Samuel Wootton Beall (1807–1868) was an American land speculator and lawyer, who served as the second Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin, and as an officer in the American Civil War.
Background[]
He was born in Montgomery County, Maryland; in 1827 he graduated from Union College in Schenectady, New York. In 1829, he married Elizabeth Fenimore Cooper, a niece of James Fenimore Cooper. He moved to Green Bay, Wisconsin in 1835, where he made a fortune in land speculation, and was admitted to the bar and practiced law. In the 1840s he settled in Taycheedah. Between 1832 and 1856, Beall loaned the Stockbridge and Munsee Indians' delegations to Washington, D.C. some $3,000 for their expenses while they pursued claims against the federal government. He was promised one third of whatever they recovered, but when they won their case, he claimed and recovered only his actual expenditures.[1]
Public office[]
Beall served as a delegate to both the first and second Wisconsin from Marquette County, one of only six men to do so (most members of the first convention declined to serve in the second).[2] He was a Democrat, and served as lieutenant governor for Nelson Dewey's second term as governor, from 1850 until 1852.
Civil War and after[]
During the American Civil War, he was a lieutenant-colonel in the 18th Wisconsin Infantry and was wounded in the Battle of Shiloh. After recovering, he served as second-in-command of a prisoner of war camp in Elmira, New York, where the prisoners nicknamed him "old peg-leg" and accused him of a pattern of repeated cruelty and abuse.[3] After briefly returning to Wisconsin after the war, Beall moved to Helena, Montana, where, in 1868, he was shot following an argument.[4]
Sources[]
- "Wisconsin Constitutional Officers; Lieutenant Governors" (PDF). State of Wisconsin Blue Book 2005–2006. Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau. July 2005. pp. 31. http://www.legis.state.wi.us/lrb/bb/05bb/695-743.pdf. Retrieved October 6, 2007.
References[]
- ↑ Viola, Herman J. Diplomats in Buckskins: A History of Indian Delegations in Washington City Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1995; p. 57
- ↑ Smith, William R. The History of Wisconsin. In Three Parts, Historical, Documentary and Descriptive. Compiled by Direction of the Legislature of the State. Madison: Beriah Brown, Printer, 1854. Part II. - Documentary. Vol. III; p. 302.
- ↑ Gray, Michael P. The Business of Captivity: Elmira and Its Civil War Prison Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 2001; pp. 125-126
- ↑ Samuel W. Beall, Wisconsin Historical Society
The original article can be found at Samuel Beall and the edit history here.