My Genealogy Hound

BEAM, JOHN, proprietor of Clarinda House, P. O. Clarinda; born January 20, 1831, in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania. In 1832 his parents moved to Dalton county, Pennsylvania. He was denied the advantages of most youth, receiving his education, not in the schools with other lads of his age, but around the iron works and in the fence corners. In 1853 he came to Iowa, locating in Louisa county. In the year following he went to Muscatine, landing in that city almost penniless, with poor clothes and the ague, but full of that indomitable energy which has proven of such use to him in subsequent years. He sought employment and found it for sixteen dollars per month, until he had secured sufficient means to purchase a dray and equipage, when he entered upon that business. He followed this occupation until 1861, when he again moved to Louisa county, entering upon farming. In 1865 he went to Nodaway county, Missouri, remaining one year, when he came to Clarinda and purchased the hotel property then known as the Delevan House. This he entirely refitted, and after three years of occupancy enlarged. This hotel stands on the site of the original first hotel ever opened in the city, which was a log structure. The traveler while satisfying the wants of the inner man, little realizes that the very room in which he is sitting is the old log hotel of other days; but such is the fact. The massive thickness of the walls is entirely unseen, and their real nature wholly unknown to many, because of the modern methods of hiding defects and making the old to be new such was the Clarinda Hotel of other days. Mr. Beam has made it what it is. In 1873 the addition that makes the northern half was erected to accommodate the increasing traffic. Besides his hotel business Mr. Beam owns a fine farm of 240 acres near Clarinda. All of this he has accumulated by his own untiring industry and perseverence. Mr. Beam was married February 26, 1856, to Miss Sarah Shoemaker, a native of Ohio, by whom he has four children: Eliza B., Charles W. and John Irwin, living, and one deceased.