"Portrait & Biographical Record of the Willamette Valley Oregon." Chapman Publishing Company, 1903. p. 1462. I. B. BEAM has been a citizen of Albany since 1875, and during all the intervening years has been engaged in the grain business. He was connected with the Magnolia mill for eighteen years, where he gradually mastered the business, and finally succeeded to the responsible position of manager. After severing his connection with the Magnolia mills in 1893, Mr. Beam engaged in his present business with G. W. Simpson, with whose efficient help a large and remunerative enterprise has been firmly established. To store their commodities, the firm have two warehouses in Albany on the railroad and river, with a combined capacity of fifty thousand bushels, and have besides erected a warehouse of thirty thousand bushels at Scio, and houses at Stayton and Aumsville, with capacities respectively of twenty-five and fifteen thousand bushels. Formerly they owned the fifteen-thousand-bushel warehouse at Shaw, but disposed of it some time since. They ship grain, potatoes and hay to San Francisco, Portland, and points all along the coast, and also fill government contracts for the Philippines. Mr. Simpson attends to the Portland part of the business, and therefore spends much of his time in the latter city. Of German descent, the Beam family was honored by the services of the paternal grandfather of I. B. in the Revolutionary war, and this colonial soldier afterward returned to his home in New England, whence he eventually removed with his family to Ohio.. This trip was undertaken overland with horse teams, and the grandfather took up government land in Knox county, near Mount Vernon, where his son, Asa, the father of I. B., was born. Asa was reared on the farm, and in his native state married Jemima Hague, who was born in Maryland, and was of German descent. Several children were born to the parents in Ohio, and, in 1850, Asa Beam disposed of his farm and took his family with teams to McLean county, Ill., locating on crude land near Hudson. Here the balance of the large family of children were born, eleven in all, nine of whom attained maturity, and two of whom are living, I. B. and Asa, the latter being a merchant in Albany. In 1863 I. B. Beam enlisted in the Fourth Illinois Cavalry, Company G, and was mustered in at Springfield. He was attached to the Army of the Mississippi, in the fall of 1864, but was shortly discharged from the service on account of physical disability. In 1865 he went to Shelby county, and afterward to Carroll county, Mo., then returning to Illinois, where he engaged in farming until he was twenty-two. He then entered mercantile ranks as a clerk in a warehouse concern in Hudson, Ill., and, in 1875, came to Albany, Ore., which has since been his home. In Illinois Mr. Beam was united in marriage with Emma J. Groves, who was born in McDonough county, Ill., and whose father served in an Illinois regiment during the Civil war. Four children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Beam, of whom Orrin is a medical student in San Jose, Cal.; Delbert is clerking in Portland, Ore.; and Bessie and Lloyd are at home. Mr. Beam is a Republican, and is a member of the McPherson Post, G.A.R., of Albany. In religion he is a Baptist. ******************* Submitted to the Oregon Bios. Project in March 2007 by Diana Smith. Submitter has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned above.