Edward Fitzgerald Beale
Encyclopedia
Edward Fitzgerald "Ned" Beale (February 4, 1822 – April 22, 1893) was a national figure in 19th century America. He was naval officer, military general, explorer, frontiersman, Indian affairs superintendent, California rancher, diplomat, and friend of Kit Carson
, Buffalo Bill Cody
and Ulysses S. Grant. He fought in the Mexican-American War, emerging as a hero of the Battle of San Pasqual
in 1846. He achieved national fame in 1848 in carrying to the east the first gold samples from California, contributing to the gold rush.
He surveyed and built a wagon road that many settlers used to move to the West, and which became part of Route 66 and the route for the Transcontinental railroad
. As California's first Superintendent of Indian Affairs, Beale helped charter a humanitarian policy towards Native Americans in the 1850s. He also founded the Tejon Ranch in California, the largest private landholding in the United States, and became a millionaire several times over. He received appointments from five U.S. Presidents: Andrew Jackson
appointed him to Naval School, Millard Fillmore
appointed him Superintendent of Indian Affairs for California and Nevada, James Buchanan
appointed him to survey a wagon road from New Mexico to California, Abraham Lincoln
appointed him Surveyor General of California and Nevada, and Ulysses S. Grant
appointed him Ambassador to Austria–Hungary.
"Beale successfully pursued a personal El Dorado of adventure, status, and wealth," wrote Gerald Thompson. "In doing so, he mirrored the dreams of countless Americans of his day."
His father, George Beale, who was a paymaster in the U.S. Navy, had earned a Congressional Medal for Valor in the War of 1812
. His mother, Emily, was the daughter of Commodore Thomas Truxtun
of the U.S. Navy. Ned was a student at Georgetown University
when, at the solicitation of his widowed mother, President Jackson appointed him to the Naval School in Philadelphia. From 1837 to 1842, Beale was an acting midshipman on naval ships that sailed to Russia, Brazil and the West Indies. He graduated from the Naval School as a midshipman in 1842, and sailed for two years in Europe and South America. In 1845 he was assigned to the squadron of Captain Robert F. Stockton
, a wealthy New Jersey businessman and inventor as well as a career naval officer, who was an intimate of presidents. Beale sailed with Stockton's squadron to Texas, where Stockton met with the Texas Congress, which accepted annexation by the United States.
After a promotion to acting master and private secretary to Stockton, Beale sailed for California and Oregon in 1845 on the Congress
, but 20 days later Stockton instructed Beale to board a Danish ship they had encountered and sail to England, where Beale was to disguise his identity and seek information on the British feelings on the Oregon boundary. Back in Washington in 1846, Beale reported his findings to President James Polk
that the British had been making warlike preparations. Promoted to the position of master, Beale carried packages for Navy Secretary Bancroft to Stockton, sailing to Panama
, crossing by the isthmus by boat and mule, and then sailing to Peru to meet up with Stockton and the Congress in 1846. He sailed with Stockton to Honolulu, and then to California. Hostilities with Mexico
had already begun when the vessel reached Monterey, California
on July 20, 1846.
After reaching San Diego, California
, Stockton dispatched Beale to serve with the land forces. Beale and a small body of men under Lt. Archibald Gillespie joined General Stephen W. Kearny
's column just before the Battle of San Pasqual
on December 6, 1846. After the Mexican Army
surrounded the small American force and threatened to destroy it, Beale and two other men (his Delaware Indian servant and Kit Carson
) crept through the Mexican lines and made their way to San Diego for reinforcements. Two months later, although Beale still suffered from the effects his adventure, Stockton again sent him east with dispatches. Beale reached Washington about June 1. In October he appeared as a defense witness for John C. Frémont
at the "Pathfinder's" court martial.
Within the next two years, Beale made six more journeys across the country. On the second of these (July–September 1848), he crossed Mexico in disguise to bring the federal government proof of California's gold. After the fourth journey he married Pennsylvania Representative Samuel Edwards
' daughter, Mary, on June 27, 1849. They had three children: Mary (1852–1925), Emily (1854-1912), and Truxtun
(1856–1936).
Beale was promoted to Lieutenant in 1850. He resigned from the Navy in 1851.
