BEAM, Walter H. (1875-1960)

BEAM

Posted By: Karon Velau (email)
Date: 11/2/2020 at 14:56:12

Walter H. Beam
(September 4, 1875 – January 3, 1960)

Walter Beam Dies, Founder of Martinsdale
by D. L. B.
The only Walter Beam died Sunday morning, Jan 3, 1960, at 9:15 at his home in Martensdale, following an illness of a year a half, which began with a stroke July 11, 1958. The funeral service will be held in the Community Church in Martensdale Wednesday afternoon at 2 o’clock, with the Peterson Funeral Home in charge. Burial will be in the Indianola Cemetery.
Warren County and the state of Iowa will not have another like him in a generation. He probably knew more about Iowa legislation in the past half century than any other man in the state. Walter H. Beam was born Sept. 4, 1875, in Warren County, Ill., the son of Orlando and Emma Beam. He graduated from the high school at Abingdon in his home county and attended Hedding College in the same place during the year of 1892-3. He then went to the Illinois State Normal school at Normal a year or two, following which he taught in Illinois.
Elected County Auditor
He and his mother and sister, Grace, came to Warren County, Iowa and bought a farm near Martensdale, which he and his sister still owned at the time of his death. The brother and sister taught school in Warren County a year to augment payments on the farm; but wages were too low in Iowa, so they rented the farm and went back to Illinois and taught for two years, where they could get $45 a month. Women teachers could get only $21 a month in Iowa. They bought the farm in the depth of the depression of the Nineties [1890s], when land was cheap and teacher’s pay low. Mr. Beam farmed until 1909 when he became county auditor, having been elected on the Republican ticket at the election of 1908, and held the office four years. During his career as a farmer he also attended Simpson College where he met Ruth Darling of Bedford. They were married Dec 28, 1910. To them were born four sons, all of whom, as well as their mother, survive. They are Charles and George of Indianola, Burl of Martendsdale and Max of Boston, Mass. Mr. Beam leaves also six grandchildren and one great grandchild. The granddaughters are Mrs. Nancy Beam Reifschneider, Patrice and Pamela Beam; the grandsons, Kenton, Meredith and Barry Beam.
Organizing Martensdale
Five months after leaving the auditor’s office Mr. Beam, together with John F. Martens, L. E. Hiatt and William Buxton Jr., laid out the town of Martensdale. Beam became manager of the townsite and built the first home in Martensdale. Three railroads served the new townsite, but up to that time it had been without a highway, a small station at the crossing of the Rock Island and Burlington being located in the fields at the edge of the timber. The Rock Island and Burlington have since been abandoned and torn up. The Great Western still serves the locality for freight. July 23 of the same year Mr. Beam began buying wheat at Martensdale and continued for 10 years in the grain and coal business, during three years of which time he also operated a service station in his home town.
Secretary of State Senate
Organizing Martensdale was not his only significant move upon retirement from the auditor’s office at the beginning of 1913. With the opening of the legislature that month he became file clerk in the senate and later engrossing clerk. This was the beginning of an association with legislation in Iowa which lasted continuously for 44 years except for two sessions, when Democrats were in control of the senate. One year during the Democratic days he was named assistant secretary of the senate, as his experience was needed. He was himself secretary of the senate during 17 or 18 sessions, and was recognized as an authority on parliamentary law. His judgment was often asked by presiding officers in making parliamentary rulings. In 1923 he disposed of his grain and coal business in Martensdale to move to Des Moines to become assistant to U.G. Whitney, the editor of the Iowa code. In this position he handled much of the detail work on the publication of that volume and read nearly all the proof thereon. He also handled the same work on succeeding session laws until 1957, when the Democratic administration came into the state house. He had a hand in editing every issue of the code from 1924 to 1952. In 1927 the Beams moved to Indianola for a few years, and later back to the home in Martensdale. From 1951 to 1957 he was in the office of the state comptroller as auditor of state printing. He was also for many years secretary of the organization of former members of the legislature known as the Pioneer Lawmakers of Iowa.
One of Founders of First Plowing Match
His interest in matters of community and county betterment was unbounded and he never counted the cost to himself. For 27 years he was a member of the Warren County board of education and gave much time to the examination and selection of text books for the county schools. In 1903 he was one of the group which organized the first picnic of the Wick Field association, which meeting conducted the first plowing match in the state. It was the forerunner of the annual events which today draw thousands of people from all over the middle west to various locations in Iowa for state and national plowing matches.
The Smell of Printers Ink
When a boy of 16 Walter worked in the printing shop of the local paper in Abingdon, and thus got the smell of printer’s ink, which never was entirely out of his nostrils as long as he lived. This youthful experience served him in good stead in auditing state printing jobs for the state comptroller, and in his work on the code. He was a useful go-between for the code editor who was a lawyer with little knowledge of printing, and the printer who knew little about law. In his later years he had an uncontrollable itch to get his hands back into the ink. About 12 years ago he bought a second hand job press and a few cases of type. [the rest of the text missing] [Copied from a scrapbook at the Warren County Historical Society Library, Indianola, Iowa]