THOMAS BEALS, FIRST FRIENDS MINISTER
IN OHIO
BY HARLOW LINDLEY
Thomas Beals was born in Chester County,
Pennsylvania, in
1719. He was the son of John and Sarah
Beals, formerly Sarah
Bowater of an English family of Friends.
Thomas Beals had
two brothers, John and Bowater, and four
sisters: Prudence, who
married Richard Williams, Sarah, who
married John Mills, Mary,
who married Thomas Hunt and after his
death, William Baldwin,
and Phebe, who married Robert Sumner.
John Beals, Junior, mar-
ried Esther Hunt and Bowater Beals
married Ann Cook, sister of
Isaac Cook, who was the husband of
Charity Cook, a noted
Friends minister.
From John Beals, the father, there
descended a large number
of members of the Society of Friends
located in Pennsylvania,
North Carolina, Ohio, Indiana, Iowa,
Kansas, Oregon and Cali-
fornia. On many of these descendants,
gifts in the ministry have
been conferred. Among those of direct
descent were: Thomas
Beals, Bowater Beals, Sarah Mills, Ruth
Hockett, Hannah Cloud,
Nathan Hunt, Hannah Baldwin, Elizabeth
Bond, Peter Dix,
Benejah Hiatt, John Bond, Jesse Bond,
Jesse Williams, Jesse
Hockett, Aseneth Clark, Myseam
Mendenhall, Daniel Williams,
Eleazer Beals, Asaph Hiatt, Ruth
Haisley, Naomi Coffin, Esther
Carson, Levi Jessup, Jesse B. Williams,
Margaret Toms, William
J. Thornberry, Anna M. Votaw, Amos Bond,
Elwood Scott, Dr.
Dougan Clark, Elizabeth Beals Bond and
Jehial Bond.
From Chester County, as it then was,
John Beals moved with
his family to Monocacy Carols Manor,
Maryland. There, his
son Thomas, the subject of this sketch,
married Sarah Ankram.
From there they moved to Hopewell, near
Winchester, Virginia,
where John Beals died in 1745, three
years before the family
moved on to North Carolina.
55
56
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Thomas Beals moved with his family to
North Carolina in
1748, being then twenty-nine years old.
He stopped first at Cane
Creek, then he went to New Garden, North
Carolina, which was
at that time frontier territory. In a
very short time he was joined
by some
other families. In the year 1753, Thomas Beals, then
about thirty-four years of age, came
forth in the ministry. The
next move he made was to Westfield,
Surry County, North
Carolina. Here he was instrumental in
the development of a
large meeting. He must have lived at New
Garden and West-
field about thirty years, during which
time he paid lengthy visits
to the Indians.
In the year 1775, twenty years
before Wayne's Treaty with
the Indians at Greenville, Thomas Beals,
accompanied by his
nephew Bowater Sumner, William Hiatt and
David Ballard,
started to pay a visit to the Delaware
Indians and some other
tribes. After passing a fort not far
from Clinch Mountain in
Virginia, they were arrested and carried
back to the fort to be
tried for their lives on the charge of
being confederates of the
hostile Indians. The officers,
understanding that one of them was
a preacher, required a sermon before
they went in for trial.
Thomas Beals thought it was the right
time to hold a meeting
with the soldiers. This proved to be a
very good idea for a
young man from the fort was converted
and, some time after.
joined the Friends, became a member of
the group and, at a very
advanced age, bore public testimony to
the truth of the principles
of which he was convinced at the fort.
After the meeting, the
Friends were kindly entertained and told
that they were at
liberty to go on their journey. They
crossed the Ohio River
into what is now the State of Ohio; held
many satisfactory meet-
ings with the Indians and returned home
safely. Discussing the
trip, Thomas Beals told his friends that
he saw with his spiritual
eye the seed of Friends scattered all
over that good land and that
one day there would be a greater
gathering of Friends there than
any other place in the world, and that
his faith was strong in the
belief that he would live to see Friends
settle north of the Ohio
River.
THOMAS BEALS 57
In the year 1777, Thomas Beals,
accompanied by William
Robinson and an interpreter, Isaac
Ottoman, started to pay a
religious visit to the Six Nations and
some other tribes of Indians
and proceeded as far as Sewickley, a
small meeting of Friends in
the western part of Pennsylvania, where
they were captured and
carried to Hannelstown, not far from
Fort Pitt, now Pittsburgh.
There they were detained some time and
then sent home. Still
having a concern in his mind for the
Indians, he made another
attempt to visit them, but was again
arrested and imprisoned,
under guard, in a cold, open barn. When
he was let out of con-
finement, he was permitted to hold a
meeting with the soldiers,
but was not allowed to go any farther,
and had to return home.
In 1781, Thomas Beals moved from
Westfield, North Caro-
lina, to Blue Stone, Giles County,
Virginia, where he lived but a
few years. This move does not appear to
have had the approval
of his friends, for Nathan Hunt states
that they sent a com-
mittee to induce him to return to
Westfield, North Carolina. The
little meeting of twenty or thirty
families was entirely broken
up at Blue Stone. Beals and his family
stayed, however, and
suffered not only for the necessities of
life, but their son-in-law,
James Horton, was taken prisoner by the
Indians and, from the
most reliable information that can be
obtained, was carried to
Old Chillicothe, near Frankfort, Ohio,
and there put to death.
In the year 1785, Beals moved to Lost
Creek, in Tennessee.
and in the year 1793, he came to Grayson
County, Virginia, where
Nathan Hunt states that Thomas Beals
established meetings and
says that he was very zealous for the
support of the testimonies of
Friends. In the year 1795, George Harlan
and family, members
of the Society of Friends, settled on
the Little Miami, at Deerfield,
four miles from the present town of
Morrow.
