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THE BEACH FAMILY. The genealogy of the Beach family of Madison County runs through ten generations since coming to America. Moses Perkins Beach, of 309 Fifth avenue, New York City, son of the late Moses Yale Beach of the New York Sun, in his arrangement of our genealogy, refers to our earliest ancestor in America, as "ye pilgrim Thomas, of Milford," Conn., in contradistinction to "ye pilgrim John," of Stratford, Conn., the original Beaches who came to this country in the early days of emigration. My great-grandfather, Amos Beach, born at Wallingford, Conn., in 1724, was a great-grandson of "ye pilgrim Thomas;" and he married December 24, 1746, Sarah Rice, or Rays, as it was then spelled. To them were born twelve children, eight sons and four daughters, as follows: Chloe, born in 1747; Chauncey, born in 1748; Ambrose, born 1750, was a soldier in Captain Titus Watrous' company, in the Revolutionary army, and died July 8, 1776, of camp distemper; Amos, born 1751; Brewer, born 1753; Abraham, born 1755, died June 5, 1777, at Milford, Conn., on his way home from British prison ships; Esther, born 1757; Obil, born December 27, 1758; Sarah, born 1760; Isaac, born 1762; Roswell, born in 1764, and died May 1st, 1858, in Belmont County, Ohio; Sarah, born 1766. Of the eight sons above named, all were soldiers in the Revolutionary army. The mother of these children died in 1820, at the home of her son Brewer, in Goshen, Conn., aged ninety years. Of the above children, Obil Beach, born in Goshen Conn., December 27, 1758, was my grandfather. In October, 1777, when two months less than eighteen years of age, he entered the Revolutionary army, under Capt. Chapman and Col. Swift; and was present and witnessed the surrender of Burgoyne, at Saratoga, October 17, 1777. He served for three years, and was mustered out in New Jersey in October, 1780. On the 27th day of June, 1782, he married Miss Elizabeth Kilbourne, or Kilborn, of Litchfield, Conn., born June 9, 1765. She used the Quaker dialect; but I think she was a Presbyterian at the time of her marriage. She is said to have been of Scotch descent. They each had small interests in real estate, the one in Goshen and the other in Litchfield; but soon after marriage they moved to the township of Poultney, in Rutland County, Vt. By a deed, now in my possession, it appears that one Ebenezer Hyde, of Poultney, County of Rutland, for and in consideration of the sum of twenty-three pounds and ten shillings, "lawful money," sold to Obil Beach, of Goshen, Conn., seventy-five acres, "in said Poultney," on the 8th day of March, "in the sixth year of American Independence," Anno Domini, 1782. And on the 7th day of November, 1782, he also received a deed from Jason Bell, of the Township of Poultney, County of Rutland, for fifty acres; for which he paid sixty pounds. On the 10th day of September, 1783, Joseph Ballard, of Fairhaven, County of Rutland, State of Vermont, for the sum of thirty pounds, sold to Obil Beach, "of the Township of Poultney," one hundred acres; so it would seem probable that he moved to Vermont in 1782, the same year of his marriage, or early in the spring of 1783. He subsequently moved to New Haven Gore, Addison County, Vt.; and on the 5th day of December, 1788, Oliver Strong, of Poultney, deeded him seventy-six acres "in a gore of land called New Haven Gore," in the County of Addison, State of Vermont, for sixty pounds, "lawful money;" and also, with even date, fifty acres for forty pounds at the same place, to Elizabeth Beach, his wife. So that, in the absence of better proof, it is presumable that he moved to New Haven Gore in 1788. To him and his wife Elizabeth were born twelve children, as follows: Susannah, born September 20, 1783; Amos, born July 9, 1785; Marova, born April 18, 1787; Uri, born December 7, 1789; Ambrose, born March 17, 1792; Rhoda, born June 24, 1794; Sarah, born June 9, 1797; Lorenzo, born November 7, 1798; Roswell, born August 3, 1801; Irene, born February 19, 1804; Obil and Oren, twins, born March 19, 1807. Of the above twelve children, the three first were born in the township of Poultney, Rutland County, Vt., and the nine last were born at New Haven Gore, Addison County, Vt. In the year 1812, Uri, the third son and the fourth child, when he was twenty-three years of age, determined upon emigrating to Ohio. He met with great opposition from the family; but he arranged his "pack," and, swinging it over his shoulder, started alone and on foot. He first came to Cleveland, near where he stopped