John A. Beaner Biography


	This biography appears on pages 762-763 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. I (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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	JOHN A. BEANER, who is postmaster at Canastota, McCook county, 
has long been one of the representative citizens of this section of the 
state, prominent in the work of the Republican party and in business 
affairs, having been the first grain dealer in the town, while he has 
at all times received the fullest measure of popular confidence and 
esteem.  

	Mr. Beaner is a native of the state of Illinois, having been born 
in Winnebago county. On the 5th of July, 1853, and being a son of 
Joseph and Gertrude (Harig) Beaner. He was the only child and his 
mother died while he was an infant. The father of the subject was a 
carpenter by vocation and his death occurred at Annapolis, Maryland, 
March 11, 1863. He was a valiant soldier in the Union army during the 
war of the Rebellion, having enlisted as a member of Company I, 
Seventy-fourth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, with which he participated 
in many of the important battles of the great conflict. He was captured 
by the enemy and was held captive in the famous Andersonville prison, 
where he contracted disease which caused his death a short time after 
his release, so that our subject was doubly orphaned when a mere boy, 
being thereafter reared in the home of George Fisher. He attended the 
common schools of his native state until he had attained the age of 
sixteen years, when he assumed the active duties of life and became 
dependent upon his own resources. He went to Black Hawk county, Iowa, 
where he was engaged in farming for two years, after which he returned 
to Illinois and located in Durand township, where he followed the 
vocation of farming until 1874, while thereafter he was a resident of 
Jesup, Iowa, until October, 1878, when he first came to what is now 
South Dakota. He located in Turner county, where he remained about two 
months, and then returned to Iowa, which continued to be his home until 
1880, when he again came to South Dakota, improving his claim of 
government land in Turner county and there giving his attention to 
farming and stock raising until 1889, when he located in Canastota, 
McCook county, where he has ever since made his home. Here he 
established himself in the grain business, being the first to 
inaugurate this line of enterprise in the town, and he continued to be 
actively engaged in the buying and shipping of grain for the next 
decade.  

	Though he is a staunch Republican in politics and an active and 
influential worker in the party cause, Mr. Beaner was appointed 
postmaster of Canastota under the administration of President 
Cleveland, and served in this capacity for four years, while in 1902 he 
was again appointed to the office, under the regime of President 
Roosevelt, being the incumbent at the present time. He has been 
consecutively connected with the administration of post office affairs 
here for the past eleven years, having served for four years of this 
time as deputy. He is at the present time chairman of the Republican 
central committee of McCook county and has ably managed the party work 
in this field. Fraternally, Mr. Beaner is identified with Prudence 
Lodge, No. 119, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, in Canastota, and 
with Salem Chapter, No. 34, Royal Arch Masons, at Salem, the county 
seat. He is also affiliated with Canastota Lodge, No. 13. Ancient Order 
of United Workmen, in his home town. Mrs. Beaner is a member of the 
Presbyterian church.  

	On the 8th of July, 1875, Mr. Beaner was united in marriage to 
Miss Mary E. Ellis, of Barclay, Iowa. She was born and reared in 
Barclay county and is a daughter of A. J. and Jane Barclay and is a 
daughter of A. J. and Jane Ellis. Mr. and Mrs. Beaner have one 
daughter, Gertrude M, who is now the wife of Grant Roberts, who is 
engaged in the meat business in Rock Valley, Iowa