
Dorrick F. BEAUMAN, who
has resided on his four hundred acre farm on
section 36, Tunnel Hill Township, Johnson County, for the past twenty
years, was born in Canada,
in the District of Three Rivers, St. Peter's
Parish, June 22, 1827. His father, Alexander BEAUMAN, was a native of
France, and was born in 1857. He emigrated from France
to Canada when a
young man of about eighteen years, with but a few hundred dollars'cash
capital, and a part of this was the buttons on his coat, which were of
gold covered
with cloth. He was a farmer by occupation, but he was the
son of a colonel in the French army.
Dorrick F. BEAUMAN is one of twelve children, seven sons and five
daughters. He is the sixth son of his father and the third child of his
mother, who was his father's second
wife. She was Mary Ann FRAZIER, a Scotch lady, who had four children,
two sons and two
daughters: Sophia, Clara, Dorrick F. and Jeffrey. Mr. BEAUMAN
is the
only
one survivingof these four children. The parents removed from
Canada to Vermont about 1850, where they lived with their children
until their death, the father dying in 1852,
at the age of ninety-five,
and his widow, who was much younger than he, dying in the year 1871,
at about the age of eighty years. Dorrick F. BEAUMAN was reared in
Canada, but went to Vermont about 1848, and came to Illinois in
November, 1853, first locating in Union County. He was Roadmaster on
the Illinois Central Railroad for
eight years, up to 1861. He then
followed farming in that county, and was married there in
December,
1861, to Miss Carrie CORGAU, who was born in Franklin County,
Ill., in
1843, and is the daughter of John CORGAU. He was a native of North
Carolina and of Irish descent.
Mr. and Mrs. BEAUMAN resided in Union County three years, when they
sold their small farm and began merchandising at Anna, and afterward at
Lick Creek, in the
same county. He was successful until 1873, when he
sold out and moved to his present home. His well-cultivated farm he
bought for $15 per acre, and since that time he
has been farming and
merchandising at Tunnel Hill, except that from 1880 to 1890 he was
engaged exclusiveLY in farming. While he has always carried on mixed
farming,
yet his specialty has been a high grade of Shorthorn cattle.
He has kept as many as eighty head at a time and has shipped a carload
to market eaclh year. Soon after coming
to his present farm he planted
out a fine orchard of eight or ten acres of apple trees, and
his apple
crop was a success every year until 1892, when the crop was a total
failure
in all this portion of Illinois. He has also grown small
fruits, such as strawberries and raspberries, but is now only raising
these fruits for his own use.
Mr. BEAUMAN built his present fine house in 1889, but that built by
him in 1880 was a finer one than this. He also had a fine large barn,
the finest one in the county, but it
and the house were burned down in
the spring of 1889, the loss being $4,500. All their household goods
were destroyed and the insurance was only partial. He had buried
his wife in
February, 1889, and his house and barn burned in May. Mrs.
BEAUMAN was
forty-six years old and left ten children, five sons and five
daughters, all of whom
are living, as follows: Emma, wife of R. A.
DINWIDDIE, who is engaged in merchandising at Tunnel Hill; Louis, a
civil engineer, who is married and living in Texas; Frank,
single, and
engaged in merchandising in Tunnel Hill with his brother-in-law;
Guy, a
traveling salesman, single; Harry, a young man residing on the home
farm; John, who is
attending school in Quiney, Ill.; Maud, a young lady
at home; Madge, a young lady of sixteen, at home and in
school; Carrie
M., eight years old and in school; and Clara,
a lovely little child
four years old. These children have had and are having the best
educational facilities that the country affords.
Mr. BEAUMAN felt the
loss of his wife very
greatly, but he has been greatly favored in his
children and in his business career, for though beginning poor, he has
accumulated a handsome competency, and has reared
all of his children.
He is a Master Mason and a Republican. Our subject has been peculiarly
unfortunate in the matter of fires, as in April, 1893. his business
house in Tunnel Hill
and all its contents were destroyed, and his
insurance was only light.
transcribed by Nan Starjak
Source:
The Biographical Review of Johnson, Massac, Pope and Hardin
Counties
Chicago
Biographical Publishing Co., 1893
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