b. May 21, 1831 Hinesburgh, Vermont
d. March 28, 1888 Beaver Dams, New York
Truman Grove Beecher, the first child of Almon and Hannah Beecher, was born on May 21, 1831 in Hinesburgh, Vermont. The family later moved to Chenango County, New York where they resided until 1835. It was in Chenango County that Truman's brother Harmon and sister Jane, or Jennie as she was sometimes called, were born. By 1841, the family moved to the area soon known as Beaver Dams, New York, and Almon bought property to begin the family farm.
On September 29, 1858, when he was 27 years old, Truman married Minerva Brisco. The marriage certificate in the Bible of Minerva reads:
�Truman G.Beecher and Minerva Brisco married at her father's home in Montour on the 29th of September, 1858, in the presence of her father's family, Rev.Milo M.Ransom officiating.�
Truman�s diaries began in 1862. Well educated, he worked with his father in farming and land speculation and had a very keen sense of enterprise. Nearly every year he engaged in something different. He had a lumber business, raised sheep, made and sold baskets, and rented out his wagons, buggies, and animals. He sold farm equipment and insurance policies. He sold subscriptions to newspapers and magazines. He bought and sold skunk skins and sold used telegraph wire and poles. When the telephone came through town, he even operated a pay phone until it proved unprofitable. On another occasion, he organized an excursion trip, selling tickets for a portion of the profit.
In a true display of American inventiveness, he created, patented, and marketed his "Improved Railway Switch". He detailed the entire process, beginning with the day he received the instruction pamphlet from the Patent Office. He later traveled to Washington to file his patent claim. He then did his own marketing, though unsuccessful, all the way from Canada to Minnesota, to California, to Cornelius Vanderbilt in New York City. Truman documented the coming of the railroad through Beaver Dams: the surveyors, the laying of track, the construction of the depot, and the water tower on his land.
Truman never served in the Civil War himself. He instead paid the fee to hire a substitute, a perfectly legal and common practice among those who could afford to do so. The war touched his life, though, as hired hands and friends left for duty, some never to return. He told of getting the news of the assassination of President Lincoln, a day after it happened. He was a staunch Republican and campaigned for his party, but he did attend a Democrat meeting from time to time. Truman, for the most part, attended the Universalist Church in Beaver Dams, though he also attended the Methodist and Baptist churches, and even the Salvation Army. In January 1878, he paid $10.00 for a Bible, but how often he read it is left to our imagination.
His diaries detail many civil cases in Beaver Dams, held in the store, the grange, or wherever the participants could meet. Truman served as Justice of the Peace for many years. He also gives a clear picture of the operation of the school system, since he was a school trustee. He had to purchase the chalk, mow the yard, repair the broken desks, and hire the school marm. He was very much involved in rebuilding the school house when it was destroyed by fire. Truman helped organize the Grange, was a member of the Masons, and helped organize the Lodge of Good Templars in 1868. Whenever a politcal lecture or organizational meeting was held, Truman was there. He attended Greenback Meetings, women�s rights lectures, Free Thinkers Meetings, and many others.
He took trips to Vermont and Minnesota to see family, as well as to Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. for the patent process and to locate apple buyers. It was on a trip to Chicago that he ran into the company of Tom Thumb and viewed the city from the elevators.
Interaction with the other citizens of Beaver Dams was extensive. The people relied on each other, worked together, needed one another. His list of friends and acquaintances is extensive, showing what a personable individual he must have been.
But he was not without a few vices. Though he signed a Temperance Certificate promising to give up all intoxicating drink, Truman on more than one occasion was involved in a "drunk". He mentions having to pay his bill at the tavern. Truman chewed tobacco and made his own cigars. And in the midst of the construction of the railroad line through Beaver Dams, Truman placed several bets on its completion date, a few of which he lost.
Just about the only clue we have about his appearance is that he used eye glasses at least some of the time. In 1883 he buys "spectecles", in 1885 he "got specks", and then in 1887 he "got cane & spectacles". We are told through his entries that he had some teeth out, though he "didn't want it".
A bit of a temper and sarcasm shows through the entries once in awhile. For example: "Paid Hank Baldwin dont owe a cent to him". And: "I made Dam fool of self working". But Truman pays for some of his actions. Saturday April 5, 1884: "I learned the Beaver Dams folks how to work finished gate & ditch for store lot". But then, Monday April 7, 1884: "I had lame back". Truman had a gentler side to his personality, though. He enjoyed singing and went to singing school, a popular pastime. He loved to read and borrowed books when he could. He built picnic tables in his maple grove where community picnics were often held, and after one such picnic he noted that it had been a "nice day".
Truman didn't leave us many clues about the personality of his wife, Minerva. It is quite apparent that she was fairly close to her five sisters. They visited often, and photos show the sisters posed together. Maintaining a household such as theirs must have been a difficult task at times, and Minerva usually had a hired girl to help her, particularly when the children were small. The main source of contention between Truman and Minerva was her attendance at the Seventh Day Adventist Church on Catlin Hill. Truman, through his entries, expressed his intense disapproval. But for the most part, her place seems to have been in the home, and his was to pursue business ventures and outside activities as he so desired. We also meet the people of Beaver Dams in his diaries: the hired hands, the storekeepers, the young men who go off to war, the Civil War deserter, the families. We feel upset when the safe is broken into at the shop, and are glad when the road is clear and the town pump is fixed. We might be surprised over things like the day Truman "got Wood chuck meat" or the times he "banked the house with manure". And we're left with many unanswered questions, like why "Burtun Rockwell (was) fined 5.00 fer taking me by throat yesteday" and who graduated when Truman "got card from Buffalo (about) the comencement at college". Nevertheless, we find ourselves mourning when someone dies, and somewhat shocked when his sons elope. We understand the work involved on wash day, and feel the suffering of untreated or mistreated illness. For the most part, Truman's entries are clear and understandable. His spelling can be confusing at times, but if we remember that the spelling in the 1800s was often done phonetically, it is very readable. Names of individuals and places were also written by sound with little uniformity. Truman occasionally wrote a person's last name first, then the first name, with no comma in between. An entry about Cole Jarvis is really referring to Mr.Jarvis Cole.
The "/" notation after a numeral indicates dollars. Therefore, 10/ is ten dollars. It was also a common practice to interchange the comma and the decimal point, where today we would use a decimal. Very often neither was used, and, for example, a notation such as 158 could well mean $1.58.
The diaries end in 1887, three months before Truman's death in March of 1888. I believe he probably had a diary for 1888 among his personal belongings at his death. It might have been separated from the completed years, which he had put away for safekeeping.
Whatever else we can learn about Truman is contained on and between the lines of his diaries. But in The Biographical Record of Schuyler County, N.Y., it was noted that "[Truman Beecher] gained wide acquaintance among the best class of citizens who entertained for him the warmest of regards."