BEERS
The Beers family originated, it appears, at Westcliff county Kent, England, at what was called Bere's Court; Willliam De Bere, of Bere's Court, was baliff of Dover about 1275. Nicholas De Bere held the Manor of Bers's Court in the twentieth year of the reign of Henry III. The ancestry of the American family of Beers has been traced to Martin De Bere, of Rochester, county Kent, England, who was living in 1486; married a daughter of Thomas Nyssell, of Wortham, England. From them in the fifth generation was Captain Riched Bere, born 1607, son of John and Mary (Selby) Bere. His father was of Gravesend, his mother of Yorkshire. Captain Bere (Beer or Beers) came to America in 1635, and settled in Watertown, Massachusetts, representing that town in the general court for thirteen years; was captain of his compnay in King Philip's war and was killed at Westfield, Sept. 4, 1675, in an Indian fight.
(I) James Beers or Bere was also of the fifth generation from Nicholas de Bere. He resided at Gravesend, England, and died there before 1635. His widow Hester, however, was living in 1635, the same year in which her two sons, Anthony and James, came with their uncle, Richard Beers, to America.
(II) James (2) Beers, son of James (1) Beers or Bere, was born at Gravesend, England. He came with his uncle, Richard Beers, and his brother Anthony to Watertown. In 1637 he and his brother settled at Fairfield, Connecticut, and two years later he purchased a house there. He was for a time at Sasquag, now Southport. He had eight acres of land given him by the Indians on the present site of the Congregational church in 1669. He had eighteen acres confirmed to him on the west side of the river. He was admitted a freeman in 1654. He died in 1694. His will is dated Nov. 14, 1694.
He married Abigail _____.
Children:
Joseph, mentioned below.
Martha, married Joseph Bulkeley.
Deborah, married Samuel Hull.
Elizabeth, married John Darling.
James.
(III) Joseph, son of James (2) Beers, was born about 1660 and died in 1697. He left a good estate. He married Abigail _____.
Children, born at Fairfield:
Joseph, mentioned below.
Abigail, April 24, 1692.
James.
Probably others.
(IV) Joseph, (2) son of Joseph (1) Beers, was born March 16, 1686. He removed to Stratford about 1722 and bought of Nathan Beers, of Middletown, Aug. 4, 1722, a house, shop and lot of land there.
He married, March 6, 1722, Sarah, daughter of James Clarke, of Stratford.
Children:
Ephraim, mentioned below.
Mary, born Nov. 20, 1725.
(V) Ephraim, son of Joseph (2) Beers, was born June 22, 1723. He married Elizabeth _____.
Children:
Isaac, born October, 1764.
John Benjamin, mentioned below.
(VI) John Benjamin, son of Ephraim Beers, was born March 1, 1770. He married _____.
Child:
Henry, mentioned below.
(VII) Henry, so of John Benjamin Beers, lived in Broad Albin, Fulton county, New York, where he carried on a hardware business for many years. He removed to Glens Falls and owned a place there. He died in the latter town in 1881, aged seventy-four years.
He married Dorcas Fullerton.
Children:
Elizabeth.
Mary A.
William H., mentioned below.
(VIII) William H., son of Henry Beers, was born Dec. 1858, in Galway, New York, died Oct. 1898 in Ticonderoga, N.Y. He received a common school education, and learned the tread of tinsmith. He was in business with his father at Broad Albin until they were burned out. He then removed to Glens Falls, where he worked at the trade of tinsmith and also of plumber. He served in the civil war from 1862 to 1865, in the quartermaster's department, Company B. One Hundred and Eighteenth Regiment, New York Volunteers. He was a Republican in politics, and was a member of the Free and Accepted Masons, Broad Albin, paster master of the lodge; also a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, Saratoga.
He married, 1867, Alice L, daughter of Hiram and Mariah (Foster) Hall, born in 1849 at Senaca Falls, N.Y., now living in Ticonderoga.
Children:
George Hall, mentioned below.
Olive Bell, born Nov. 1, 1869.
Frank N., deceased.
Cora A., deceased.
Charles E., 1877; teller in bank in Ticonderoga.
(IX) George Hall, son of William H. Beers, was born Sept. 23, 1868, at Borad Albin, Fulton county, N.Y. He was educated in Saratoga public schools and graduated from the high school there in 1888. He then attended the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York, and graduated in 1891. He located first in Saratoga Springs, 1891, and remained there two years. He was then in South Hartford, N.Y. for two and one half years, and in Glens Falls, N.Y. for one year. He came to Ticonderoga in 1896, and has lived there since. [this was pub. in 1910]. He is the village health officer. He has been a member of the American Medical Association and of Warren county Medical Society. He is also a member of Mount Defiance Lodge, No. 794, Free and Accepted Masons; Carillon Chapter, No. 290, Royal Arch Masons; Ethan Allen Lodge, No. 630, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Ticonderoga; of Maccabees, and of the Modern Woodmen of America. In politics he is a Republican, in religon a Congregationalist.
He married, in 1900, Elizabeth, daughter of Robert R. and Mary (Wells) Stevenson, of Moriah, New York.
Children:
Georgia Frances, born March 28, 1905; died Sept. 16, 1906.
Mary Elizabeth, May 23, 1907.
[transcriber's note: this was published in 1910, so there may have been other children born after that date].