In 1796, James Baldwin and Phineas Hunt,
with their fam-
ilies, members of the Society of
Friends, from Westfield, North
Carolina, moved to the Virginia shore of
the Ohio River. Here
Mary Hunt was born, on October 18, 1796, four miles
from
Point Pleasant, on the Virginia shore.
In February, 1797, the
Baldwins and Hunts crossed the Ohio
River and settled oppo-
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OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
site Green Bottom near each other. Two
families of Friends now
settled together in the Northwest
Territory with the one pre-
viously mentioned (the Harlans) quite
remote from them.
On May 8, 1797, a group of Friends moved
from Westland,
Pennsylvania, and settled at High Bank
on the east side of the
Scioto River, four miles below the
present Chillicothe. In the
latter part of this same year, Jesse
Baldwin moved from his
first location opposite Green Bottom,
some eighteen miles down
the Ohio, and settled in what was called
Quaker Bottom, in
Lawrence County, opposite the mouth of
the Guyandot River, and
the present town of Guyandot. So far as
can be ascertained, this
was where Friends in the Northwest
Territory first sat down to
hold a Meeting for divine worship.
John Warner, son of Isaac and Mary
Warner, who was born
at High Bank, Ross County, Ohio, on July
12, 1798, was, so
far as is known, the first child born as
a birthright member of
the Society of Friends northwest of the
Ohio River, and, on
November 11 of that year, Rebecca
Chandler, daughter of Wil-
liam and Hannah Chandler, was born near
the same place. In
1798, a group of Friends from Hopewell,
Virginia, settled at
High Bank, and in the same year a group
of Friends, all from
North Carolina, settled at Salt Creek,
near Richmondale, Ross
County, Ohio.
In 1799, Thomas Beals, who had visited
this country twenty-
four years before, now moved to Quaker
Bottom, along with
other members of his family. They were
accompanied by Obediah
Overman and his family, all from Grayson
County, Virginia.
On their arrival, they opened a meeting
for worship in the dwell-
ing of Jesse Baldwin. There they met
regularly during their
residence at that place. The nearest
Meeting to them was at
Westland, Pennsylvania. Sometime during
the year, 1799, Taylor
Webster and family, from Redstone,
Pennsylvania, settled at
Grassy Prairies, five miles northeast of
Chillicothe.
In the spring of 1801, Thomas Beals,
Jesse Baldwin, John
Beals and Daniel Beals moved from Quaker
Bottom, and they,
with Enoch Cox and their families,
settled up Salt Creek, near the
present town of Adelphia.
THOMAS BEALS 59
August 29, 1801, Thomas Beals died and was buried two
days
later, near Richmondale, Ross County,
Ohio, in a coffin of regular
shape, hollowed out of a solid white
walnut tree by his ever
faithful friend, Jesse Baldwin. He was
assisted by Enoch Cox and
others, who covered the coffin with a
part of the same tree, which
had previously been selected for this
purpose by the deceased.
Buried near him were William Puckett,
Hugh Moffett, as well as
others of the small community. A meeting
house was later
built on the land then owned by the
Moffett family and a Meeting
was held there for some time.
In the spring of 1802, a group of
Friends settled on Lees
Creek, in and near the present town of
Leesburg, which is located
in Highland County, Ohio, where no white
person had lived
before. In the fall of the same year,
Sarah Beals, widow of
Thomas Beals, and her sons, John and
Daniel, and their families,
moved from Adelphia, as did Phineas
Hunt, formerly of Raccoon
Falls. All settled at Lees Creek and
Hardins Creek near each
other. This community was augmented in
the spring of 1803
by the families of Jesse Baldwin, John
Beals, Bowater Beals
and John Evans, and, in the fall of the
same year, two Lupton
families, from Hopewell, Virginia,
settled at Lees Creek. On
their arrival, Friends became concerned
about a meeting for
worship. Widow Sarah Beals heartily
endorsed the idea. Thus
there began a Friends Meeting at
Fairfield (Leesburg), regularly
authorized in May, 1804. Sarah Beals
died July 7, 1813, at the
age of 89, and was buried at Fairfield.
Thomas Beals's daughter,
Margaret, whose first husband, James
Horton, was captured by
the Indians, afterward married Daniel
Huff, who lived in the
Fairfield community.
When Thomas Beals was captured in 1775,
one recalls that a
young man then in the fort was
converted. That young man was
Beverly Milner, who eventually settled
near the last residence of
Sarah Beals. In his later years, after
he became too feeble to
attend Meeting, he often alluded to the
ministry of that "heavenly
man by whom he was converted." He
died in 1848, when he
was almost eighty-seven, and was buried
at Fairfield.
60 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND
HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
This sketch may give some idea of the
toil, privations, labor,
struggles and sufferings of the
pioneers. In planting Quakerism
in the Old Northwest, Thomas Beals and
his faithful wife and
devoted family are but one of the
hundreds who struggled, nor
was he the only one buried in a log
coffin. Many were buried with
nothing but boards to separate them from
the lone mountains,
never to be seen or marked by loved
ones. The author is con-
vinced, however, that to Thomas Beals
belongs the credit of having
been the first Friends minister to carry
the message of Christ into
the vast region north and west of the
Ohio, that region which, in
a few years, was to become the great
center of the life of not
only the Society of Friends, but the
entire Nation. Thomas Beals's
prophecy of 1775 began to be
realized in his own lifetime and has
long been a reality, since one-third of
the Friends of America have
resided within the limits of the old
Northwest Territory for three-
quarters of a century.1
1 On September 19, 1937, a monument was
dedicated at the grave of Thomas Beals
near
Richmondale, Ohio.