After leaving the Navy, Beale returned to California as a manager for W. H. Aspinwall and Commodore Stockton, who had acquired large properties in there. In 1853, President Fillmore appointed Beale Superintendent of Indian Affairs for California and Nevada. Congress
appropriated $250,000 to improve native conditions in Beale's district. On his way to California, Beale left Washington on May 6 with a party of 13 and surveyed a route across Colorado and Utah to Los Angeles, California, for the First Transcontinental Railroad
. He reached Los Angeles on August 22. Beale served as Superintendent until 1856. California Governor John Bigler
appointed Beale a Brigadier General in the California state militia to give Beale additional authority to negotiate peace treaties between the Native Americans and the U.S. Army.
In 1861, Beale was appointed by President Abraham Lincoln as Surveyor General of California and Nevada. He had an important passage named after him due to his widening of a cut used by the Butterfield Overland Mail
, a stagecoach that operated mail between St. Louis, Missouri and San Francisco. In 1862, he dispatched a crew of Chinese workers to widen an 1858 cut, which also reduced the climb by 50 feet (15.2 m). Beale's Cut, as it was known, lasted as a transportation passage through the modern day Newhall Pass area until the construction of the Newhall Tunnel was completed in 1910. Still in existence today, Beale's cut is no longer passable by automobiles. It is difficult to find today because it is fenced off and not close enough to the Sierra Highway to be easily seen.
, New Mexico
to the Colorado River
, on the border between Arizona and California. The survey also incorporated an experiment for the Army using camels, first proposed by Secretary of War Jefferson Davis four years earlier. Beale took his Camel Corps
, comprising 25 camels imported from Tunis, as pack animals during this expedition and on another in 1858 through 1859 to extend the road from Fort Smith, Arkansas to the Colorado River. His lead camel driver was Hi Jolly
(Hadji Ali) a Greek-Syrian convert to Islam. The camels were capable of traveling for days without water, carried much heavier loads than mules, and could thrive on forage that mules wouldn’t touch. But the camels scared horses and mules, and the Army declined to continue the experiment with camels. Nevertheless, the wagon road Beale built became a popular immigrant trail during the 1860s and 1870s, and it was this survey which marked out for the first time a practicable highway along the 35th parallel that has been used from that day to this. The general route of the Beale Wagon Road was followed by U.S. Route 66
, the Sante Fe Railway
, and Interstate 40
.
Of this road, Beale wrote: "... It is the shortest (route) from our western frontier by 300 miles, being nearly directly west. It is the most level, our wagons only double-teaming once in the entire distance, and that at a short hill, and over a surface heretofore unbroken by wheels or trail on any kind. It is well-watered! Our greatest distance without water at any time being twenty miles ... It crosses the great desert (which must be crossed by any road to California) at its narrowest point."
"In opening this highway," wrote Gerald Thompson, "Beale joined the small group of explorers who left an enduring mark on the American West during the nineteenth century."
Portions of the original wagon road are still visible.
At the urging of Beale, Fort Tejon
was established by the U.S. Army in 1854 , to protect and control the Indians who were living on the Sebastian Indian Reservation
, and to protect both the Indians and white settlers from raids by the Paiute
s, Chemeheui, Mojave and other Indian groups of the desert regions to the east. Fort Tejon was abandoned in 1864. In 1865 and 1866, Beale purchased the Mexican land grants which now comprise the 270000 acres (1,092.7 km²) Tejon Ranch
. When the U.S. Army sold its camels, Beale purchased some of them and kept them at his ranch. Tejon Ranch is the largest private landholding in California, and today is owned by Tejon Ranch Company, a company listed on the New York Stock Exchange (symbol: TRC).
, opposite the White House, in Washington, D.C. Decatur House had been built in 1818 for naval hero Stephen Decatur
. Its prominent location across from the White House
made Decatur House one of the capital's most desirable addresses and home of many of the nation's most prominent figures. The U.S. government rented Decatur House for its Secretaries of State, Henry Clay
, Martin Van Buren
and Judah P. Benjamin
. Beale bought the house for $60,000 and extensively renovated it. He held many glittering parties there and became Washington's most famous host. A reporter from the Washington Capital wrote in 1873 that "the old Decatur mansion will again rank first among the fashionable residences of our city." Decatur House also became the unofficial meeting place for the Republican Stalwarts, and Ulysses S. Grant frequently stayed there. Beale's daughter-in-law, Marie
, bequeathed Decatur House to the National Trust
in 1956.
. During his tenure, Beale sent frequent dispatches to the State Department on the war between Turkey and Serbia and the Eastern Question
.
, with yearly visits to Tejon Ranch and more frequent visits to his horse farm at Ash Hill
in Hyattsville
, northeast of Washington, D.C. At Ash Hill he entertained friends such as Grant, who kept two Arabian horses stabled there, President Grover Cleveland
and Buffalo Bill Cody. Ash Hill was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
in 1977.