for three days to replenish his purse by working. He worked for three days for a farmer, in helping to build a mill-dam, where he had to work all the time in water, sometimes waist-deep. For this he received $1 a day; but as he had to pay the tavern keeper 75 cents a day for his board, he found that he was only 75 cents better off for his three days' hard work. He then struck a "bee line" for Marietta, Ohio, which had then been settled for twenty-four years. There he made four barrels of cider, for a farmer, on the halves; and taking his two barrels down to Marietta, sold it out of his skiff, at a lively rate, to the United States soldiers quartered there, at 12½ cents a quart. Returning up the river with his skiff, he washed out of the pomace, at the cider mill, about three pecks of apple seeds, which, adding to the weight of his original pack, he swung over his shoulder and took another bee line for Worthington, Ohio, directing his course through the wilderness as best he could, and strapping himself in the tops of trees at night to save himself from being devoured by wolves while trying to obtain his needed rest. In the spring of 1813, he rented a small piece of ground, at Worthington, and planted a part of his apple seeds for a nursery. In the spring of 1814, he came to Madison County and bought ninety-two acres of land of Walter and Ann May Dun, in Darby Township, and planted more of his apple seeds on it; and on the 1st day of September, 1816, he married Mrs. Hannah (Noble) Gorham, of Worthington, Ohio — a widow with two children — daughter of Rev. Seth and Hannah (Barker) Noble, born at Kenduskeag Meadow (Bangor), Province of Maine, September 11, 1789. He brought her to his home in Darby Township, and they both remained citizens of Madison County until the time of their death. He died at Amity, Canaan Township, January 11, 1832, aged forty-three years; and she at Amity on the 17th day of November, 1854, aged sixty-five. To them were born seven children, four daughters and three sons, as follows: Elizabeth ("Eliza"), Mary, Hannah, Noble, Malona Case, Uri, John Noble, William Morrow. In 1813, Lorenzo Beach came to Ohio, and joined his brother Uri at Worthington; and in 1814 his brothers, Amos and Ambrose and his sister Sarah (Ketch) and her husband, came to Madison County. In 1815, Ambrose went back to Vermont and married Joanna Perry; and in 1817, Obil, their father, came on with all the remainder of the family, reaching their destination on the Darby Plains on the 25th day of October of that year. Of what they wrought in Madison county, it is presumable that sufficient reference has been made by the historians of Darby and Canaan Township, and will appear elsewhere in the history of these townships. Brief biographical sketches of some of the individual members of the family will be found elsewhere in this work also. Of this family, Obil died at the home of his son Dr. Lorenzo, in Darby Township, September, 1846, aged eighty-eight; Elizabeth, his wife, in Canaan Township, at her son Uri's, in September, 1826, aged sixty-one; Susannah (Hallock), in 1856, aged seventy-three; Amos, in Plain City, Ohio, February 25, 1875, aged ninety; Marova, in infancy; Uri, January 11, 1832, of pnuemonia, at Amity, aged forty-three; Ambrose, in Brown Township, Franklin county, Ohio, September 20, 1870, aged seventy-eight; Rhoda (Hallock), on the Darby Plains in Canaan township, of milk-sickness, September 23, 1823, aged twenty-nine; Sarah (Ketch-Converse), at Plain City, Ohio, January 16, 1876, aged seventy-nine; Lorenzo, at Fairbury, Ill., August, 1878, aged eighty; Roswell, still living, at Centerville, Iowa; Irene, September, 1824, aged twenty; Obil, still living at Bucks Grove, Kan.; Oren, died in Kansas (or Missouri) November 4, 1863, from fatigue in being chased by rebel guerrillas, aged fifty-six. The descendants of "ye pilgrim Thomas, of Milford," Conn., are scattered through Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, New York, New Jersey, Ohio, Missouri, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, California, Texas, Georgia and elsewhere. Joseph Perkins Beach, our genealogist, in a recent personal communication, says: "For over thirty years, I have been gathering in the Beaches, from every 'original record' I thought likely to yield returns; and I am not ashamed of any record of them I have yet found. They are a good race, enterprising, brave, of average longevity, average piety, full of energy, and in all respects worthy of a history."
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