Posted on: Lee Co. Ia Biographies Reply Here: http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/USA/Ia/LeeBios/47 Surname: BEELER, HARNESS ------------------------- David Beeler, a well-known resident of Franklin Township, is an honored pioneer of this section and a representative farmer of Lee County, of which he has been a resident for the last half century. He has been an interested spectator of remarkable changes along the Mississippi Valley, and has aided materially in the development of this section of country, not only by his own example of energetic industry, but by being willing to lend a helping hand to his brother pioneers in their struggles for the establishment of homes in the wilderness. Mr. Beeler was born in Montgomery County, Ind., Sept. 11, 1823. His father, Isaac Beeler, was of Swiss ancestry, but a native of Tennessee, descended from progenitors who came to the United States more than 100 years ago. Isaac Beeler, Sr., the grandfather of our subject, was a soldier in the Revolutionary War, and lived to an advanced age, he was connected with the command of Gen. Harrison, of Indiana, and was with the old hero at the battle of Tippecanoe. His son, Isaac, Jr., served as a private in the War of 1812. Neither the father nor the grandfather of our subject received any serious wounds from the enemy during their military career, the latter dying peacefully at his home in Tennessee. Isaac Beeler, Jr., was reared and educated in his native State of Tennessee, and there married Miss Jane Hughes, who was born and reared in his own locality. After the birth of one child they removed to Indiana and located in Montgomery County, where were born to them ten additional children, and where they remained until 1836. In that year the father decided to cross the Mississippi, and accordingly, with his family, made the trip in safety, and located in Iowa on the site of what is now Harrison Township. The land was wild and unimproved, and the little home in the wilderness was surrounded on all sides by Indians and wild animals. They were prepared, however, for all the emergencies of the enterprise, and resolved to establish here a permanent home, whatever the difficulties might be. They improved the land, and in time were rewarded by the pictrue of smiling fields and growing grain. Here the parents remained the balance of their lives, and were peacefully laid to rest in a lot on the old homestead. Isaac Beeler had become the owner of 1,100 acres of land. During the existence of the Whig party he was an adherent of its principles, and when this party was abandoned he associated himself with the Republicans. David Beeler was the seventh child of his parents' family, and remained with them until his marriage, which took place in Henry County, Iowa, June 16, 1851, his bride being Miss Mary J. Harness, a native of the city of Cincinnati, Ohio. The father of Mrs. Beeler, John A. Harness, was a farmer by occupation, and came to Iowa in 1845, when his daughter, Mary J., was a child of twelve years old. They located in Lee County, thence removing to Henry County, where they lived for many years, and finally removed to Van Buren County, where the lives of the parents terminated. John A. Harness was an industrious and energetic man, and was highly respected in his locality for his excellent traits of character. Mrs. B. remained with her parents until her marriage, receiving careful home training. By her union with our subject she has become the mother of six children, the record of whom is as follows: Amanda J. is the wife of F. T. McKeehan, a farmer of Powell County, Neb.; J. J. lives in the village of Donnellson; Hattie E. is the wife of O. L. Powell, of Marion Township, Lee County; Ida is at home assisting her parents; Anna is the wife of Abel Slaughter, a farmer of Franklin Township; D. F. is the manager of his father's homestead. Mr. Beeler is the possessor of nearly 400 acres of land in Franklin and Harrison Townships, most of which is under cultivation. He is a valued citizen, and takes an interest in everything pertaining to the welfare of his community. In politics he is strongly Republican, and uniformly casts his vote in support of the principles of that party. This was sent to me and is supposed to be from a history of Lee County, IA-1887...