Pennsylvania Historical Markers in Perry County

James A. Beaver

JAMES A. BEAVER

Civil War hero; Governor of Pennsylvania, 1887-91; a Superior Court judge, 1895-1914, was born in Millerstown, Oct. 21, 1837. Site is marked by a plaque. His adult life was spent in Bellefonte, where he died on January 31, 1914.

US 22 and 322 just NW of Millerstown. Erected April 19, 1948.

James A. Beaver was born in Millerstown on October 21, 1837 to Jacob Beaver and Miss Ann Eliza Addams. Beaver grew up knowing no other authority than that of his mother. Beaver was the third child in the family and the first son. He had a younger brother and two older sisters.

Politics ran in the Beaver family. The Addams family from which his mother came had many colonial congressmen and a commander for the Revolutionary army. Two of Beaver’s uncles served in the state legislature.

His mother remarried Rev. S. H. McDonald, a Presbyterian clergy man, and moved to Belleville in Mifflin county. In 1849, he moved back to Millerstown to start schooling. Beaver was hailed as “a gentlemanly, high-principled boy, peaceably inclined, yet a boy who would stand no affront” by his teachers. Beaver’s grandfather died that same year and he returned to Belleville now under the guidance of his mother and an “exemplary Christian” stepfather. In 1852, he entered Pine Grove Mills Academy where he excelled so rapidly that he was able to enter the junior class of Jefferson College before he was 17. He graduated before he was 19.

After college he settled in Bellefonte and entered the law offices of H. N. McAllister. He was admitted to the bar when barely of voting age. While working their, he joined the Bellefonte Fencibles. This lead him into his military career in the Civil War where Beaver rose to the rank of Brig. General. He was honorably discharged in 1864 on account of an injury which resulted in the loss of his leg.

Beaver was elected governor of Pennsylvania and inaugurated on January 18, 1887. In 1895 he was appointed to the State Superior Court. Beaver later died on January 31, 1914.

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