Left an orphan at an early age, he first engaged in a fifteen hour a day business for nearly two years and then commenced his career with gas companies. His experience in the latter line of business was with the Newark, N. J., Gas Light Co. and then with the gas company at Elizabeth. In 1855 he became manager of the Yonkers Gas Light Co., leaving it in 1866 to take the same position in the territory now known as the Twenty-third Ward, New York City. In 1870 he organized the company and built the works now controlling the sale of gas in the Twenty-fourth Ward, New York City. In 1895, and as president of these companies, he sold them to the New Amsterdam Gas Company of New York City, now controlled by the Consolidated Gas Company, New York City.
While living in the Twenty-third Ward, he was actively identified in church and Sunday-schools and church construction and management, and for twelve years with the public school system of New York as trustee and chairman.
Mr. Beal was president of the American Gas Light Association in 1902, and is now a trustee and treasurer of its educational fund. In 1900 he became president of the Newburgh Light, Heat and Power Co., and a little later of the Poughkeepsie L., H. & P. Co. His policy throughout his career of more than half a century with gas enterprises has been to use the best manufacturing and distributing apparatus and to give the best possible service at equitable rates.
For many years Mr. Beal has been largely identified with real estate and building operations and in the organization and management of incorporated enterprises. He is a warden of Holy Trinity Church, New York, is an officer of Christian associations, a Free Mason and a Grand Army man, as well as a member of several clubs, church and benevolent institutions.
In 1863 Mr. Beal was united in marriage to Eleanor Louise Bell. Their living children, Reynolds and Gifford are artists, Thaddeus R. is manager of the Poughkeepsie L., H. & P. Co., Albert R. is manager of the gas department, Newburgh L., H. & P. Co., Mrs. Charles E. Acker and Miss Mary Reynolds Beal.
OSCAR W. BELCHER, who recently purchased the Lee farm in the town of Cornwall, has resided in Orange County nearly half a century. He was born in Passaic County, N. J., in 1844, where he remained until 1859. With the exception of two and a half years spent in Michigan, Mr. Belcher has been engaged in farming in what is now the town of Tuxedo. In 1907 he disposed of his property there and removed to his present home.
THE BELKNAP FAMILY—Abraham Belknap, from whom the Belknap family in this country trace their descent, emigrated from England and settled in Lynn, Mass., in 1637. Samuel Belknap, the immediate ancestor of the family in Orange County, was born in 1707, came to Newburgh in 1749, and died in 1771. His son Isaac, during the struggle for independence, was appointed a captain of a company of rangers, and later in the regular service as assistant deputy quartermaster-general. Another son, Abel, was chairman of the committee of safety for the Newburgh precinct during the Revolution. At the close of the war he engaged in the manufacture of soap. This became an important industry, and has extended from father to son for four generations as follows: Abel Belknap, 1783 to 1804; his sons, Abel and Moses Higby Belknap, 1804 to 1855; Moses Cook Belknap and Belknap & McCann, 1855 to 1892, and William Cook Belknap, 1892 to the present.
Moses Higby Belknap was born in Newburgh, N. Y., September 23, 1787, and died January 4, 1855. He was president of the village of Newburgh in 1832-33-34-38-39-41-43-44. He was one of the founders of the Newburgh High School.
Moses Cook Belknap was born in Newburgh, February 2, 1832, a son of Moses H. and Ruth P. (Cook) Belknap. In 1867 he was appointed cashier of the Highland National Bank and January 9, 1883, was elected its president, continuing in this office until he retired on account of ill health in 1892. He died at Newburgh, October 3, 1892. Upon the death of his father in 1855, Mr. Belknap formed a co-partnership with Thomas M. McCann to continue the soap manufacturing business of A. & M. H. Belknap, Mr. Belknap managing the finances of the concern. He served as clerk and treasurer of the board of trustees of the First Presbyterian Church from 1855 to the time of his death. He was one of the founders of the local Y. M. C. A. and was connected therewith after its reorganization. In 1877 he served as alderman from the Third Ward and in 1884 was elected a member of the Board of Education and re-elected in 1888. In 1887 he was chosen its president.
In 1857 Mr. Belknap married Mary H., daughter of William K. Mailler, who died May 31, 1858. In 1862 he married Marietta, daughter of David McCamly, of Warwick, N. Y. She died in 1873, leaving three sons and one daughter. In 1875 he married Evelina, daughter of Dr. Nathaniel Deyo, by whom he had a son and a daughter, now living.