For many years residents of Jackson County confined their retrospection to Oregon pioneers.
    Their ancestors who crossed the plains in covered wagons became the heroines and heroes of their memories and of the tales told.
    Today, the Bicentennial observance has brought about a change. There was no Oregon 200 years ago, so many individuals are looking into their earlier heritage and some are finding that in Colonial times they had ancestors of equal "Herculean stance."
    Fred Strang is one of these. The ancestor of whom he speaks is Col. Ninian Beall, called the "Rock of Dumbarton." The Dumbarton Oaks estate mansion in Georgetown, D.C., took its name from the Rock of Dumbarton on the River Clyde, scene of Ninian Beall's last battle in Scotland. The brave Scot, also, was original patent holder of the land on which the White House now stands.
    His descendants and his properties continue to find a place of honor in the news reaching from Washington, D.C., to Oregon.
    Georgetown, D.C., has its Beall Street and its Dumbarton Street. St. John's Episcopal Church in Georgetown has its memorial boulder dedicated to Colonel Ninian Beall in 1910.
    The Hyattsville, Md., Presbyterian Church has the silver communion service presented by Ninian Beall in 1707. Some pieces were replaced in 1906 by Alpheus Benjamin Beall of Sioux City, Iowa, great-great-great-great-great-grandson of Ninian. The inscription states "so far as known," it is the oldest in use in the Presbyterian denomination in America.
    The Dumbarton Oaks Conferences of 1944 among the United States, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union and among the United States, the United Kingdom and the Republic of China (Nationalist) met on the estate given to Ninian Beall in 1702.
    Selection of the name of Georgetown is believed to have been in honor of George Beall, son of Ninian, according to Louise Payson Latimer's history, "Your Washington and Mine." For years the name was hyphenated "George-town."
    The University of Oregon has its organ and Beall Concert Hall dedicated as a memorial to the mother of the late Robert Vinton Beall of Central Point and other pioneer women of Oregon. Beall left his estate to his alma mater in 1961, specifying that it provide for such a memorial.
    Jackson County has its Beall Lane. It fronts the former Beall farms south of Central Point on which Robert Vinton Beall, Sr., and his brother, Thomas Fletcher Beall, settled after mining in Josephine County and the Jacksonville area in 1852.
    Two descendants of the Jackson County pioneer Bealls still call this area home. They are Strang and Helen Strang Holmes, of Medford, son and daughter of Charles and Mary Beall Strang and grandchildren of Robert Vinton Beall Sr. and Ann Maria Riddle Beall.
    Thomas Earl Beall, formerly of the Rogue River Valley, a grandson of Thomas F. Beall, resides near Roseburg.
    Historical papers note that Ninian Beall was "the progenitor of at least four governors of Maryland." Named are: Samuel Sprigg, Enoch Louis Lowe, Thomas George Pratt and Edwin Warfield.
    George Beall, former U.S. attorney for Maryland, has figured prominently in news of the 1970s. He led the investigation resulting in the resignation of Spiro Agnew as vice president. He also was named "outstanding man of the year" by the Baltimore Jaycees, according to the Jan. 23, 1974, issue of the Oregon Journal. He resigned last year as U.S. attorney to join a private law firm.
    U.S. Sen. J. Glenn Beall Jr. (R-Md.), whose current term ends in 1977, is a brother of George. Their father, J. Glenn Beall Sr., was a U.S. Senator for Maryland from 1953 to 1965.
    Of particular interest to newspaper publishers almost a century ago was Horace Beall, a patent attorney in Washington, D.C., for 60 years. He died in 1946 at the age of 81 and was listed as one of the first operators of the Mergenthaler linotype. He demonstrated "its use before President Arthur and his cabinet in 1885 and set his first type on the machine for a newspaper in a Baltimore shop."
    When Strang was in Washington in 1921 he met Glen Beall who was at the time "a young lawyer; recently graduated from Harvard University Law School," he recalls. The local man lived in Washington, New Jersey and North Carolina for three years and on June 11, 1919, Elsie Carleton Small and he were married in Washington, D.C. They now make their home of 540 Pennsylvania Ave., Medford.
