Sedgwick County KSGenWeb

Portrait And Biographical Album of Sedgwick County, Kan.

Chapman Brothers 1888

Pages 758 - 760 

ZANOAH BEESON, late a representative farmer of Minneha Township, resided on section 29. He was born Oct. 23, 1823, in Wayne County, Ind., and was the son of Zachariah and Hannah (Thornburg) Beeson. His death took place Feb. 19, 1888.

            The father of our subject was born in North Carolina, Sept. 15, 1796. He grew to manhood in his native State, and was married in 1822 to Miss Hannah Thornburg, a native of Guilford County, N. C., who was born Sept. 15, 1804. He was a gunsmith by trade, and followed the business for nearly thirty years. In 1818 he removed to Indiana and settled in Randolph County, where he worked at his trade until his marriage four years later. On the occurrence of that event he purchased eighty acres of land on Nettle Creek, in Wayne County, Ind., on a part of which he erected a shop in which to follow up his business. He fitted up a water-wheel on the creek to furnish power for the machinery used in boring out gun barrels, and work of like character. In March, 1854, he sold out all his possessions, and removed to Jasper County. Ind., where he lived until 1858, when he was called to those "chambers in the silent halls of death."

            Our subject's father was a member of the orthodox Quaker Church in his earlier days, but for his opinions as to the non-existence of the "Father of Lies," was expelled from that denomination. Joining the Hicksite branch of the same church, he remained with them for many years, until the slavery question was agitated, when he severed his connection with it on account of his anti-slavery views. He was a strong Abolitionist, and was connected with the famous "underground railroad," during the days of slavery, and assisted many of the bondmen to reach Canada. The mother of our subject was also a member of the Hicksite Quaker Church, and died Aug. 11, 1867. To these people were born fourteen children, as follows: Zanoah, the subject of this sketch; Rachel, Lucinda, Melinda, Edward, Kesiah, Isaac, Benjamin, Margaret, John, Jessie, Hannah, Leonard and Joseph. Only three survive: Rachel, who married Pleasant Massey for her first husband, and Alfred Wheaton for her second, and is a resident of this township; Leonard, who married Ann Lefler, and is a resident of Nebraska, and Margaret, who married John Ballard, but no longer lives with her husband, and makes her home in Nebraska. Benjamin and Margaret were twins, as were Lucinda and Melinda.

            Zanoah Beeson, the eldest of the family, was reared upon the farm, and followed that line of life until he was twenty-one years old. During his boyhood days he attended the common schools of the day, in which he received all his education. He had a vivid recollection of the old school-house; it was a cabin built of logs, with a large fireplace in one end of it some six feet wide, the windows were small, and the light was admitted through greased paper, which took the place of glass; and the seats were split logs, with wooden pegs driven into them for legs. On attaining his majority he commenced to learn the gunsmith trade with his father, and continued in that business for nearly eight years.

            About 1852 Mr. Beeson commenced the lumber business in the neighborhood, and was engaged in a sawmill for some time. Making the purchase of a store, he entered into the mercantile trade, which he followed until 1868. From that time until 1877 he was engaged at running a sawmill, and came to Kansas in 1878 and settled on the present farm.

            November 14, 1844, Mr. Beeson being then about twenty-one years of age, was united in the holy bonds of matrimony with Miss Virena Smith, the daughter of Joel and Catherine (Rightsman) Smith, both of whom were natives of Ohio, and who are numbered with the dead. Mr. Smith and his wife were the parents of four children, viz: Virena, Mrs. Beeson; Nancy, deceased; one who died in infancy, and Jackson, a resident of Wayne County, Ind.

            The subject of our sketch was the parent of five children, one of whom, Hannah Louisa, died when an infant. The others are as follows: Elkanah R., Malinda E., Laura Rhodella, and Lillie May. Malinda married Theodore V. Stoker, and is dead; Laura married Michael Reagan, and lives in Wichita; Lillie May, Mrs. William Carroll, is also an inhabitant of that city, and Elkanah R. remains at home.

            Like his father, who "remote from towns ran his godly race," our subject was a strong Republican and a stanch temperance man, although quite independent in his views. He was an active worker in all matters of reform and progress, and well merited the esteem in which he was held by the community. He owned and occupied a well-improved farm of 140 acres, on which he placed a good, comfortable residence, and neat barns and other out-buildings. The place is surrounded by a well‑trimmed hedge and fine fences, and plenty of water, tinctured with gypsum, runs in a purling stream through the property, affording a never-failing supply of this needful element in farming. One of the curiosities of the place is a salt well, which has been bored to the depth of 2,080 feet while prospecting for natural gas. The water it contains is sixty-eight per cent pure saline matter, but it is not at present used in the manufacture of salt.

            Owing to the peace-loving tenets of the Society of Friends, of which Mr. Beeson and his forefathers were members, it was inconsistent in him to shoulder a musket in the late Civil War. Both he and his brother Leonard, however, paid $800 apiece to substitutes, who took their places in the fall of 1865.

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