Beale died at Decatur House in 1893. His will was witnessed by Ulysses S. Grant and General William Tecumseh Sherman
.
Beale, Edward Fitzgerald, Wagon Route From Fort Defiance to the Colorado River, House Executive Document 124, Serial 959, 35th Congress, 1st Session, 1857-58.
Beale, Edward Fitzgerald, Wagon Road – Fort Smith to the Colorado River, House Executive Document 42, Serial 1048, 36th Congress, 1st Session, 1859-60.
Bonsal, Stephen, Edward Fitzgerald Beale, A Pioneer in the Path of Empire, G.P. Putnam & Sons, 1912, ISBN 9780548657935.
Lesley, Lewis B., Uncle Sam’s Camels; the journal of May Humphreys Stacy supplemented by the report of Edward Fitzgerald Beale (1857-1858), Harvard University Press, 1929.
Bowman, Eldon G. with Smith, Jack Beale, Beale’s Road Through Arizona, Flagstaff Corral of Westerners International, 1979.
Thompson, Gerald, Edward F. Beale and the American West, University of New Mexico Press, 1983, ISBN 0826306632.
Kit Carson
Christopher Houston "Kit" Carson was an American frontiersman and Indian fighter. Carson left home in rural present-day Missouri at age 16 and became a Mountain man and trapper in the West. Carson explored the west to California, and north through the Rocky Mountains. He lived among and married...
, Buffalo Bill Cody
Buffalo Bill
William Frederick "Buffalo Bill" Cody was a United States soldier, bison hunter and showman. He was born in the Iowa Territory , in LeClaire but lived several years in Canada before his family moved to the Kansas Territory. Buffalo Bill received the Medal of Honor in 1872 for service to the US...
and Ulysses S. Grant. He fought in the Mexican-American War, emerging as a hero of the Battle of San Pasqual
Battle of San Pasqual
The Battle of San Pasqual, also spelled San Pascual, was a military encounter that occurred during the Mexican-American War in what is now the San Pasqual Valley community of the city of San Diego, California. On December 6 and December 7, 1846, General Stephen W...
in 1846. He achieved national fame in 1848 in carrying to the east the first gold samples from California, contributing to the gold rush.
He surveyed and built a wagon road that many settlers used to move to the West, and which became part of Route 66 and the route for the Transcontinental railroad
Transcontinental railroad
A transcontinental railroad is a contiguous network of railroad trackage that crosses a continental land mass with terminals at different oceans or continental borders. Such networks can be via the tracks of either a single railroad, or over those owned or controlled by multiple railway companies...
. As California's first Superintendent of Indian Affairs, Beale helped charter a humanitarian policy towards Native Americans in the 1850s. He also founded the Tejon Ranch in California, the largest private landholding in the United States, and became a millionaire several times over. He received appointments from five U.S. Presidents: Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson was the seventh President of the United States . Based in frontier Tennessee, Jackson was a politician and army general who defeated the Creek Indians at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend , and the British at the Battle of New Orleans...
appointed him to Naval School, Millard Fillmore
Millard Fillmore
Millard Fillmore was the 13th President of the United States and the last member of the Whig Party to hold the office of president...
appointed him Superintendent of Indian Affairs for California and Nevada, James Buchanan
James Buchanan
James Buchanan, Jr. was the 15th President of the United States . He is the only president from Pennsylvania, the only president who remained a lifelong bachelor and the last to be born in the 18th century....
appointed him to survey a wagon road from New Mexico to California, Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
appointed him Surveyor General of California and Nevada, and Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant was the 18th President of the United States as well as military commander during the Civil War and post-war Reconstruction periods. Under Grant's command, the Union Army defeated the Confederate military and ended the Confederate States of America...
appointed him Ambassador to Austria–Hungary.
"Beale successfully pursued a personal El Dorado of adventure, status, and wealth," wrote Gerald Thompson. "In doing so, he mirrored the dreams of countless Americans of his day."
Early Years in the Navy
Ned Beale was born in Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
His father, George Beale, who was a paymaster in the U.S. Navy, had earned a Congressional Medal for Valor in the War of 1812
War of 1812
The War of 1812 was a military conflict fought between the forces of the United States of America and those of the British Empire. The Americans declared war in 1812 for several reasons, including trade restrictions because of Britain's ongoing war with France, impressment of American merchant...
