than a half mile from where I was born. It was of frame construction. Underneath this large barn, which was built against the side of a hill, was a ground room six feet high at the opening and tapering off on the far side to two feet or so. Thus it was that the sheep, one hundred and twenty five or so of them, if the hay crop warranted keeping them, would sleep comfortably in the winter. The hay fodder was supplemented with turnips and small potatoes cut up and put in long V shaped troughs on which was a sprinkling of buckwheat bran and the sheep always came through the winter in splendid condition. “ “At the rear of the house was a fine spring and in back of the spring was a garden and orchard. We had one tree that bore pound sweets and one apple of that variety weighed twenty- four ounces, the largest apple I ever saw. At the rear of the house was a half hogshead, set in the ground with pipes connecting with a spring on the hillside carried water to this trough. The overflow caused a little stream to run across the meadow below the trough and over this little stream my father built a slat house about twenty feet square and eight feet high where he kept a dozen wild pigeons, mostly the male red breast.” What Mr. Scriber was describing here is the now extinct Wild Pigeon or Passenger Pigeon, which was once extremely plentiful in the Town of Rockland. The last of these birds died in 1914 in captivity in Columbus Ohio. The birds feasted on the beechnuts from the local beech trees as well as buckwheat seeds and they provided a means of livelihood as well as sustenance for the residents of the Town of Rockland, The birds were large, meaty and succulent and made delicious meals for the locals who dined on them often. The flocks consisting of thousands would literally darken the skies as they arrived to this area. No one ever could imagine in those days that these birds (in such abundance) would ever become extinct. Mr. Scriber explains how these birds were captured. Today animal rights groups undoubtedly would not allow such methods. “These were stool pigeons and Father used them in the fall at buckwheat harvesting time to attract the wild pigeons which foraged among the stubbles. This was done by clearing a space about twelve feet long and eight feet wide in a buckwheat field or an oat field and stretching a net on the ground nicely folded lengthwise which Father covered with leaves. At either end of the net was a springy pole bent over and fastened to the ground by a notched stick driven into the ground. A rope was attached to the end of the net and carried to a bow house where the net man was secreted. In the middle of the bed Father placed a stool pigeon with its eyelids closed by the use of fine thread and it was put on a pad six or eight inches square. Attached to this pad was an eight foot stick about an inch square and attached to the stick was a strong line which reached into the bow house. When a flock of pigeons flew over the field, the man in the bow house pulled the string, lifting the stool pigeon seven or eight feet into the air, letting it flutter to the ground. This performance he continued until a passing flock of pigeons responded to the lure. If they responded, the leader, which was in advance of the main body by six or eight feet, would veer to the right with the flock following him. He would drop out of the flight and either flutter to the baited bed or fly to a nearby tree where the entire flock would follow. Should he choose a tree instead of the baited bed, one flutter of the stool pigeon would call him from his perch and the entire flock would follow where they would be two or three birds deep! The man in the bow house would then spring the net, catching as many as 250 at a time! “ “North of our house, some seventy-five feet was an underground cellar. In that cellar was a spring of refreshing water. It was of the same temperature winter and summer. Here mother kept the milk, butter, eggs and produce and where Father stored the winter supply of produce from the farm. It was also here that Mother usually took refuse during frightful thunderstorms. She would grab my younger brothers, Blake and Bert in her arms and rush for the cellar while Father and I sat on the stoop and watched the lightening flash and heard the cracking thunder. Sometimes father would say, ‘That one struck close!’” Mr. Scriber continues with a description of an unusual day where they had nine swarms of bees in just one day. “Just above the house on the sloping hill was the apiary. Father had from ninety to one hundred skeps of bees at all time of the year. And we had nine swarms one day in June. The first swarm lit in a butternut tree in front of the apiary instead of lighting in one of the hemlock trees in front of the apiary. These trees were cut off at the roots, stood about ten feet high and were watered every night and morning and thus kept green all summer. The swarms that I refer to liked a high limb instead of a low tree and caught the shade near the pigeon house.” “ Mother blew the fog horn