BIO:  Walter Beattie, York County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Kathy Francis

Copyright 2006.  All rights reserved.
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History of York County, Pennsylvania.  John Gibson, Historical Editor.
Chicago: F. A. Battey Publishing Co., 1886.
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Part II, Biographical Sketches, Peach Bottom Township, Pg 162

WALTER BEATTIE was born February 13, 1810, in Dumfriesshire, Scotland.  His parents, Simon 
and Nancy Beattie, came to America in 1817, and settled in Peach Bottom Township.  The family 
consisted of the parents and fourteen children – six sons and eight daughters – one daughter 
having died on the passage over.  Walter, like his brothers and sisters, was brought up on 
the farm, and from his earliest boyhood was accustomed to hard and incessant labor, receiving 
his education during winters in the indifferent county schools of that day.  He purchased in 
1838 a tract of land known as the “Warm Spring Farm,” and at present owns four farms in 
addition to a fine mill property known as Wiley’s Mill.  The family are members of the 
Presbyterian Church, and Walter has been active in works of charity in the community where he 
resides.  His too confiding disposition has occasioned him frequent pecuniary losses, 
nothwithstanding which he has, by his industry, become one of the solid men of the county.  
In politics Mr. Beattie has never aspired to office, though his fellow-citizens have 
conferred on him various local positions, among others those of supervisor, assessor and 
collector.