. His mother, Emily, was the daughter of Commodore Thomas Truxtun
Thomas Truxtun
Thomas Truxtun was an American naval officer who rose to the rank of commodore.Born near Hempstead, New York on Long Island, Truxtun had little formal education before joining the crew of the British merchant ship Pitt at the age of twelve...
of the U.S. Navy. Ned was a student at Georgetown University
Georgetown University
Georgetown University is a private, Jesuit, research university whose main campus is in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic university in the United States...
when, at the solicitation of his widowed mother, President Jackson appointed him to the Naval School in Philadelphia. From 1837 to 1842, Beale was an acting midshipman on naval ships that sailed to Russia, Brazil and the West Indies. He graduated from the Naval School as a midshipman in 1842, and sailed for two years in Europe and South America. In 1845 he was assigned to the squadron of Captain Robert F. Stockton
Robert F. Stockton
Robert Field Stockton was a United States naval commodore, notable in the capture of California during the Mexican-American War. He was a naval innovator and an early advocate for a propeller-driven, steam-powered navy. Stockton was from a notable political family and also served as a U.S...
, a wealthy New Jersey businessman and inventor as well as a career naval officer, who was an intimate of presidents. Beale sailed with Stockton's squadron to Texas, where Stockton met with the Texas Congress, which accepted annexation by the United States.
After a promotion to acting master and private secretary to Stockton, Beale sailed for California and Oregon in 1845 on the Congress
USS Congress (1841)
USS Congress — the fourth United States Navy ship to carry that name — was a sailing frigate, like her predecessor, .Congress served with distinction in the Mediterranean, South Atlantic Ocean, and in the Pacific Ocean...
, but 20 days later Stockton instructed Beale to board a Danish ship they had encountered and sail to England, where Beale was to disguise his identity and seek information on the British feelings on the Oregon boundary. Back in Washington in 1846, Beale reported his findings to President James Polk
James K. Polk
James Knox Polk was the 11th President of the United States . Polk was born in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. He later lived in and represented Tennessee. A Democrat, Polk served as the 17th Speaker of the House of Representatives and the 12th Governor of Tennessee...
that the British had been making warlike preparations. Promoted to the position of master, Beale carried packages for Navy Secretary Bancroft to Stockton, sailing to Panama
Panama
Panama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...
, crossing by the isthmus by boat and mule, and then sailing to Peru to meet up with Stockton and the Congress in 1846. He sailed with Stockton to Honolulu, and then to California. Hostilities with Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
had already begun when the vessel reached Monterey, California
Monterey, California
The City of Monterey in Monterey County is located on Monterey Bay along the Pacific coast in Central California. Monterey lies at an elevation of 26 feet above sea level. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 27,810. Monterey is of historical importance because it was the capital of...
on July 20, 1846.
After reaching San Diego, California
San Diego, California
San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round...
, Stockton dispatched Beale to serve with the land forces. Beale and a small body of men under Lt. Archibald Gillespie joined General Stephen W. Kearny
Stephen W. Kearny
Stephen Watts Kearny surname also appears as Kearney in some historic sources; August 30, 1794 October 31, 1848), was one of the foremost antebellum frontier officers of the United States Army. He is remembered for his significant contributions in the Mexican-American War, especially the conquest...
's column just before the Battle of San Pasqual
Battle of San Pasqual
The Battle of San Pasqual, also spelled San Pascual, was a military encounter that occurred during the Mexican-American War in what is now the San Pasqual Valley community of the city of San Diego, California. On December 6 and December 7, 1846, General Stephen W...
on December 6, 1846. After the Mexican Army
Mexican Army
The Mexican Army is the combined land and air branch and largest of the Mexican Military services; it also is known as the National Defense Army. It is famous for having been the first army to adopt and use an automatic rifle, , in 1899, and the first to issue automatic weapons as standard issue...
surrounded the small American force and threatened to destroy it, Beale and two other men (his Delaware Indian servant and Kit Carson
Kit Carson
Christopher Houston "Kit" Carson was an American frontiersman and Indian fighter. Carson left home in rural present-day Missouri at age 16 and became a Mountain man and trapper in the West. Carson explored the west to California, and north through the Rocky Mountains. He lived among and married...
) crept through the Mexican lines and made their way to San Diego for reinforcements. Two months later, although Beale still suffered from the effects his adventure, Stockton again sent him east with dispatches. Beale reached Washington about June 1. In October he appeared as a defense witness for John C. Frémont
John C. Frémont
John Charles Frémont , was an American military officer, explorer, and the first candidate of the anti-slavery Republican Party for the office of President of the United States. During the 1840s, that era's penny press accorded Frémont the sobriquet The Pathfinder...
at the "Pathfinder's" court martial.
