Richard Beall was born February 3, 1800, in Clark County, Kentucky, and migrated to Morgan (now Scott) County, Illinois, in 1823 with his father, Zachariah, and his brother, Thomas.

He married Jemima Elledge in Morgan County, Illinois, on March 7, 1824, and made his first land purchase there five years later in January of 1829. It would not be his last purchase of land. During a career spanning forty-seven years from 1829 to 1876, he was involved in over 50 land transactions. Less than two years after his first purchase of land in Morgan County, he and Jemima sold out and moved across the Illinois River to Pike County where, in 1930, Richard patented (purchased land from the government) 160 acres of land in section 26 of Griggsville township. Ten years later, on January 1, 1840, he sold that property for the incredible price for the time of $2,500.00.

His purchases for the rest of the decade appear to have been relatively modest, but on January 1, 1850, he bought the Village Hotel in Griggsville for $1650.00, into which he move his family, including one of his married daughters, her husband and child. The hotel apparently included a tavern because in the 1850 census he gave his occupation as tavern keeper. Other people living in the hotel in 1850 were a couple of farmers, a tailor, a cooper, a clerk with wife and child, an attorney with wife and a teacher.

In April 1855, he and Jemima moved to Madison county, Iowa. With them were two of their married daughters, Charity and Susannah, with respective husbands and children. Also arriving in Iowa with them were Jesse Elledge and his family. Jesse, a brother of Jemima, was a Baptist minister. The reason Richard moved to Madison County, Iowa, is not entirely clear. However, it is known that he was the proprietor of a tavern in 1850 and then, on January 17, 1852, he joined the Baptist church in Griggsville. This occurred in the midst of a five week revival conducted by the Evangelist, Rev. L. A. Estee in which some 71 souls, including Richard, were converted to the faith.

It is clear from church records that on March 3, 1855, when they departed Griggsville for Iowa, both Richard and Jamima were in good standing with the church in Griggsville. According to the membership roll, both were "dismissed to any church of our faith and order in Iowa." Nevertheless, it seems possible that his past as a tavern keeper may have continued to haunt him in Griggsville, and perhaps he felt that he needed a new start in a new town where his past was not generally known.

In Madison County, Iowa, he was the chairman of the first meeting called to organize the Baptist Church in Winterset in 1856, a charter member of the church and one of its first officers. Also, according to the 1860 and 1870 censuses, he was a farmer. And true to form, he continued to buy and sell land. Between 1856 and 1876, he participated in at least 26 land transactions.

However, it appears that by the time he was in his mid-to-late seventies, he had sold all the property he had ever bought, except for a house in Winterset in which he and Jamima retired. Richard died in 1884 at the age of 84. He left no will and apparently had no estate to probate. Jamima continued to live in the house in Winterset they had occupied together until 1891 when she moved in with one of her children and the house was sold by his heirs for $800.00. Richard is buried in the Winterset, Iowa, cemetery next to his wife, Jemima, with whom he shares a stone. Jemima died in 1900.

Updated: March 14, 2004