Jacob Beam Sr. (abt. 1723 - 1812)

Born about 29 Nov 1723 in Pennsylvania [uncertain]

Ancestors

Husband of Anna Catharina (Buchner) Beam — married 1756 in Sussex, New Jersey,

Descendants

Died 10 May 1812 at about age 88 in Beamsville, Clinton, Lincoln, Upper Canada

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Biography

Jacob Beam was a United Empire Loyalist.
UEL Status:Proven
Date: Undated

Founder of Beamsville. United Empire Loyalist. Jacob Beam (Boehme) was born in what is today Lancaster Co., PA of Pennsylvania Dutch Mennonite origins. A farmer in Sussex Co., NJ during the American Revolution, he was arrested and jailed for aiding in the escape of some British troops. He was forced to pay 500 pounds and forfeit all his land. He afterward moved to Mansfield, NJ where he came under the influence of baptist preaching. In 1788 he lead a group of baptist immigrants to the Niagara Peninsula and was granted 400 acres near 30 Mile Creek in Clinton Twp (where he settled) and 500 acres in Grimsby Twp. He donated the land for the Baptist Church, school, and cemetery in the town that was named after him, Beamsville, Ontario, Canada. Both of his homes — the original one located on the Thirty Mile Creek, as well as the one near downtown Beamsville — are still intact today.

He married Anna Catherine Boughner and they were the parents of (at least) 11 children: John, Lewis, Alice (m. William Kitchen), Catherine, Peter, Jacob Jr., Susannah, Margaret, Christina, Anna, and Sarah.^[1][2][3]

• Fact: Burial Beamsville, Lincoln, Niagara, Ontario, Canada
• Fact: http://familysearch.org/v1/LifeSketch The following history of Jacob Beam Sr. who founded Beamsville was written by Robert Kemp, historian of the Baptist church, Beamsville. "Beamsville was founded about 1790 by Jacob Beam, a Loyalist of Pennsylvania Dutch extraction, who came to Upper Canada in 1788. As appears from his applications for land, Jacob Beam had been a farmer in Sussex County, New Jersey, during the American Revolution and had been clapped in irons, fined 0 and had forfeited his lands for having aided the British prisoners to escape. What relation he was of Jacob Boehm, who came to America in 1712 and settled in Lancaster Co., Pennsylvania, at the instance of a German agent of William Penn, who introduced into Pennsylvania a number of 'Pennsylvania Dutch' is a matter of conjecture. He can hardly have been a son but may have been a nephew or second cousin, since there is a tradition that some of the relatives of Jacob Boehm, the Pioneer came over to America with him. However this may be, there is not doubt that Jacob Beam, the founder of Beamsville, suffered during the Revolution because of his attachment to the British cause. It would appear that at the close of the Revolution, Jacob Beam was forced to remove from Sussex County, N.J. where things had perhaps become too hot for him and he settled temporarily in the southern part of New Jersey in a village named Mansfield. Here he and his family, who had probably been Mennonites, came under the influence of itinerant Baptist preachers and in 1786 formed part of a small Baptist church of eighteen members in Mansfield. Two years later Jacob Beam, with several of his sons, daughters, and sons-in-law, desirous of living under the British flag, migrated to the Niagara peninsula in Upper Canada and, in 1790, founded a small Baptist community in the township of Clinton near the mouth of the Thirty Mile Creek, where the town of Beamsville is now situated. Here Jacob Beam ultimately obtained grants amounting to over a thousand acres and he built some mills on the Thirty Mile Creek. There is a tradition in the Beam family that he was the first person to grow peaches in the Niagara peninsula and that the first cheese in Upper Canada was made from the milk of his cows."

Sources

1. ↑ "Jacob Beam (Boehm)" by Robert A. M. Stewart, published in Loyalist Families of the Grand River Branch, UELAC (1991)
2. ↑ "Graves and Inscriptions in the Niagara Peninsula" by Janet Carnochan
3. ↑ "Hixson Trails" by Margaret Madara Free.

• "Family Tree," database, FamilySearch (http://familysearch.org : modified 07 February 2019, 16:59), entry for Jacob Beam(PID https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/4:1:GM3Y-QZ9); contributed by various users.

See also:

• Find A Grave Memorial# 24323510
• United Empire Loyalists of Canada Directory Entry
• Thank you to Heather Green for creating Beam-371 on 21 Oct 13. Click the Changes tab for the details on contributions by Heather and others.

Research Notes

There are documents located in Vineland, ON Library that state Jacob Beam of Conestoga and Jacob Beam of Beamsville were one and the same. One of these documents is from a letter from 1979 where much research was done. The research stated that Jacob Beam from Conestoga was actually born 1716 not 1728, and he was 96 when he died. It also stated that his wife's name was Ann Steiner not Boughner and that Jacob Beam's from Beamsville wife was "unknown". The reason for the difference in age was supposed to be that Jacob did not "let on' he was older. It says that the reason the Beam name and Ann Steiner adopted her mother and sisters name Catherine was to "cover this past". It is mentioned that Jacob left PA with his brother Abraham (who landed in Black Creek). Jacob was supposed to have been shunned by his family in PA for leaving the Mennonite faith. If that is the case, why did he travel with Abraham who was still Mennonite. The shunning is listed as a reason no one could find any connection between the Beam family of Black Creek and Beam family of Beamsville. Not sure this is all compelling evidence that the 2 Jacob's are one and the same. There are still a lot of questions that may never be answered.