    East, west, north and south the Beall name is pronounced "Bell," except by newcomers.
    The westward movement of the family began in 1834 when Thomas Fletcher Beall, Sr., lineal descendant of Ninian Beall and a War of 1812 veteran, moved from Maryland to Springfield, Ill.
    "Influenced by reports of gold discoveries in Oregon and California," Strang said, "the two sons Robert Vinton Beall and his older brother, Thomas Fletcher Beall, early in 1852 left Springfield for Oregon. With a six-mule team from St. Joseph, Mo. they made the trip to Oregon City in 78 days. Subsequently they settled on adjoining farms. On one, the beautiful old house constructed by "Vint" Beall, who followed the carpenter trade in Springfield, is still standing and occupied. The large black walnut in the front yard was designated in 1973 as candidate for the national champion big tree title in its species. It is 119 years old.
    "Grandfather Vint Beall often said his first view of the Rogue River Valley from the hills beyond Jacksonville was the most beautiful sight he ever beheld," Strang continued.
    "On April 10, 1864, Vinton Beall married Ann Mariah Riddle at the farm now known as Glenbrook near the town of Riddle in Douglas County. Their children were Mary Beall Strang and Robert Vinton Beall Jr."
    The appropriateness of the expenditure of $166,000 from his Uncle Vint's estate is emphasized by Strang, who attended the dedication of the memorial organ, built and installed by Juergen Ahrend of Germany, said to be one of the world's outstanding organ builders.
    The musical career of Robert Vinton Beall, Jr., he explains, "was cut short in 1893 when he was 15 years old. A severe illness with spinal meningitis broke his ear drums. He had no hearing for the remainder of his life. He attended schools for the deaf in Salem and Berkeley, Calif., preceding several years at the University of Oregon. After the death of his father, he carried on as a successful diversified farmer from 1915 until 1958 when he sold the farm to George Flanagan and Associates."
    Many reports have been written of the dedication of the organ and of the 1974 name change of the university's music auditorium to Beall Concert Hall. President Robert D. Clark presented Certificates of Commemoration to Strang and his brother, the late Robert Beall Strang of Reno, Nev., nephews of the donor.
    Displaying a scrapbook and publications dealing with "the famous Colonel Ninian Beall, a celebrated personage," Strang called attention to several passages. They tell of Beall's exile to the Barbados and thence to Maryland after [being] routed by Cromwell and Monk at the battle of Dunbar (same as Dumbar, the books note) in 1650.
    He became prominent as a tobacco planter and was appointed Commander in Chief of the armies of the Province of Maryland. He inaugurated a "most thorough system of ranging throughout the borders of the provinces ensuring the safety and defense of the plantations." The Indians were quickly subdued and placed on reservations. For his military services Col. Beall was given large tracts of land in what is now Georgetown and the District of Columbia. At the time of his death he had "patented over 25,000 acres, for which he received certificates of survey for more than 13,000 acres."
    Included were: Rock of Dumbarton (795), Bacon Hall (300), Beall's Meadows (1,088), Beall's Choice (690), Collington (300), Edonborough (380), Friendship (600), Good Luck (853), Maiden's Dowry (700) St. Andrews (980), Troublesome (300), Largo (1,031).
    "He favored the establishment of the Church of England as the state church of the colony in 1692 although he was a Scotch Presbyterian who donated the church land. His broad Christianity was also shown when in 1691 he asked Quaker Thomas Wilson to his home to hold his meeting."
    Persons entering St. John Episcopal Church on the east corner of Potomac and O streets in Georgetown will see the huge boulder, another testimonial to his service. The bronze tablet on it reads:
"In grateful recognition of his services upon all incursions of Neighboring Indians the Maryland Assembly of 1699 passed an 'ACT OF GRATUITY.' This memorial erected by the Society of Colonial Wars in the District of Columbia, 1910."
Medford Mail Tribune, May 2, 1976, page C1