Tag: Samuel T. Beerbower

An ‘amanuensis’ is a person who  has been employed to take dictation or copy manuscripts. As family historians, that is a huge part of our work. It is especially important for items handwritten in script, as today’s generation is hardly learning cursive in school; with the advent of computers, so little is written with a pen or pencil, and future generations may look at cursive writing like it is a foreign language. Handwriting is very hard to OCR (though they are working on it), so it is very important to get manuscripts transcribed; transcription will also help with Google searches to make more knowledge available to all.

While Samuel T. Beerbower’s obituary is not in cursive, the digitized newspaper is very hard to read. We have looked at a couple of sources for the image and they are all challenging to read. We are still hoping to find a better copy, but for now this will have to do, and posting the transcription on the blog will allow Google and other searches to pick it up for other Beerbower descendants.

Another thing transcribing helps one to do is to check facts, dates, places, etc. Dates especially can be hard to read- for instance, the marriage year above seems to be 1847, but by cross-checking what is already known with blowing up the image as much as possible, we know the date should be 1867. Of course, obituaries, like death certificates, often have errors, as they depend on accurate recall during a time of great stress by an informant who probably was not present for most of the events.

Samuel T. Beerbower’s death was 10 July 1902.

A PROMINENT
CITIZEN DEAD

Samuel T. Beerbower Dies Early This
Morning
—————————
AFTER AN ILLNESS OF
ABOUT EIGHT MONTHS
—————————
Suffers an Injury to His Right Leg by
Jumping Out of a Wagon Compli-
cations Arise and He Never Recov-
ers- Leaves a Widow, One Son and
Many Friends

Mr. Samuel T. Beerbower of east
Center street died this morning at 7
o’clock after an illness extending over
a period of eight months.

Mr Beerbower jumped off a wagon
last October and severely injured his
right leg. He was confined to his bed
and, owing to his advanced age, a com-
plication of diseases set in. He would
rally at times, but just as often he suf-
fered relapses and gradually grew
weaker. His life has been despaired of
for some time and the news of his
death this morning did not come as a
shock to his many friends.

Mr. Beerbower was born in Frank-
lin county, November 10, 1842. He was
the oldest of nine children and moved
to Marion with his parents when he
was but a little over a year old. His
youth was spent in this city, and at
the breaking out of the war, at the age
of nineteen, he enlisted in company A,
Sixty-Fourth Ohio Volunteer infantry.
He served in the Army of the Cumb-
erland and was in the battles of Per-
ryville, Stone River, Chattanooga,
Chickamauga and Mission Ridge. In
the latter battle he was struck by a
ball in the right shoulder. This wound
confined him in hospitals in Chatta-
nooga and Nashville for over three
months, the wound causing paralysis
of the right arm and hand. He receiv-
ed an honorable discharge March 22,
1864.

In 1865, having recovered from his
wound, Mr. Beerbower accepted a po-
sition with the firm of Lucas & Sef-
ner. Later he was employed by Reed
& Yake, and in 1868 he was appointed
postmaster by President Grant. he
served thirteen years in that capacity.
He was united in marriage with Miss
Irene Peters, January 13, 1867, and two
children were born to the union, one of
whom, Cornell, survives.

Mr. Beerbower leaves, beside his wife
and son, a large number of friends to
mourn his death. He was an honored
and highly respected citizen and was
a member of the Elks, Odd Fellows,
Knights of Pythias and the G. A. R.
He had gone through the chairs of
most, if not all, of the various lodges
of which he was a member.

The funeral service will be held at
the late residence of the deceased Mon-
day afternoon at 4-o’clock. The re=
mains will be placed in the vault.

The remains may be viewed from 2
to 4 o’clock Sunday and 10 to 12 o’clock
Monday.

Notes, Sources, and References: 

1) Obituary citation as above. Via Ancestry.com-

http://interactive.ancestry.com/6431/news-oh-marion-mariondlystar.1898_06_11_0008/471018504?backurl=&ssrc=pt_t4049043_p-1645243095_kpidz0q3d-1645243095z0q26pgz0q3d32768z0q26pgplz0q3dpid_m1&backlabel=ReturnToTree&rc=1742,479,1894,521;2275,3192,2431,3221;2535,3192,2795,3221

2) Transcribed by the author.

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