Edward Fitzgerald Beale was born Feb. 4,
1822 in the District of Columbia. His father George, a paymaster
in the Navy, had earned a Congressional Medal for Valor in the
War of 1812. His mother, Emily, was the daughter of Commodore
Thomas Truxtun. Ned was a student at Georgetown College when,
at the solicitation of his widowed mother, President Andrew Jackson
appointed him to the Naval School. Beale graduated in 1842.
After a promotion to acting sailing master,
he sailed for California in October 1845 on the frigate "Congress"
under Commodore Robert Stockton. But 20 days later Stockton sent
Beale back to Washington with important dispatches. After a long
and roundabout voyage, he reached Washington in March 1846. Promoted
to the grade of master, he sailed for Panama and then overtook
the "Congress" at Callo, Peru, in May 1846.
Hostilities with Mexico had already begun
when the vessel reached Monterrey on July 20. After reaching San
Diego, Stockton dispatched Beale to serve with the land forces.
He and a small body of men under Lt. Archibald Gillespie joined
Gen. Stephen Kearney’s column just before the disastrous
battle of San Pasqual on Dec. 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. Editor’s note: I
have read that he and Kit Carson had been relieved of their shoes
by the Mexican troops and they walked all the way from present
day San Diego Wild Animal Park to Old Town San Diego barefoot.
Their actions saved Kearney’s soldiers. Two months later
on Feb. 9, 1847, 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 Fremont 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. After making lieutenant on Aug. 3, 1850, Beale
resigned from the Navy in May 1851.
He returned to California as a manager for W.H. Aspinwall and Commodore Stockton, who had acquired large
properties in America’s newest territory. On March 3, 1853,
President Millard Fillmore appointed Beale Superintendent of Indian
Affairs for California and Nevada. Congress appropriated $250,000
to improve native conditions in Beale’s district. With a
party of 13 others he left Washington for California on May 6,
1853. Beale’s party crossed southern Colorado and southern
Utah assessing the feasibility of the route for a transcontinental
railroad. He reached Los Angeles on Aug. 22. Beale retained his
position as superintendent until 1856. California Governor John
Bigler also appointed him brigadier general in the state militia
to give him additional authority to negotiate peace treaties between
the Native Americans and the U.S. Army.
In 1857, President James Buchanan appointed
Beale to survey a wagon road from Fort Defiance, New Mexico to
the Colorado River, on the border between Arizona and California.
The survey also incorporated an experiment first proposed by Secretary
of War Jefferson Davis four years earlier. To satisfy part of
his transportation needs, Beale took 25 camels, imported from
Tunis, as pack animals during this expedition and on another in
1858 through 1859. Beale felt the camels performed well. But they
scared horses and mules, so the Army declined to continue the
experiment. After Abraham Lincoln’s inauguration in 1861,
the president appointed Beale Surveyor General of California and
Nevada. Beale asked Lincoln for a Union Army command, but the
president convinced him he could better serve the country by remaining
as surveyor general and helping keep California in the Union.
Beale performed an invaluable service to the citizens of the small community
of Los Angeles by using troops to dig by hand Beale‘s Cut
over the Fremont Pass later called the Newhall pass, near present
day Sylmar.
Originally 30 feet deep when the young General
Phineas Banning drove the first stagecoach through it in 1854,
later was it was deepened to 90 feet by troops under General Edward
F. Beale in 1863, to allow "relatively" easy travel
to points north. This was the main roadway from Los Angeles to
Newhall and up the Grapevine towards Fort Tejon, Bakersfield,
the San Joaquin valley and places like San Francisco.
After the Civil War, Beale retired to Rancho Tejon, part of 270,000 acres he had acquired near present-day
Bakersfield, California. In 1870 he bought the Decatur House in
Washington, D.C. After that he divided his time between his two
homes. In 1876 President Ulysses Grant appointed Beale as Minister
to Austria-Hungary, a post he held for a year. Grant also suggested
Beale as Navy Secretary during President Chester Arthur’s
administration, but Arthur preferred someone else. Beale died
at Decatur House on April 22, 1893.
Editor’s Note:
Edward F. Beale was a very fascinating individual to research.
Just the exploits of his days as Indian Agent in California could
fill many pages. His exploits with Kit Carson are fodder for legends.
If I had included the many facets of his life this biography would
have stretched many pages. It was not my intent to leave these
things out. In the interest of keeping the length down to a manageable
level I have purposely left these things out.
Bibliography:
Biography from Beale Air Force
base and located at Santa Clarita Historical Society Web page
index:
The photos were obtained from the Santa
Clarita Historical Society Web site located at: www.scvhistory.com/scvhistory/bealescut.htm
Edited by: Floyd Farrar, Drum Volunteer,
September 2001
