John Beam (ca. 1722- ca. 1800)

The Family of Charlie and Anna May, Lila Lee Jones, 1995, (privately printed manuscript), pp. 153-154.
JOHN BOEHM c. 1722-1794/1818
b. c. 1722 in the Pequea Mennonite Colony, Conestoga Township, Lancaster Co., PA, son of Jacob and Barbara Kendig Boehme.
m. c. 1757 Mary in Lancaster County, PA.
d. The date and place are not known, but it is believed that he died in Shenandoah or Page County, VA, where he lived about 1792. Mary was not alive when John disposed of his personal property in 1792.

On November 2, 1757, Jacob and Barbara Boehme, established their son John on an acreage in Salisbury Township, in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.(Bk. G, Vol. 5, p.185) It is believed that he married about this time or shortly before. In 1761 he mortgaged this property, and in 1768 he moved to the Massanutten Mennonite Colony in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. In 1768 he transferred the title to his 221 acres of land in Pennsylvania to his brother Abraham. This land included a grist mill which John operated in addition to his farming. The deed stated that John Boehme was then a resident of Woodstock, Frederick County, VA. Deed Bk. O, p. 291. When Abraham Boehme went to Ontario Canada with his wife and youngest son in 1788, he sold 48 acres and the mill to his nephew John, a son of Rev. Martin Boehm. Later John, son of Martin, also went to live in Ontario, taking up land adjoining his Uncle Abraham's land on Black Creek. This left his brother Jacob to handle the family affairs in Pennsylvania. To clear the books, the sheriff held a foreclosure sale on the Salisbury property. Jacob then fell heir to the home place in Conestoga Twp, and from this acreage he deeded the land for Boehm's Chapel as well as the burying ground. By this time he held an interest in several properties including land in Washington County, Maryland, but financial difficulties forced him to return to the home farm in PA which was then heavily mortgaged. He died there in 1836, and following the advice he gave in his will, his children sold the remaining property and moved to Germantown, Ohio. Thus, the land owned by the emigrant Boehme family and the land granted to their son, John passed into the hands of others. The children and grandchildren of Jacob and Barbara Kendig had begun their migration westward. Our ancestor John had already sought cheaper land in Virginia.

In 1780 John received a grant of land located in Frederick County in what later became Shenandoah County [N.B. this is incorrect, Shenandoah Co. was formed in 1778] and a portion in Culpeper until 1831 from Lord Fairfax. That same land today is located in Page and Rappahannock Counties. Rappahannock was formed from Culpeper in 1833 and "Boehm's Gap" is right on the border of the present Page and Rappahannock County lines.

Records show that John and Mary Boehm had a family of five when they moved to Virginia in 1768. The children would carry birthdates after 1768 and in Virginia. Mary's name appears on a deed dated 1785 when she and John deeded land to their son Jacob, but it does not appear after that time. It must be assumed that she died between 1785 and 1789. She surely was not alive when John disposed of his beds and kitchen furniture in 1792.

In 1792 John had very little livestock left in his name and 300 acres of land, but by then he was getting older and probably unable to work hard.

To review the events in the lifetime of John Boehme and his wife Mary:

1757 John established on a farm in Salisbury Twp., Lancaster Co., PA
1757 John married Mary shortly before or after this date.
1768 The farm and grist mill in Salisbury Twp, deeded to brother Abraham
1780 John receives two land grants in Virginia...
1781 John's father Jacob Boehme, the emigrant, died
1783 John deeded land in Virginia to his son Jacob
1789 Last grant of land to John
1791 John deeded land to Leonard Orebach
1792 John deeded land to his son Tobias Beam
1792 John deeded land where he lived to Jacob and Tobias
1793 John deeded his last 90 acres to Jacob and Tobias
1802 Jacob and Tobias purchased more land adjacent to their inheritance from John.

Sometime after 1793 John Boehme died, probably at the home of one of his sons.

To review the land grants:

1. 17 June 1780 S-64 John received 90 acress at the foot of Naked Mountain on a branch of Pass Run in Shenandoah County. (microfilm on Northern Neck Land Grants, State Library, Richmond, VA)
2. 19 June 1780 S-65 John received 179 acres on the top of the Blue Ridge in Culpeper and Shenandoah Counties.
3. 26 May 1785 John and Mary deeded the 179 acres in Culpeper and Shenandoah Counties near Thorn's Gap on the top of Blue Ridge which had been granted to John 19 June 1780. So Jacob ended up with that acreage also.
4. 30 August 1789 John Beam received 276 acres on the Blue Ridge adjoining the land of Wendel Shaunk, Martin Beam, Peter Keveler, and John Beam. Northern Neck Land Grants, U-132/133. This could well be the improved 300 acres upon which he lived. He deeded 100 acres of this land to Leonard Orebach for 10 pounds on 29 Sept 1791. Deed Bk. H, p. 206. On 27 Sept. 1792, he deeded the remainder of the land (176 acres) in this tract to Tobias for 100 pounds Virginia currency. Deed Bk. H., p. 460. It would appear that John Beam owned additional land adjoining this grant; however, there is no grant on record to prove it.
5. 11 June 1793 He deeded the last acreage to Jacob and Tobias. Shenandoah Co., VA, Deed Bk. I, p. 119.
[7 Nov. 1817 Tobias and his wife sold their half of the 90 acres to Jacob for $170. Bk. Y, p. 37. This deed states that this is the land granted to Jacob and Tobias by their father John Beam, deceased. So Jacob ended up with the 90 acres at the foot of the mountain.]

Tobias went on to procure more than a thousand acres on the Blue Ridge. On 11 May 1804 he got 200 acres adjoining his other lands in Shenandoah County. (Microfilm Z, 471/2) and on 25, October 1814 he obtained 850 acres in Culpeper County. Film B2-79-81)

All of the transactions for deeding land was done after John was 60 years of age and involve only two sons, Jacob and Tobias and his daughter Barbara Orebaugh, but there is no evidence that the Orebachs, like Abraham, remained on the Blue Ridge.

The lay of the land on the top of the Blue Ridge Mountains have posed a problem for researchers. The Beams had an inherent tendency to chose virtually inaccessible acreages for their homesteads, and the Blue Ridge is noted for these. Jacob and Tobias Beam remained there, but the other children chose not to remain there possibly passing up the rugged terrain for more suitable land for farming.

Today the Beam land lies along the Blue Ridge Mountain Parkway system, yet much of it is not easily traversed.