Edward Fitzgerald Beale

Edward Fitzgerald Beale (February 4, 1822 – April 22, 1893) was an American naval officer, frontiersman, rancher and diplomat. He fought in the Mexican–American War, emerging as a hero of the Battle of San Pasqual in 1846. He achieved national fame in 1848 in carrying to the east the first gold samples from California, contributing to the gold rush.

In the late 1850s, Beale surveyed and built Beale's Wagon Road, which many settlers used to move to the West, and which became part of Route 66 and the route for the Transcontinental railroad. As California's first Superintendent of Indian Affairs, Beale helped charter a humanitarian policy towards Native Americans in the 1850s. He also founded the Tejon Ranch, the largest private landholding in California, and became a millionaire several times over. He received appointments from five U.S. presidents: Andrew Jackson appointed him to the Philadelphia Naval School, Millard Fillmore appointed him Superintendent of Indian Affairs for California and Nevada, James Buchanan appointed him to survey a wagon road from New Mexico to California, Abraham Lincoln appointed him Surveyor General of California and Nevada, and Ulysses S. Grant appointed him Ambassador to Austria-Hungary. He was a friend of Kit Carson, Buffalo Bill Cody and Ulysses S. Grant.

"Beale successfully pursued a personal El Dorado of adventure, status, and wealth," wrote Gerald Thompson. "In doing so, he mirrored the dreams of countless Americans of his day."

In 1861, Beale was appointed by President Abraham Lincoln as Surveyor General of California and Nevada. He had an important passage named after him due to his widening of a cut used by the Butterfield Overland Mail, a stagecoach that operated mail between St. Louis, Missouri and San Francisco. In 1862, he dispatched a crew of Chinese workers to widen an 1858 cut, which also reduced the climb by . Beale's Cut, as it was known, lasted as a transportation passage through the modern day Newhall Pass area until the construction of the Newhall Tunnel was completed in 1910. Still in existence today, Beale's Cut is no longer passable by automobiles. It is difficult to find today because it is fenced off and not close enough to the Sierra Highway to be easily seen.

Beale's Wagon Road and Camel Corps

In 1857, President James Buchanan appointed Beale to survey and build a wagon road from Fort Defiance, Arizona to the Colorado River, on the border between Arizona and California. The survey also incorporated an experiment for the Army using camels, first proposed by Secretary of War Jefferson Davis four years earlier. Beale used camels from the Camel Corps imported from Tunis as pack animals during this expedition and on another in 1858 through 1859 to extend the road from Fort Smith, Arkansas to the Colorado River. His lead camel driver was Hi Jolly (Hadji Ali) a Greek-Syrian convert to Islam. The camels were capable of traveling for days without water, carried much heavier loads than mules, and could thrive on forage that mules wouldn't touch. But the camels scared horses and mules, and the Army declined to continue the experiment with camels. Nevertheless, the wagon road Beale built became a popular immigrant trail during the 1860s and 1870s, and it was this survey which marked out for the first time a practicable highway along the 35th parallel that has been used from that day to this. The general route of the Beale Wagon Road was followed by U.S. Route 66, the Santa Fe Railway, and Interstate 40.

Of this road, Beale wrote: "... It is the shortest (route) from our western frontier by 300 miles, being nearly directly west. It is the most level, our wagons only double-teaming once in the entire distance, and that at a short hill, and over a surface heretofore unbroken by wheels or trail on any kind. It is well-watered! Our greatest distance without water at any time being twenty miles ... It crosses the great desert (which must be crossed by any road to California) at its narrowest point."

Tejon Ranch

thumb|right|200px|Bealville Historic marker along Caliente-Bodfish Road near [[Caliente, California.]] At the urging of Beale, Fort Tejon was established by the U.S. Army in 1854, to protect and control the Indians who were living on the Sebastian Indian Reservation, and to protect both the Indians and white settlers from raids by the Paiutes, Chemehuevi, Mojave and other Indian groups of the desert regions to the east. Fort Tejon was abandoned in 1864. In 1865 and 1866, Beale purchased the Mexican land grants which now comprise the Tejon Ranch. When the U.S. Army sold its camels, Beale purchased some of them and kept them at his ranch. Tejon Ranch is the largest private landholding in California, and today is owned by Tejon Ranch Company, a company listed on the New York Stock Exchange ().

Decatur House

In 1871, Beale purchased Decatur House, opposite the White House, in Washington, D.C. Decatur House had been built in 1818 for naval hero Stephen Decatur. Its prominent location across from the White House made Decatur House one of the capital's most desirable addresses and home of many of the nation's most prominent figures. The U.S. government rented Decatur House for its Secretaries of State, Henry Clay, Martin Van Buren and Judah P. Benjamin. Beale bought the house for $60,000 and extensively renovated it. He held many glittering parties there and became Washington's most famous host. A reporter from the Washington Capital wrote in 1873 that "the old Decatur mansion will again rank first among the fashionable residences of our city." and displayed a talent for diplomacy. His lavish entertaining, tales of the American West, command of foreign languages, and warm personality made Beale and his wife popular figures in the Viennese court. His love of horses helped him win the trust of Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria. During his tenure, Beale sent frequent dispatches to the State Department on the war between Turkey and Serbia and the Eastern Question.

Retirement

thumb|Edward Fitzgerald Beale gravestone in [[Chester Rural Cemetery]]

In his retirement, Beale lived at Decatur House in Washington, D.C., with yearly visits to Tejon Ranch and more frequent visits to his horse farm at Ash Hill in Hyattsville, Maryland, northeast of Washington, D.C. At Ash Hill he entertained friends such as Grant, who kept two Arabian horses stabled there, President Grover Cleveland and Buffalo Bill Cody. Ash Hill was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.

Beale died at Decatur House in 1893 and is interred at Chester Rural Cemetery in Chester, Pennsylvania. His will was witnessed by Ulysses S. Grant and General William Tecumseh Sherman.

Another actor, Charles Bateman, played Beale in another Death Valley Days episode, "Stubborn Mule Hill," which aired in 1963. In that episode, David McLean played Army scout Kit Carson.

Beale was played by Rod Cameron in the 1954 Western film Southwest Passage. As in "The Camel Train", Beale is conducting an experiment with camels in the American Southwest, whilst at the same time surveying a new route across the desert and mountains.

References

External links

Californians and the Military
The Beale Wagon Road
Beale and His Camels
The Tejon Ranch Company
Decatur House
Beale family