My 2nd Great Grandfather and the Orginal Seward's Folly

William H. Seward

Have you ever heard of William H. Seward? Maybe some of you know of Seward's Folly? William H. Seward was a Governor of New York (1839-42), a Senator (1849-61) and later became Secretary of State under Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson (1861-69). He is primarily known today as being the buyer of Alaska (1867), which had been termed as Seward's Folly in the press at the time. People thought it was outlandish and a waste of time and money - pure foolishness. After 100+ years, the buying of Alaska is now thought of as a steal and a great investment. Seward was a great orator and nearly became a presidential candidate during the 1860 election. He was also severely injured by a John Wilkes Booth's co-conspirator when Abraham Lincoln was assassinated.

My 2nd Great Grandfather William Beach - Quite a Character

I have researched my father's family, the Beaches, for several years now and I cannot get much of anything past my 2nd great grandfather William Beach. He was born in 1823 or so in Washington, DC and died in 1861 of an illness. He appears in the 1850 census as William Blach (the e was looped high) and the 1860 census as Wm Beach. His wife was Henrietta Beach. His son was James Henson Beach. I did not know much about him at all until I started looking on the Chronicling America web site. I started doing all kinds of searches for him (William Beach, Wm Beach, Wm. Beach) and I found some interesting things about him. None of it was very flattering. According to the Washington Evening Star, William Beach was quite a character. Here he is in 1854 being arrested for a charge of profanity:

Washington, D.C. Evening Star November 4, 1854

Here is William arrested for stealing glasses from a restaurant in 1856:

Washington, D.C. Evening Star August 12, 1856

Here he is in 1860 asking for his horse to be returned:

Washington, D.C. Evening Star July 17, 1860

You are getting the picture of how William conducted his life - by doing things the hard way. I like the description of his horse - brown mare, blind in the left eye. 

William Beach knows Governor Seward?

I found this following Lost and Found entry from January 5, 1858:

Washington, D.C. Evening Star January 5, 1858

So William Beach, who lost a horse 2 years later (in 1860), loses 30 dollars near the Capitol building. Not only that, he somehow knows the great Governor Seward and Seward posts a Lost and Found item in the Evening Star. In the 1860 census, it says that William Beach cannot read or write. So here is the scenario - William Beach loses the $30 (valued today at nearly $1,000). This is probably somewhere near 2-4 weeks of wages. He looks for the money everywhere that he can think of, maybe for days. He does not want to go home and tell his wife that he has no money for the next few weeks, so he racks his brain to find someone who can help him and he thinks of William H. Seward. What I want to know is, how in the world does William Beach, a guy who gets arrested, loses horses and big sums of money - how does he know William H. Seward?

William Beach and his brother Zachariah (another genuine character, much like his brother William) are listed as laborers in the 1860 census. Is it possible that William is a laborer, maybe a carpenter, who works for William H. Seward? Is he a laborer working on Federal buildings and Seward passes by everyday? We may never know, but somehow William Beach knows Seward enough to ask him to write a Lost and Found request in the newspaper. Pretty cool stuff! But it gets cooler.

Seward to the Rescue

The next days paper has the follow up to the previous days:

Washington, D.C. Evening Star January 6, 1858

So William Seward is successful in getting the money returned to my 2nd great grandfather! Think about how William Beach felt after getting this news! Think of how what he thought about Seward! Seward was a hero. Seward was the man.What kind of guy was Captain P. M. Henry? The money was spent by his servant and he pays the money from his own pocket. Now what he did with the female slave was a different story. She most likely had a worse time in the coming months ahead.

I would call this story the Original Seward's Folly - It was William Beach's folly and William Seward turned a dismal situation into a great one.

Follow Up to William Beach

William had a very short life (38 years). He died in 1861 after an illness. He left a wife Henrietta and a young son James Henson Beach. I cannot find them in the 1870 census. I cannot find Henrietta anywhere after the 1860 census. I talked to my father's cousin (who I met through ancestry.com - thanks Nancy Redmon!) and he had a story that must have been handed down from oral history. He said that James Henson, known as Henson, was playing in the streets of Washington, D.C. with a colored boy and John Ford, owner of Ford's Theater, hired the both of them as stable boys for the theater. This would have been in the timeframe of the mid-1860's. Henson may have been at the theater the night Lincoln was shot. We may never know. 

Later on, John Ford recommended Henson to Congressional Cemetery, where Ford was a director. Henson went on to work for Congressional as an undertaker for the next 67 years. He dug the graves of many congressman and also dug the grave for John Phillip Souza. My Dad's cousin said that Henson was on the detail in 1869 to take John Wilkes Booth's body from Washington, D.C. to Baltimore at the Booth family plot. My grandfather Robert Beach and my uncle Raymond Beach worked as undertakers also. My Dad and his brothers evidently played in the freshly dug graves because there was a story of his brother Clarence almost suffocating in the sawdust in the bottom of a grave. My Dad's cousin grew up helping his father at Congressional Cemetery. He said he played in the tunnels underneath the cemetery.

I would not have know the story of James Henson unless I had gotten started in ancestry.com. You meet so many people who are searching for the same family members and you can trade ideas and stories. It has spurred me to reach out to cousins and other family members. I love genealogy work!