to call Father from the highlands above the house where he and I were working. Father pinned two bed sheets together, sat the hive on the sheet just under where the bees were hanging, tied a rope to the limb, threw it over another limb and gave me the rope to steady the limb which he proceeded to saw off. While this was going on another swarm came out and buzzed around for a time and lit on the swarm hanging in the tree. So father had to get another hive ready and before we had the limb out and the bees in the hives, there were nine swarms hanging in that tree and bees enough to fill a sugar barrel. That was something unexpected but Father had plenty of empty hives and he filled up seven of them with bees. He would place a hive on the sheet and with the aid of a little branch taken from the tree, he would separate the bees, find the queen bee and urge her into the hive and a thousand bees would be traveling toward that hive at the same time. He then replaced that hive with another and went through the same process of division until the nine swarms were put into the seven hives. Father never covered his face and hands and rarely was stung during all the years of bee propagation. “ “We had a couple of steer that I took care of. I was just large enough to drive them behind a harrow and when I got tired of walking, I would ride the harrow, but not when Father was around since he believed in treating the cattle fairly and expected me to emulate his example.” “One year we had thirteen acres of buckwheat and potatoes. The buckwheat was cut ready for the threshing machine which was in the field to do the threshing. It rained during the night and it rained the next day and for nine days and nine nights it continued to rain. When it cleared up the buckwheat kernels were bursting and fit only for cattle and hog feed. We did not have a pancake the following winter except from flour that Father bought. The same year we raised seventeen hundred and fifty bushels of potatoes. The year before the big crop Father had sold his surplus potatoes at $4.00 per barrel and the year following he did not receive enough from his crop to pay for the seed. The sheep and cattle were potato fed the following winter.” “During the long winter evenings the family made tallow candles. Kerosene oil was 30 cents a gallon so we could not afford to buy it. So we made candles by melting tallow [animal fat] in a boiler until it was partly filled and then we strung eight or ten wicks on a stick and dipped them into the warm tallow and then lifted them to another boiler to cool while we dipped another stick of wicks. This we continued to do until we had 100 or 200 candles.” “I was extremely happy on that mountain top. I felt the delight of summer and the growing appetite of winter was there to increase my strength. But on account of my former accident, I was not a success at farming.” 6. Julia Beach (Gabriel) Born abt. 1844 7. Nancy Beach (Gabriel1).Borm abt. 1846 8. Franklin Beach (Gabriel1).Born abt. 1849 Franklin is listed as a farmer with 66 acres (with Orrin Beach, his brother) and living in Purvis in the Sullivan County Directory 1872-73 compiled by Hamilton Child Franklin married Emma Wave? 30 Sep 1877. Emma died 19 Mar (abt. 1917) Franklin died at the age of 83 in about 1932. Franklin and Emma had the following children: i. Emma ii. Bessie iii. Ola iv. Jennie v. James Franklin’s obituary appeared in a local newspaper (name and date unknown). “Frank Beach, life-long resident of Livingston Manor died at his home in Jacktown Monday evening of an illness of three weeks, from senile debility. Mr. Beach had been of ill health for some two years but had made several trips overtown daily until he was taken ill, being a familiar figure about the village. He was 83. “ “Mr. Beach was born on the homestead farm, now owned by the estate of the late Mrs. Minnie Heckinger, on the hill above the creamery, the son of Gabriel and Nancy Steele Beach and married Emma Wave? of Freetown, Cortland County, on September 30 1877.” “In 1912 Mr. Beach sold his farm to the late Charles Heckinger and bought a residence in Jacktown, where he lived until his death. His wife died 15 years ago March 19. Surviving are five daughters, Emma, the wife of Sherman McAdams of Roscoe; Bessie, wife of John Santie of Roxbury; Minnie at home; Ola, of South Fallsburgh; and Jennie, wife of James Prift; and a son, James Beach of Middletown.” “Funeral services are held this afternoon at 1:30 at the home, Rev, G.H. Cooley pastor of the local Methodist church officiating. Interment in the Methodist Cemetery.” 9. Helen Beach (Gabriel) Born abt. 1855. Sources: Beaverkill Valley by Joan Powell and Irene O’Keefe Barnhart pub. 1999 Sullivan County census records Sullivan County Directory 1872-73 compiled by Hamilton Child Memoirs of Adelbert M. Scriber – ca. 1940 Research of Fred Fries Obituary clipping collection of Irene Barnhart
Compiled by Susan B. Schock – 2007 Corrections and additions are welcomed (susan@bontekoe.net)
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