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Walter William Beam (1866–1963) was born in Sandwich, IL to George E. Beam (1842–1918)
and Marian "Minnie" Mary Ann Mennie Beam (1844–1942). As a young child he lived in Michigan,
where his father operated a wagon manufacturing company with his grandfather, John /
James Mennie.▼3
He married Flora Rosentrater (1874–1954) in 1893
and they had two daughters,
Marguerite (1894–1954) and Alta Mae (1899–1989).
Walter left few footprints behind of his photographic career other than
references in 1914 and 1952 interviews. He indicated he'd worked as a freelance photo-journalist
and operated a portrait studio but also tried his hand at postcards and souvenir photos.
According to city directories and U.S. Census reports, when not taking pictures he
worked in restaurants and as a mechanic.
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In his days as a freelance photographer for the Wichita Eagle, Beam used a $26.50 5x7 Poco camera.▼4
Walter's memories included photos taken the day after a fire at the Miltner / Western Planing Mill elevator
in March of 1908, the Masonic Home fire in 1916, Bitting Bros block on Market St. in
1911 (rebuilt and still standing), and the Getto building on Main St. in 1923.
The family once traveled by covered wagon to Colorado once where he took pictures of Buffalo
Bill Cody's (1846–1917) gravesite at Lookout Mountain in Denver. There were few
wagon trains as late as 1917.
By 1915 Walter's primary source of income came from managing concessions at Riverside
Park in Wichita. A Wichita history blog briefly mentions
Walter's concession stand.
He was buried in an unmarked grave in the Wichita City Park.
Around 1923 Flora and Walter began to report their marital status as divorced. At
the end of their lives Walter lived with his mother and Flora with their daughters and
their families.
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Discrepancies and addendum
1. The 1952 interview inaccurately stated that the
fire was started when a stage light ignited leaked gas in a dome over the
auditorium. It is correct that a stage light started the fire but there were no gas
leaks, explosions, or gas masses above the auditorium. On the stage a draft blew the
frayed edge of a lightweight stage curtain into the path of a
sparking arc lamp placed too close to drapery. The blaze raced up the curtain and across the stage,
catching other curtains and fabric scenery curtains afire as it went. The loft above the
stage soon became engulfed in flame. Because the vents above the stage had not been
properly installed, the build up of intense heat and gases could not escape. When performers
escaped through a large door at the back of the stage, the influx of cold air created a
back draft that propelled the conflagration from the stage into the auditorium in a large ball of
flame and heat. Vents and an opened fire escape door at the back of the auditorium drew the seething mass up into the
balconies. Hundreds of people still trying to escape from the balconies through poorly
designed exits were trapped and died en masse at 3:50 pm. The time was affixed by the
hands on their pocket watches, all stopped when exposed to heat sufficient to melt the
clockworks, at least 390 degrees.
2. The story stated that the Beams located in Kansas
in 1890 but according to the U.S. census in 1900, they lived in Chicago at W. 120th St.
and 11946 S. Halsted until at least 1904, and a 1905 Wichita news story announced
their arrival that year. In 1907 they lived at 1344 S Main and Walter's
studio in 1908 was at 311 East Douglas Ave (site later occupied by Palace
Theater that was razed in 1966).
3.
Fifty years later Walter would recall that his family lived in
Benton Harbor in his infancy when his father and grandfather manufactured carriages.
According to the 1870 U.S. Census, however, his grandfather Mennie's family lived in Bangor,
Michigan. John (or James) Mennie (c1800–1879) had emigrated from Scotland, first settling in
Canada, then in Watertown, New York where he farmed and manufactured ropes. They later
relocated to Michigan.
Walter's father and grandfather Mennie quarreled and
George left Michigan in search of a new source of revenue, sending word back to his wife to come to Joliet,
Illinois. She, three-year-old Walter, and his younger sister Alta M. Beam
(1869–1898), went to Joliet but George was not there. The 1870 U.S. Census finds him
living in Grundy County, Illinois, southwest of Joliet, IL, working as a wagon maker and
living with the John Barr family. He later spent a decade in Alaskan gold
fields. After a search of many years, with help from the
Masons fraternal organization, in 1914 Walter finally located his father in Tennessee
after George applied for a civil war veterans pension. (George Beam had enlisted at age nineteen
in September 1861 and served in the U.S. Union Army with K Company of the 50th Pennsylvania infantry. He was wounded at the
battle of Bull Run in 1862 and discharged in September, 1864.) Walter's named
one of his daughters after his sister, Alta, who died at age twenty-nine after only
thirteen months of marriage. Couldn't find anything about the cause of death.
Childbirth seems a good possibility; maternal mortality then was 65% higher than it
is today.
Other than a confirmation of their meeting
and a description of them looking at family photos, there were no follow up stories to indicate
what effort, if any, George had made to find his wife and son. Walter's mother
thought George was dead, even filing for a Civil War widows pension in 1893. She remarried, perhaps many times, and by 1898
lived in Wichita. Minnie/Marian/Mary Ann Mennie, was last married to a widowed builder
named Rolando Pickney Chaplin (1844–1909). She was a dressmaker and after his death operated a
lunch room at 115 S. Lawrence in Wichita. Marian filed for a civil war wounded
veteran's spousal pension in 1906 so the family knew George was alive eight years before
the 1914 family reunion. George Beam became an occasional Wichita visitor in the final
years of his life.
4. The
Poco brand was acquired by Kodak in 1903.
In 1952 Walter recalled that his other cameras had included a 6.5 x 8.5 Rochester view camera,
6.5 x 8.5 Empire State camera, 3.25 x 5.5 postcard camera and 8 x 10 portrait camera.
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