Ninian Beall

Ninian Beall
Born	Birth date 1625 Scotland
Died	Age 92 Maryland

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Biographical Sketches

The founder of the Beall family in America was Ninian Beall (1625-1717) who came from Largo, a seaside resort in County Fife, Scotland (near Edinburgh). Originally spelled Bealle, now Beall. Ninian Bealle and relatives were Covenanters and their zeal caused them to be mixed up in the killing of Bishop Montgomery. Ninian Bealle emigrated in 1655 to Calvert Co,, Md, (S.E. ofWashington along Chesapeake Bay). All Beall’s in America are his descendants. Scharf’s History of Maryland calls him Col. Beall. He became Commander in Chief of all the Maryland forces in the war against the Susquehannock Indians. This history also states that Col. Beall, about 1678, induced Presbyterians to settle in and around the locality where the cities of Georgetown and Washington now are.

Ninian Beall lived to see the establishment of the first American Presbytery. He gave a half acre for the erection of a church. He worked with the Presbyterian leaders of his time. {See Presbyterian Review Vol. 9, 1888 page 380—387). He gave a silver service to the Patuxent Church. No chalices and a tankard remain at Hyattsville.

Ninian Beall was in service 30 years repelling the lndians, The Maryland Assembly again and again voted him acts of Gratitude. Like Washington he was a surveyor. Georgetown near Washington was founded by him.

Some of the early history of the Beall family is found in *EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON by Sallie Somervel] Maekall. copyrighted 1899. Mrs. Mackall was a descendant of Ninian Beall. References to the Beall family in chronological order will be found in pages 53, 17, 44, 40, 48, 50, & 54. George Beall 1751 (p. 40), Samuel Beall 1775 (53, 54), Brooke Beall 1788. On page 54 a very romantic picture is drawn of the visits of General George Washington to the Brooke Beall family.

The line from which the Wayne County, Ohio Bealls came includes only Ninian Beall ofthe persons spoken of in Early Days of Washington, This direct line is: Ninian, Robert, James, Zephaniah, Reasin. Zephaniah Beall lived in Montgomery County, Md. (just north of Prince George County, lying just around the City of Washington). Reasin Beall, his son, was born December 3, 1769, in Montgomery County, Maryland. A few years thereafter Reasin accompanied his parents to Washington County, Pennsylvania where his father, Zephaniah Beall, bought a farm of416 acres in 1783.

Major Zephaniah Beall commanded a body of volunteer militia from Western Pennsylvania in the unfortunate campaign of 1782 led by Col. Crawford, against the Indians of Upper Sandusky. Beall was Associate Judge of Washington County. He lived in a home near Washington. Pennsylvania. called Beallville, in which he died in 1801. This Beallville home is still in use at the present time. The revolutionary record of Zephaniah Beall is given in papers of the Maryland Historical Society.

When a young man, Reasin Beall entered the army. In 1790 an Expedition was fitted out and marched against the Indians on the heads ofthe two Miamis. The Command of this Corps was given to General Hamcr. Reasin Beall served in this Expedition as an officer in the Quartermasters Dept. and was with the army when a severe action was fought between a detachment under Col. Hardin and the Indians near Ft. Wayne in 1791. The Expedition having failed of its object the troops returned to the Ohio River, where the City of Cincinnati now stands, and Reasin Beall returned to his friends in Page 3 Pennsylvania. Subsequent to this, General St, Clair marched a second force on the same route and unfortunately met with an entire defeat. Upon General Wayne being appointed to the command of the northwestern army, Reasin Beall received a commission as Ensign on March 13, 1793, and after some time spent in recruiting service, repaired to headquarters where Economy, Beaver County, Pennsylvania is now. Reasin Beall remained with the army until late in 11393 when he resigned and again returned to his home in Pennsylvania. Soon thereafter, he married Rebecca Johnson, daughter of LieutenantJohnson. In 1801 they moved to Steubenville, Ohio and then to New Lisbon, Ohio in 1803.

Although Reasin Beall served but a few years in the Regular Army it was sufficient to give him a military bias. Soon after he settled in New Lisbon he was chosen Colonel of a Regiment (being at that time the entire militia of the county), and a few years thereafter a Brigadier General. The War of 1812 found him in that capacity. On the surrender of General Hall at Detroit, a general panic seized the people, many fleeing from their homes to places of safety. In this state of things, much confidence and expectation was placed in General Beall. He immediately organized a detachment, and in a few days put himself at the head of several hundred men, and marched to the support of the frontier inhabitants of Wayne and Richland Counties, Ohio. After that Genera] Beall resigned and returned home, He moved to Wooster, Ohio in 1815. Gen. Beall was the first representative in Congress from the district in the Northwest Territory in which Wayne Co. was situated. He died in Wooster, Ohio February 20, 1843.

Thomas Beall, a son of Zephaniah Beall and brother of Gen. Reasin Beall, settled in Wayne County about 5 miles north east of Wooster (or 1 mile S.W. of Smithville. Thomas Beall's oldest daughter, Maria(sp?), married a Mr. Gallagher and they lived ld mile directly north of the crossroads, while Thomas Beall himself lived about a quarter mile west. His third daughter, Margaret. married David Wasson.

The record from this point on is found in that of the Wasson family, starting about the middle of page 2.

The father of Henry Collins (whose name appears in the Wasson Family record) was a Connecticut yankee who came to Doylestown, Ohio, probably about 1825, likely coming on from Columbiana County, Ohio where he had relatives. He married Christina Franks, daughter of Henry Franks. They had two children, Joseph Collins, who lived for many years a mile east of Easton, Wayne County, and Henry Collins. Henry Franks and his wife had emigrated from Germany, and settled at Doylestown, Ohio, He was captured by the Indians, and being a powerful man was able to save his life by running the gauntlet. He lived with the Indians two years and then made his escape to eastern New York, and later made his way back to Doylestown. He was the father ofa large family. An account of the Franks family will be found in Ben Douglas‘s History of Wayne County, Ohio, Lucetta Franks named in the Wasson genealogy as the wife of Reasin Beall Wasson, was a granddaughter of Henry Franks.

*The book EARLY DAYS OF WASHINGTON is in the Congressional Library in Washington. (The above is a composite of several writings of the Beall Family history in the possession of Stanley Levers. We appreciate Stan having brought them to our attention.)

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References

• Gelders, Ruth Beall. Kim Beall's Beall History Pages, "Colonel Ninian Beall." Last modified 1976. Accessed October 25, 2015. http://www.krystalrose.com/kim/BEALL/ninian1.html
• Battey, George Magruder. "The Mystery of Ninian Beall's Burial Place Remains Unsolved." Records of the Columbia Historical Society, Washington, D.C.. (1940/1941): 161-167.