Beasley Family News
Vol. 9, No. 1 
May 2006
Welcome to the online edition of your Beasley family newsletter. If you are a Beasley (regardless of spelling), this is YOUR family newsletter. It contains current news, obituaries, engagements, weddings, births, articles on family history, queries and special features, including a column on "Know Your Cousins" that will feature a different relative every issue.
We hope to have a new edition of the family newsletter at least once a month, depending upon enough news. We NEED YOUR HELP to make this a success: when you hear about a death, marriage, engagement, birth or other news about a Beasley relative, please let us know so we can add it to the family newsletter. If you see an obituary, wedding or engagement notice, birth announcement or other news about a Beasley relative in your local newspaper, please clip it out, along with the name and date of the paper from the top of the page and send to us to preserve in the Family Library and to print in the family newsletters.
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If you came directly to this page, be sure and visit the family club's HOME page, where you can learn more about the family club and you can jump from there to the Beasley Family HISTORY section, the Beasley Family QUERIES section, the 'FAMOUS BEASLEYS'section and our other pages. Click on back to HOME at the bottom of this page to get started.
LOOKING FOR AN ANCESTOR? Post your message in the Queries section to help find them.
Jere Beasley has been named as a member of the Auburn University Board of Trustees by Gov. Fob James. His appointment by Republican former Governor James came in the midst of a political turmoil, caused by James' direct interference into Alabama's college and university affairs.
James named Phil Richardson of Montgomery, a retired Alfa Insurance Co. vice president, to the board but the Alabama Legislature refused to approve his appointment for the past two years.
Jere served as Lieutenant Governor of Alabama from 1971 to 1979. He was elected to two terms as a Democrat. During this period, he also presided over the Alabama Senate. After he left office, he became one of Alabama's most successful plaintiff lawyers. He is a leader of the Alabama Trial Lawyers Association.
James is attempting to remove Bobby Lowder, a Montgomery banker and a Democrat, from the Auburn board. Senator Lowell Barron (D-Fyffe, Al.), an Auburn trustee, said he was disappointed James has again passed over Lowder who has been a big supporter of Auburn's business school and sports programs.
Senator Barron has hired Jere in a lawsuit against Alfa. He questioned Gov. James' motives in choosing Jere, a prominent Montgomery attorney. "This is something the governor would think is divisive," Barron was quoted.
Jere cannot serve on the Auburn board unless his selection is approved by a majority of the Alabama Senate. Jere is a graduate of Auburn. Jere is a Barbour County, Alabama boy.
CLAYTON, Ala.-- Billy Beasley won the Democratic Party nomination for the District 84 seat in the Alabama House of Representatives in the June 2 primaries. In incomplete returns showed Billy garnered 2,984 votes to 2,561 for his opponent, Barbour County Sheriff John Q. Hamm.
UPDATE: Billy won the general election in November and will take his seat in the Alabama House for the next term. More on this later.
Billy, 52, is the younger brother of former Alabama Lieutenant Governor Jere Beasley, now a Montgomery attorney. Billy is a pharmacist in Clayton, the county seat of Barbour County. The House seat represents all of Barbour County and adjoining Henry County. The district is strongly Democratic and Billy is probably assured of election against Dr. Tommy Horne, his Republican opposition in the general elections later this year. Four Democratic candidates for Sheriff of Barbour County polled about 6,000 votes, compared to just 305 for the two Republican candidates.
The seat Billy is seeking is being vacated by Jimmy Clark of Eufaula, the long-time Speaker of the Alabama House of Representatives.
When the Centennial Olympics were held in Atlanta in 1996, Cyrus Beasley was there to represent the United States. Cyrus was among the American athletes from all over the world taking part in the 100th Olympiad. He participated in the single sculls event. The scull is a small single man rowing boat.
Cyrus is a resident of Newburyport, Mass. where he graduated from high school. He has been windsurfing since he was very young. He began rowing in the spring of 1992 as a freshman at Emory College, a two-year college near Atlanta. A couple of his dorm mates kept urging him to row because Cyrus is very tall and tall men make better rowers. Cyrus was 6'6" and 240 pounds.
During the summers while in college, he worked on a state beach so swimming and running were part of his daily routine. He went to state track & field competition in the high jump division. In 1994, he switched to sculling. After graduating from Emory College, he entered Emory University in Atlanta where he continued his rowing career. He was a member of the US National Team in 1994-1995. In 1994, he placed 7th at the World Championships in the quadruple sculls.
Cyrus graduated from Emory University with a degree in biology in 1995. That same year, he placed first in the Mannheim, and Essen, Germany and Copenhagen, Denmark international boating regattas in the single sculls division. He won 2nd place at the Pan American Games that year and placed 9th that year in the World Championships. In 1996, he placed 5th at the Duisburg, Germany International Regatta. Sorry, but the editor doesn't know yet what his outcome was in the Olympics.
Cyrus planned a career in marine biology research. Can anyone tell us what his family history is--what "branch" and what locale they are from?
If your kid is graduating from high school or college; has won a school award; been elected to a school office; plays on a school sports team; been named a cheerleader; or other school news, let us know so we can write about it. Include their school history and plans for the future; also the name of the parents and grandparents.
RICHMOND, Va.-- Amanda V. Beasley of Richmond has entered Mary Washington College at Fredericksburg, Va. as a freshman. Sorry, we don't know who her family is.
