James Franklin Beaty

James Franklin Beaty

from: https://sites.rootsweb.com/~wvmarsha/cwmedals.htm
Beatty (Beaty), James Franklin, Company "D", 6th W.Va. Volunteer Infantry. He was the son of John C. Beaty, b. W.Va. 1802, & Susannah Farrell, b. W.Va. 1803. His grandparents were Alexander Beaty, b. 17 May 1772, possibly New York or Ireland and his wife, Mary S. "Molly" Carter, b. W.Va. 16 Nov 1779. His maternal grandparents were Robert Ferrell, b. about 1843 in Berkeley County, VA, and Hannah, his wife. On 28 June 1863 (location unknown), James married Mary Ann Nagle, born 02 April 1847 in County Cork, Ireland. James and Mary Ann were the parents of Susanna Beaty Buehrer, Julia Captoria Beatty Beal, and Eva Beatty Dickman. Other children may include Alice, Maria, and Mary.

Sometime after 1880, Mary Ann and their children moved to Illinois to live with a brother. Pension affidavits indicate that James was unstable and left his wife with the responsibility of caring for the children. After leaving West Virginia, James may have lived with a family member in Ohio. He died about 1910 somewhere near Wellsville, Ohio.

Notes from Karen Meng:

I am forwarding a jpeg file of my G-g grandfather's Civil war medal (James F. Beatty, L6). It is amazing that I ever found it. In the 1930s, my mom wrote to Ohio to get his records from an Old Soldier's Rest Home. She received information on a different James Beatty. We did not realize this until about a year ago when we were in Ohio babysitting with our granddaughter while her mom was at a business meeting. We were lucky enough to squeeze just one hour in at the Ohio Archives. I was able to get his death certificate. 

On the trip home, I started looking at it and realized that he had the wrong wife and children. Once I was home, I took a chance and requested the records of another James Beatty from NARA. This one had the right wife and children. The testimonies were very sad about his life after the Civil War. Today, we would say that he suffered from battle fatigue. In any case, this led to the discovery that he had an unclaimed Civil War Medal from West Virginia. I applied for the medal and provided extensive evidence to support this claim. The evidence was accepted and, about eight months later, I received my g-g grandfather's medal. We wonder if we would have ever seen it if it had been claimed in the 1860s. The chances are that it would have been lost in the intervening years. Now, it is truly a family treasure.


Last update: October 26, 2000