Within the next two years, Beale made six more journeys across the country. On the second of these (July–September 1848), he crossed Mexico in disguise to bring the federal government proof of California's gold. After the fourth journey he married Pennsylvania Representative Samuel Edwards
Samuel Edwards
Samuel "Faith" Edwards was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania.Samuel Edwards was born in Chester Township, Pennsylvania. He studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1806 and commenced practice in Chester...
' daughter, Mary, on June 27, 1849. They had three children: Mary (1852–1925), Emily (1854-1912), and Truxtun
Truxtun Beale
Truxtun Beale was an American diplomat.-Biography:Beale was born in San Francisco to Edward Fitzgerald Beale and Mary Engle Edwards; his siblings were Mary and Emily . He was named for his grand-father Commodore Thomas Truxtun...
(1856–1936).
Beale was promoted to Lieutenant in 1850. He resigned from the Navy in 1851.
In California
In his lifetime, Beale saw San Francisco grow from an isolated village of five houses to a city of 300,000 residents.After leaving the Navy, Beale returned to California as a manager for W. H. Aspinwall and Commodore Stockton, who had acquired large properties in there. In 1853, President Fillmore appointed Beale Superintendent of Indian Affairs for California and Nevada. Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
appropriated $250,000 to improve native conditions in Beale's district. On his way to California, Beale left Washington on May 6 with a party of 13 and surveyed a route across Colorado and Utah to Los Angeles, California, for the First Transcontinental Railroad
First Transcontinental Railroad
The First Transcontinental Railroad was a railroad line built in the United States of America between 1863 and 1869 by the Central Pacific Railroad of California and the Union Pacific Railroad that connected its statutory Eastern terminus at Council Bluffs, Iowa/Omaha, Nebraska The First...
. He reached Los Angeles on August 22. Beale served as Superintendent until 1856. California Governor John Bigler
John Bigler
John Bigler was an American lawyer, politician and diplomat. A Democrat, he served as the third Governor of California from 1852 to 1856 and was the first California governor to complete an entire term in office successfully, as well as the first to win re-election...
appointed Beale a Brigadier General in the California state militia to give Beale additional authority to negotiate peace treaties between the Native Americans and the U.S. Army.
In 1861, Beale was appointed by President Abraham Lincoln as Surveyor General of California and Nevada. He had an important passage named after him due to his widening of a cut used by the Butterfield Overland Mail
Butterfield Overland Mail
The Butterfield Overland Mail Trail was a stagecoach route in the United States, operating from 1857 to 1861. It was a conduit for the U.S. mail from two eastern termini, Memphis, Tennessee and St. Louis, Missouri, meeting Fort Smith, Arkansas, and continuing through Indian Territory, New Mexico,...
, a stagecoach that operated mail between St. Louis, Missouri and San Francisco. In 1862, he dispatched a crew of Chinese workers to widen an 1858 cut, which also reduced the climb by 50 feet (15.2 m). Beale's Cut, as it was known, lasted as a transportation passage through the modern day Newhall Pass area until the construction of the Newhall Tunnel was completed in 1910. Still in existence today, Beale's cut is no longer passable by automobiles. It is difficult to find today because it is fenced off and not close enough to the Sierra Highway to be easily seen.
The Beale Wagon Road and Camel Corps
In 1857, President James Buchanan appointed Beale to survey and build a 1000 miles (1,609.3 km) wagon road from Fort DefianceFort Defiance
Fort Defiance may refer to:Canada*Fort Defiance , winter quarters for American Captain Robert GrayUnited States* Fort Defiance, Arizona, an unincorporated community* Fort Defiance , formerly Roop's Fort, located in Susanville...
, New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
to the Colorado River
Colorado River
The Colorado River , is a river in the Southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, approximately long, draining a part of the arid regions on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains. The watershed of the Colorado River covers in parts of seven U.S. states and two Mexican states...
, on the border between Arizona and California. The survey also incorporated an experiment for the Army using camels, first proposed by Secretary of War Jefferson Davis four years earlier. Beale took his Camel Corps
Camel Corps
Several military units bore the name of Camel Corps:*The U.S. Camel Corps, a mid-nineteenth century experimental unit that used camels for transport*The Imperial Camel Corps, an Allied unit that fought in the Sinai and Palestine Campaign during World War I...
