Beavers, William Henry

William Henry Beavers (1895-1948)

Sullivan, NH

William Henry Beavers was born April 27, 1895 (some records give April 9 or April 29), in Hampden, Massachusetts, and recorded at birth as a Black illegitimate child of Lizzie Beavers of Hampden. His father's identity was never recorded and remained unknown throughout his life — a fact confirmed decades later both on William's own 1946 marriage record and on his 1948 death certificate, both of which list his father as "unknown".

His mother, known variously as Lizzie Beavers, Lizzie Bevers, and later Elizabeth Silva, was the daughter of John Bevers and Ellen Bemis and was herself born in Hampden, Massachusetts. Her family's earlier roots trace to England, with the line moving first to New Jersey before eventually settling in Springfield, Massachusetts. In 1905, at age 28 and residing at 42 Essex Street in Springfield, Lizzie married for a second time — to Lysander Thompson, a 43-year-old Black machinist born in Washington, D.C., to Freeman and Ellen Thompson. The couple was married on April 5, 1905, by clergyman F. L. Goodspeed.

William's early life is sparsely documented, but by 1910, at age 15, he was working as a hired farm hand in the household of Martha A. Lilly in Ashfield, Massachusetts, listed in that year's census as "mulatto," single, and literate. In 1917 he was still in Ashfield, working as a farm laborer for H. A. Streeter; a description from that period notes him as being of medium height and build, with brown eyes and black hair.

William served in the United States Army during World War I, enlisting April 26, 1918, and serving as a private with the 12th Company, 3rd Training Battalion, Barbers & Cooks School, before being discharged May 29, 1919.

By 1930, William had relocated to Lempster, New Hampshire, where he worked as a farmer and rented his home. He shared his household with a housekeeper, Mary Paro, and her young daughter, Louise. A decade later, the 1940 census again shows him in a household with Mary Paro — now recorded as his servant — along with two lodgers. That census identifies William as an "Indian" man with a sixth-grade education, working as a day laborer; he had earned $260 over 26 weeks of work the previous year. His 1942 WWII draft registration card similarly identifies him as an "Indian" man, working as a farm laborer in Lempster.

On June 1, 1946, at age 51, William married 20-year-old Rosalie Kate Stone of Sullivan, New Hampshire — a first marriage for both. The marriage record lists him as "Indian/English" and repeats that his father was unknown and his mother, Elizabeth Silva, was a white woman from Springfield, Massachusetts, by then deceased. William and Rosalie had two daughters: Carol Elizabeth Beavers (b. 1946) and Joan Alice Beavers (b. 1947).

William Henry Beavers died on March 22, 1948, in Winchester, New Hampshire, of sudden coronary thrombosis, at age 52. At the time of his death he was living in Sullivan Center and working as a laborer trucking lumber. Later that year, the American Legion post in Keene secured a government headstone on his behalf in recognition of his WWI service; he is buried in Sullivan Center Cemetery.

Following his death, Rosalie remarried in 1950, and William's two daughters were raised under their mother's second husband's household in Keene. Both daughters attended Keene High School in the early 1960s. They married and remained in the Sullivan/Keene area of New Hampshire.

Headstone in Sullivan Cemetery

GENEALOGY

WILLIAM HENRY BEAVERS was born April 27, 1895 in Hampden, MA, to ELIZABETH BEAVERS. His father, a Native American, was never disclosed. He married ROSALIE KATE STONE on June 1, 1946 in Sullivan, NH. They had: Elizabeth Beavers (b. 1946) and Joan Alice Beavers (b. 1947).

SOURCE MATERIALS

American Legion. (1948). Headstone application for William H. Beavers [Government headstone application]. American Legion, Keene, NH.

Massachusetts Vital Records. (1895). Birth record of William Henry Beavers. Hampden, MA.

Massachusetts Vital Records. (1905). Marriage record of Lizzie Bevers and Lysander Thompson. Springfield, MA.

Massachusetts Vital Records. (1946). Marriage record of William Henry Beavers and Rosalie Kate Stone.

New Hampshire Division of Vital Records Administration. (1948). Death record of William Henry Beavers. Sullivan, NH.

Selective Service System. (1942). World War II draft registration card for William Henry Beavers. Lempster, NH.

U.S. Army. (1919). Service record of William Henry Beavers, 12th Company, 3rd Training Battalion, Barbers & Cooks School [Military service record].

U.S. Census Bureau. (1910). Thirteenth census of the United States, 1910: Ashfield, Massachusetts [Population schedule].

U.S. Census Bureau. (1930). Fifteenth census of the United States, 1930: Lempster, New Hampshire [Population schedule].

U.S. Census Bureau. (1940). Sixteenth census of the United States, 1940: Lempster, New Hampshire [Population schedule].