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biography from Portrait & Biographical Album of Mahaska Co., Iowa, 1887
HON. THOMAS C. BEACH, of Garfield Township, was born in Jacksonville, Ill., Jan. 11, 1832, and is a son of Caleb and Mary A. Beach. Mrs. Beach was a native of New York City, and the father, of Newark, N. J. Caleb Beach was born Oct. 12, 1803, and died in Jacksonville, Ill., May 8, 1838; his wife, born June 29, 1807, is still living at Jacksonville, Ill. She is a member of the Christian Church, and a woman greatly esteemed for her piety and good deeds. The subject of this sketch worked on the farm in Illinois until 1853, when he came to this county and settled two miles south of Granville, purchasing 120 acres of land, and farmed it for thirteen years, when, disposing of the place, he removed to section 5, in Garfield Township, in 1866, and has lived there ever since. At the date of his first settlement in Richland Township that country was all raw prairie. There were very few neighbors in the township, and the nearest one on the east was ten miles away. He came to Iowa, as did many others, because the land was cheap and good and there was ample opportunity for the selection of the best. His early life was a struggle, and the first compensation he received for his services was $8 per month and board, Mr. Beach was married, April 17, 1853, to Martha Campbell, a native of Scott County, Ill., born June 3, 1833, and a daughter of Joseph and Sophia (Kennedy) Campbell. To them have been born five children: Mark W., Sept. 15, 1854, is now living in Richland Township; Luke, born June 17, 1856, is a resident of Spring Creek Township; Thomas C., Jr., born May 4, 1858, now lives in Querida, Custer Co., Col., and is engaged in merchandising; Joseph C., born Aug. 31, 1860, and Mary E., April 24, 1863. Joseph Campbell was born in Lincoln County, Ky., May 9, 1806. Sophia Kennedy was born in Casey County, Ky., Dec. 17, 1813. They were married in Morgan County, Ill., Dec. 22, 1831. Mr. B. has 195 acres of land in his present farm which is all under a high state of cultivation. He not only carries on the farm, but is a breeder of Short-horn cattle, and has a fine herd, among them representatives of the best families now on this continent, and keeps at all times a fine lot of calves for sale. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity and a Knight Templar. Politically he is a Republican, and at the session of 1874-76 represented Mahaska County in the General Assembly of Iowa, in the Lower House. Mr. Beach is a man who has grown with the growth of this county, and has witnessed its development to its present high position among the counties of the State, and his life among us has ever been an open book that might be read and known of all men. He is an honorable, high- minded, upright citizen, a systematic and successful farmer, and enjoys in esteem of his fellow-men.
Portrait & Biographical Album of Mahaska Co., Iowa, 1887
Mahaska County, Iowa Genealogy