, comprising 25 camels imported from Tunis, as pack animals during this expedition and on another in 1858 through 1859 to extend the road from Fort Smith, Arkansas to the Colorado River. His lead camel driver was Hi Jolly
Hi Jolly
Hi Jolly or Hadji Ali , later known as Philip Tedro , was an Ottoman subject of Jordanian parentage, and in 1856 became one of the first camel drivers ever hired by the US Army to lead the camel driver experiment in the Southwest. Hi Jolly became a living legend until his death in Arizona...
(Hadji Ali) a Greek-Syrian convert to Islam. The camels were capable of traveling for days without water, carried much heavier loads than mules, and could thrive on forage that mules wouldn’t touch. But the camels scared horses and mules, and the Army declined to continue the experiment with camels. Nevertheless, the wagon road Beale built became a popular immigrant trail during the 1860s and 1870s, and it was this survey which marked out for the first time a practicable highway along the 35th parallel that has been used from that day to this. The general route of the Beale Wagon Road was followed by U.S. Route 66
U.S. Route 66
U.S. Route 66 was a highway within the U.S. Highway System. One of the original U.S. highways, Route 66 was established on November 11, 1926 -- with road signs erected the following year...
, the Sante Fe Railway
Santa Fe, Prescott and Phoenix Railway
The Santa Fe, Prescott and Phoenix Railway was a common carrier railroad that later became an operating subsidiary of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway in Arizona. At Ash Fork, Arizona the SFP&P connected with Santa Fe's operating subsidiary, the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad mainline, that...
, and Interstate 40
Interstate 40
Interstate 40 is the third-longest major east–west Interstate Highway in the United States, after I-90 and I-80. Its western end is at Interstate 15 in Barstow, California; its eastern end is at a concurrency of U.S. Route 117 and North Carolina Highway 132 in Wilmington, North Carolina...
.
Of this road, Beale wrote: "... It is the shortest (route) from our western frontier by 300 miles, being nearly directly west. It is the most level, our wagons only double-teaming once in the entire distance, and that at a short hill, and over a surface heretofore unbroken by wheels or trail on any kind. It is well-watered! Our greatest distance without water at any time being twenty miles ... It crosses the great desert (which must be crossed by any road to California) at its narrowest point."
"In opening this highway," wrote Gerald Thompson, "Beale joined the small group of explorers who left an enduring mark on the American West during the nineteenth century."
Portions of the original wagon road are still visible.
Tejon Ranch
Fort Tejon
Fort Tejon in California is a former United States Army outpost which was intermittently active from June 24, 1854, until September 11, 1864. It is located in the Grapevine Canyon area of Tejon Pass along Interstate 5, the main route through the mountains separating the Central Valley from Los...
was established by the U.S. Army in 1854 , to protect and control the Indians who were living on the Sebastian Indian Reservation
Sebastian Indian Reservation
The Sebastian Indian Reservation was established on lands of in 1853 by Edward F. Beale in the far southeastern corner of the San Joaquin Valley in the Tejon Canyon. The reservation was within the Rancho El Tejon Mexican land grant, but Beale hoped if the land claims were upheld the land could be...
, and to protect both the Indians and white settlers from raids by the Paiute
Paiute
Paiute refers to three closely related groups of Native Americans — the Northern Paiute of California, Idaho, Nevada and Oregon; the Owens Valley Paiute of California and Nevada; and the Southern Paiute of Arizona, southeastern California and Nevada, and Utah.-Origin of name:The origin of...
s, Chemeheui, Mojave and other Indian groups of the desert regions to the east. Fort Tejon was abandoned in 1864. In 1865 and 1866, Beale purchased the Mexican land grants which now comprise the 270000 acres (1,092.7 km²) Tejon Ranch
Tejon Ranch
The Tejon Ranch Company , based in Lebec, California, is one of the largest private landowners in California. [The federally-gifted lands still held by the Catellus Corporation, a successor to the Southern Pacific Land Company, are much more extensive.] It was incorporated in 1936 to organise the...
. When the U.S. Army sold its camels, Beale purchased some of them and kept them at his ranch. Tejon Ranch is the largest private landholding in California, and today is owned by Tejon Ranch Company, a company listed on the New York Stock Exchange (symbol: TRC).
Decatur House
In 1871, Beale purchased Decatur HouseDecatur House
Decatur House is a historic home in Washington, D.C., named after its first owner and occupant Stephen Decatur. The house is located northwest of Lafayette Square, at the southwest corner of Jackson Place and H Street, near the White House...
