Charles H. Beers

CHARLES H. BEERS grew up in a comfortable home and enjoyed good social and business advantages in a prosperous town not far from Chicago, Illinois. But when a young man he broke away from this environment and came out to the Western Kansas frontier, establishing a pioneer store in Sheridan County. His fortune has gone on from good to better, and has brought him a thriving business, a good home, much popularity in his community, and the ownership of many widely distributed tracts of farming land.

Mr. Beers was born at Crystal Lake, Illinois, August 23, 1857. His grandfather, David Beers, died in Herkhimer County, New York. The father Dr. Edwin A. Beers, was born in Herkimer County, New York in 1828. He grew up there and as a young man settled in Illinois and married at Crystal Lake. He was a graduate in medicine from the New York Medical College, and during most of his active life practiced his profession at McHenry, Illinois, where he died in 1881. Doctor Beers was a democrat, a member of the Episcopal Church, and was affiliated with the Masonic fraternity and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Locating in Illinois in 1861, he enlisted in the Seventy-Second Illinois Infantry and was with that regiment as a surgeon throughout its service. Doctor Beers married Esther M. Salisbury, born in New York State in 1832 and is now living in Chicago. Charles H. Beers was the oldest of their three children. The second is Jennie E., wife of H. B. Terrell, of Chicago. Esther M. married A. C. McKinstry, a clothing salesman whose home is in Chicago.

Charles H. Beers attended the public schools of McHenry, Illinois, and took a high school course at Owatonna, Minnesota. At the age of sixteen he began an apprenticeship in a drug store at McHenry, Illinois. He was in business there for several years and in 1886 came to Hoxie, Kansas, and established a pioneer department store. He built that business up until it was the leading establishment of its kind in Sheridan County, drawing a trade from a radius of twenty miles around the town. He has given close attention to this business and has carefully invested his surplus earnings, largely in real estate. He is also a director of the First National Bank of Hoxie and in the Plainville Mercantile Company. Mr. Beers' home is one of the attractive ones in Hoxie, and was built in 1887 and extensively remodeled since then. It stands in a half block of ground, and the house and its surroundings reflect the care and years of attention on the part of the owner.

Mr. Beers is an independent voter in politics. His fraternal affiliations are with the Ancient Order of United Workmen and Modern Woodmen of America. In 1881, at Grant Park, Illinois, Charles H. Beers married Miss Eva C. Jewett, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Jewett. Her mother now resides at Columbia City, Indiana. Her deceased father was a Vermont farmer and died in that state. To Mr. and Mrs. Beers were born four children: Alice, who died at Hoxie, was married to A. W. Liggitt, who is now connected with army work in the overseas department of the Young Men's Christian Association. Agnes married Dr. H. J. Morrison, a dentist at Oberlin, Kansas. Edwin A. was a soldier in the world war and his death occurred November 9, 1918. He was furloughed home on account of illness and died there with pneumonia when thirty years of age. Eva, the youngest child, is the wife of H. W. Samuelson, a banker at Assaria, Kansas.

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