Archives West Finding Aid

Francis Ewing "Frank" Beall was born in Waterloo, Montana on October 13, 1882, the son of John Nelson Beall and Mary M. Dean. John Beall had moved with his family to Montana Territory in 1864, following his brothers, William M. and Henry C. Beall, who had come to Alder Gulch the previous year after a successful escape from a Union prisoner of war camp in St. Louis, Missouri. John and Mary established a ranch on the Jefferson River and had seven children in addition to Francis. The Beall sons ran the ranch until 1904 when their mother sold the place and the family resettled nearby on land south of Whitehall. Francis attended local schools and the Helena Business College, and in addition to helping on the ranch worked in Bozeman, Montana for the Owenhouse Hardware store in 1912. Meanwhile his brothers decided to take up homesteads in the Miles City area with the intention of shipping cattle back to the Whitehall Ranch, and Francis joined them there to deal in cattle. Francis eventually left the ranching life and lived at various times in Butte, Whitehall, and Great Falls, Montana. He worked in retail sales most of his life, and maintained an intense interest in the history of his family. He died at his daughter's home in Long Beach, California in April, 1973.