, opposite the White House, in Washington, D.C. Decatur House had been built in 1818 for naval hero Stephen Decatur
Stephen Decatur
Stephen Decatur, Jr. , was an American naval officer notable for his many naval victories in the early 19th century. He was born on the eastern shore of Maryland, Worcester county, the son of a U.S. Naval Officer who served during the American Revolution. Shortly after attending college Decatur...
. Its prominent location across from the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
made Decatur House one of the capital's most desirable addresses and home of many of the nation's most prominent figures. The U.S. government rented Decatur House for its Secretaries of State, Henry Clay
Henry Clay
Henry Clay, Sr. , was a lawyer, politician and skilled orator who represented Kentucky separately in both the Senate and in the House of Representatives...
, Martin Van Buren
Martin Van Buren
Martin Van Buren was the eighth President of the United States . Before his presidency, he was the eighth Vice President and the tenth Secretary of State, under Andrew Jackson ....
and Judah P. Benjamin
Judah P. Benjamin
Judah Philip Benjamin was an American politician and lawyer. Born a British subject in the West Indies, he moved to the United States with his parents and became a citizen. He later became a citizen of the Confederate States of America. After the collapse of the Confederacy, Benjamin moved to...
. Beale bought the house for $60,000 and extensively renovated it. He held many glittering parties there and became Washington's most famous host. A reporter from the Washington Capital wrote in 1873 that "the old Decatur mansion will again rank first among the fashionable residences of our city." Decatur House also became the unofficial meeting place for the Republican Stalwarts, and Ulysses S. Grant frequently stayed there. Beale's daughter-in-law, Marie
Truxtun Beale
Truxtun Beale was an American diplomat.-Biography:Beale was born in San Francisco to Edward Fitzgerald Beale and Mary Engle Edwards; his siblings were Mary and Emily . He was named for his grand-father Commodore Thomas Truxtun...
, bequeathed Decatur House to the National Trust
National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty
The National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, usually known as the National Trust, is a conservation organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland...
in 1956.
Ambassador to Austria-Hungary
President Grant appointed Beale Ambassador to Austria-Hungary, in 1876. He served from 1876–1877, and displayed a talent for diplomacy. His lavish entertaining, tales of the American West, command of foreign languages, and warm personality made Beale and his wife popular figures in the Viennese court. His love of horses helped him win the trust of Emperor Franz Joseph I of AustriaFranz Joseph I of Austria
Franz Joseph I or Francis Joseph I was Emperor of Austria, King of Bohemia, King of Croatia, Apostolic King of Hungary, King of Galicia and Lodomeria and Grand Duke of Cracow from 1848 until his death in 1916.In the December of 1848, Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria abdicated the throne as part of...
. During his tenure, Beale sent frequent dispatches to the State Department on the war between Turkey and Serbia and the Eastern Question
Eastern Question
The "Eastern Question", in European history, encompasses the diplomatic and political problems posed by the decay of the Ottoman Empire. The expression does not apply to any one particular problem, but instead includes a variety of issues raised during the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, including...
.
Retirement
In his retirement, Beale lived at Decatur HouseDecatur House
Decatur House is a historic home in Washington, D.C., named after its first owner and occupant Stephen Decatur. The house is located northwest of Lafayette Square, at the southwest corner of Jackson Place and H Street, near the White House...
, with yearly visits to Tejon Ranch and more frequent visits to his horse farm at Ash Hill
Ash Hill (Hyattsville, Maryland)
Ash Hill, or Hitching Post Hill, is a two-story brick dwelling erected ca. 1840, and located on Rosemary Lane, in Hyattsville, Prince George's County, Maryland. The house was built by Robert Clark, an Englishman who was seeking space and quiet in contrast to the crowded city of Washington, D.C. In...
in Hyattsville
Hyattsville, Maryland
Hyattsville is a city in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States. The population was 17,557 at the 2000 census.- History :The city was named for its founder, Christopher Clark Hyatt. He purchased his first parcel of land in the area in March 1845...
, northeast of Washington, D.C. At Ash Hill he entertained friends such as Grant, who kept two Arabian horses stabled there, President Grover Cleveland
Grover Cleveland
Stephen Grover Cleveland was the 22nd and 24th president of the United States. Cleveland is the only president to serve two non-consecutive terms and therefore is the only individual to be counted twice in the numbering of the presidents...
and Buffalo Bill Cody. Ash Hill was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
in 1977.