LETTERS From All Over the World During the past several months we have gotten mail from all over the world. And some of it, your editor can't even read. Since going online last year, our Editor and historian has received email and letters from more than 40 states as well as England, The Netherlands (Holland), South Africa, Japan, Canada, Australia, Chile, Brazil, the United Arab Emirates (on the Persian Gulf next to Saudia Arabia), Saudia Arabia, Bermuda, Uruguay, Portugal, Germany, Spain, New Zealand and Scotland.
Beasley's In Brazil
It may sound hard to believe but a few months ago, I got an email from someone in Brazil (the largest country in South America) asking for information on Beasley's who had immigrated there from the United States many years ago. The email was in Portuguese, the language of Brazil which was founded as a colony of Portugal.
I could make out most but not all the words since I studied Spanish in college and Portuguese and Spanish are similar. However, I could not translate all of it. Almost immediately, I thought of a cousin on Mama's side of my family who was born and raised in Cairo, Georgia next door to the county where I was raised and went to school. After he retired from the Army, he went to Oxford University in England and became a priest in the Church of England (Anglican), the church of our ancestors and still the official religion of England.
He is now the priest of an Anglican church which has the only English-speaking service in Porto, the second largest city in Portugal. Porto is famous as the home of Port wine. He has learned to speak Portuguese while ministering there and was able to translate my letter for me.
The Beasley family in Brazil today is descended from one of the many Southern families who fled the South when the Confederate States was defeated in the War for Southern Independence (War Between the States 1861-1865). They could not accept living as a conquered people under a yankee army of occupation so they emigrated to a colony in Brazil where they founded a town called Americana and several other communities. Unfortunately, I have been unable to help our Brazilian cousin with information on our Beasley relatives who went there. Check the "Queries" section to see if you recognize any of this family.
Several newspapers have carried articles in recent months about this exodus of Southerners, including the one in Columbus, Ga. where our editor lives. In fact, it had another very large feature article just last week covering a half page on this subject.
The latest email from our cousin in Brazil just came in and it is the first in English. I got one earlier this week that I still haven't translated yet.
Our cousin has finally sent some solid facts. He states that "Jachinto" Beasley emigrated from Alabama in 1867 aboard the ship "Marmion in a group of Southern refugees led by Colonel Charles Gunther and Colonel G. Gunther. He was accompanied by his wife Mary Isabell ("Maria Isabella") and children Jenny, Christopher, Julian, John Jack ("Jhon Jachinto") and Cresspoll (?). They were among a group of Southerners (from Dixie) after the War Between the States who established an American colony off the river Doce in the State of Spirit Saint Brasil. This is from Christovao Beasley in Brazil. Hope some of you can help on this.
We received word from another South American cousin -- this one from Uruguay, a small nation (slightly smaller than the state of Kansas), sandwiched between its big neighbors Brazil on the north and Argentina on the west and the giant bay formed by the River Plata (Rio de la Plata) on the south.
It appears our Southern cousins not only fled to neighboring Brazil after the War for Southern Independence but also to Uruguay. Luis Enrique Pedetti Beasley tells me that his ancestors were Thomas Beasley and his wife Charlotte ("Carlota") Trimer (or Trimmer). I haven't learned yet what state they came from. Does anyone recognize these names?
Got a list from Luis of the descendants of Thomas and Charlotte. Unfortunately, no dates though so it is hard to sort him out from the many other Thomas Beasleys. He lists Thomas/ second child, Henrietta ("Enriqueta"), as born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. One granddaughter married an Englishman named Murray and lived in England. Luis' mother is Lila Paulina Beasley. It is customary in Spanish-spealing countries for a person to use a compound "last" name, composed of both his father's and mother's names. Thus, Luis Enrique PEDETTI BEASLEY indicates his father's name of Pedetti and his mother's is Beasley. Luis does not speak English apparently and I am having trouble translating the Spanish. My college Spanish has totally "worn out" from lack of use. If anyone has any hints of Thomas Beasley and his wife Charlotte, please let us know.
If your branch of the family is planning a reunion--let us know. Please send complete details, with the dates, time, place (and directions for how to get there if in a rural area, etc.), person to contact with telephone number, mailing address and, if available, email address so kinfolks can contact you for additional information about the reunion. If this is an annual affair, tell us some history--when and where it began and how (in honor of some ancestor's birthday, etc.); if you have a reunion committee, give the names and hometowns of the officers.
AFTER you have the reunion, write and tell us all about it so we can have a story in the newsletter. Include how many attended, who traveled the greatest distance, the oldest and youngest kinfolks who attended; your activities; if you have a reunion committee, give the names and their hometowns; and any other details.
Descendants of Charles Wesley Beasley and Thirza Northcutt will hold a family reunion 20 May 2006 at the Bolden-Cardwell Hall, Evergreen First Methodist Church. Evergreen is located at the corner of Mill and Desplouse Streets in Evergreen, Alabama.
This branch of our family has spread all over southwest Alabama. The reunion will also include descendants of the Henderson and Mellinger families in the area.
For more information, contact:
Sherry S. Johnston
406 Liberty Hill Dr.
Evergreen, AL. 36401
Our Editor is R. E. Woodham,
descendant of the Beasley family who settled in Old Darlington District, South Carolina
in the mid-1700's. His hobby since childhood has been family history.
to Beasley Family Association HOME page18 June, 1998