John Beam (ca. 1722- ca. 1800)The Family of Charlie and Anna May, Lila Lee Jones,
1995, (privately printed manuscript), pp. 153-154. 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 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) 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. |