Beale died at Decatur House in 1893. His will was witnessed by Ulysses S. Grant and General William Tecumseh Sherman
William Tecumseh Sherman
William Tecumseh Sherman was an American soldier, businessman, educator and author. He served as a General in the Union Army during the American Civil War , for which he received recognition for his outstanding command of military strategy as well as criticism for the harshness of the "scorched...
.
Legacy
- Tejon RanchTejon RanchThe Tejon Ranch Company , based in Lebec, California, is one of the largest private landowners in California. [The federally-gifted lands still held by the Catellus Corporation, a successor to the Southern Pacific Land Company, are much more extensive.] It was incorporated in 1936 to organise the...
, Bakersfield, CaliforniaBakersfield, CaliforniaBakersfield is a city near the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley in Kern County, California. It is roughly equidistant between Fresno and Los Angeles, to the north and south respectively....
. - Ash HillAsh Hill (Hyattsville, Maryland)Ash Hill, or Hitching Post Hill, is a two-story brick dwelling erected ca. 1840, and located on Rosemary Lane, in Hyattsville, Prince George's County, Maryland. The house was built by Robert Clark, an Englishman who was seeking space and quiet in contrast to the crowded city of Washington, D.C. In...
, Hyattsville, MarylandHyattsville, MarylandHyattsville is a city in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States. The population was 17,557 at the 2000 census.- History :The city was named for its founder, Christopher Clark Hyatt. He purchased his first parcel of land in the area in March 1845... - Beale Air Force BaseBeale Air Force BaseBeale Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located approximately east of Marysville, California. Originally known as Camp Beale....
, a United States Air Force base in California. - Beale Street (San Francisco)
- U.S. Route 66U.S. Route 66U.S. Route 66 was a highway within the U.S. Highway System. One of the original U.S. highways, Route 66 was established on November 11, 1926 -- with road signs erected the following year...
- Beale Street and monument in Kingman, ArizonaKingman, ArizonaKingman is located in a desert climate on the edge of the Mojave Desert, but its higher elevation and location between the Colorado Plateau and the Lower Colorado River Valley tempers summer high temperatures and contributes to winter cold and rare snowfall. Summer daytime highs reach above 90 °F ...
, and Beale's Springs nearby. - Beale Memorial Library, Bakersfield, California.
- Beale MountainsBeale MountainsThe Beale Mountains are located in the Mojave National Preserve in eastern California. The range is one of the smallest mountain ranges in the United States, and is only about 2.5 miles long. The mountains are located northeast of the Kelso Mountains, about five miles from the Kelso Cima road, in...
in California. - USS Beale (DD-40)USS Beale (DD-40)USS Beale , a Paulding-class destroyer in the United States Navy during World War I and later in the United States Coast Guard, designated CG-9. She was the first ship of the Navy to be named for Edward Fitzgerald Beale....
, a Paulding-class destroyer ship of the U.S. Navy. - USS Beale (DD-471)USS Beale (DD-471)USS Beale , a , was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for Lieutenant Edward Fitzgerald Beale ....
, a Fletcher-class destroyer ship of the U.S. Navy.
See also
- Ridge RouteRidge RouteThe Ridge Route, officially the Castaic-Tejon Route, was a two-lane highway running between Los Angeles and Kern counties, California. Opened in 1915 and paved with concrete between 1917 and 1921, the road was the first paved highway directly linking the Los Angeles Basin with the San Joaquin...
- 1937 photograph of Beale's Cut - Newhall Pass - Beale's Cut
Beale, Edward Fitzgerald, Wagon Route From Fort Defiance to the Colorado River, House Executive Document 124, Serial 959, 35th Congress, 1st Session, 1857-58.
Beale, Edward Fitzgerald, Wagon Road – Fort Smith to the Colorado River, House Executive Document 42, Serial 1048, 36th Congress, 1st Session, 1859-60.
Bonsal, Stephen, Edward Fitzgerald Beale, A Pioneer in the Path of Empire, G.P. Putnam & Sons, 1912, ISBN 9780548657935.
Lesley, Lewis B., Uncle Sam’s Camels; the journal of May Humphreys Stacy supplemented by the report of Edward Fitzgerald Beale (1857-1858), Harvard University Press, 1929.
Bowman, Eldon G. with Smith, Jack Beale, Beale’s Road Through Arizona, Flagstaff Corral of Westerners International, 1979.
Thompson, Gerald, Edward F. Beale and the American West, University of New Mexico Press, 1983, ISBN 0826306632.