Early Beeler made mark on Yuma

John H. Beeler, whose descendants still live in Yuma today, was a carpenter who helped construct Laguna Dam and the Ocean-to-Ocean Bridge at the beginning of the 20th Century

John was suffering from poor health and traveled from his native Tennessee to Arizona Territory in 1904 to find relief.

“Climatology experts directed consumption patients to seek the healing powers of low altitude and warm weather for treatment,” said Susan Beeler Anderson, John's granddaughter.

“With the ‘health seeker migration' came individuals with skills important to the development of early Arizona towns. Despite ill health, or perhaps because of it, John, like thousands of other individuals flocked to the low desert communities of Arizona each winter. Many stayed and established businesses that built the towns.”

John was a carpenter who had learned the trade from his father in Giles County, Tennessee. Once in Arizona, he gained experience at a planing mill in Douglas, which prepared him for the establishment of a carpentry and construction business in Yuma.

In 1905, John began working on several construction projects in the Yuma area, including Laguna Dam. On March 15, he commenced work on a frame dwelling on the mesa for Will S. Marable. Then on May 3 he began working on two buildings near the Yuma Territorial Prison that would be used as a saloon and a rooming house.

During this time, John met Nellie, who would become his wife. The couple met while he was building a home for her family, the Fishbaughs, in the Somerton area. They married on Feb. 6, 1906, and had four sons together: Roland, George, Clarence and Harold.

In 1907, John purchased land on Orange Avenue from John A. Donovan and established a carpentry and construction business.

“John's shop equipment went beyond the traditional hammer, saw, plane and square of the carpentry trade,” Susan said. “Like other craftsmen of the early twentieth century, his identity as a carpenter was being reshaped by the introduction of machinery.”

When John sold his personal property to his wife Nellie in 1911, the bill of sale listed a description of the machines in the shop, which included a Berlin planer, a 36-inch band saw, a combination saw table, a swing saw, a boring machine, a wood turners' lathe and an emery grinder.

“With the shop's Fairbanks-Morse 10 horse (power) gasoline engine driving a 40 foot line shaft, a variety of tasks could be accomplished with less elbow grease than in earlier times,” Susan said.

The power of the gasoline engine was used to cut wood for the construction of several of Beeler's construction projects, which included the First Baptist Church, a private home for Dr. J. A. Ketcherside, and the large Fishbaugh Apartments on Orange Avenue owned by Nellie's grand uncle, George Fishbaugh.

In addition to his construction business, John and Nellie homesteaded in Bard, California.

In 1915, the couple purchased their first threshing machine. Alfalfa was the major crop and John threshed out alfalfa seed for himself and his neighbors.

That year was a busy one for John, who was also helping construct the Ocean-to-Ocean Bridge by cutting the boards that would be used for the decking of the roadway.

John's eldest son, Roland, explained that large timbers from the scaffolding used during construction of the bridge were recycled by cutting them to form planks for the road bed of the bridge using a large planing mill that had been specially constructed for the task.

The wooden deck of the bridge resembled the plank road that was being constructed across the Imperial Sand Dunes west of Yuma, Roland noted.

“When the first vehicles crossed the bridge on May 22, 1915, their wheels rolled over timbers cut from the shop of John H. Beeler,” Susan said.

John lived until March 6, 1923, when he died at the age of 47. After her husband's death, Nellie continued to manage the farming and business of selling alfalfa seed. Later she became a representative for Watkins Products.

During World War II, her house on Orange Avenue was home to servicemen's wives. She lived at the same residence on Orange Avenue, located at the same site where John's first shop had been, until she moved to Laton, Calif., in the late 1960s. The family is currently restoring the house to its original condition.

“Much of the wood appears to be redwood and is said to have been taken from John Beeler's original shop building and was reused to build the house,” Susan said.

After his death, his sons continued on with his entrepreneurial spirit. 

“As a young man, Roland machined the turned wood ornamentation found in Yuma's Hotel Del Sol,” Susan said.

Six years after his father died, Roland started his custom harvesting business. By 1937, Roland and his brother George established the Beeler Brothers custom harvesting company.

The original custom harvesting business, which included adapting machines for harvesting safflower and sugar beet seeds, eventually expanded to include properties in Blythe, California and as far away as Las Cruces, New Mexico.

"They had the equipment to harvest when the farmers didn't have their own or special equipment," Susan said.  

John's other two sons, Clarence and Harold, worked in the construction field.

In 1944, Roland became Yuma's representative for Case farm implements. From 1943 to 1958 Beeler Thomas Implement Company of Yuma and Blythe, California sold Massey-Harris, J.I. Case and Allis-Chalmers equipment. The same products were sold under the Beeler Equipment Inc. name from 1958 to 1965.

From 1966 until Roland's retirement in 1998, the company was known as Beeler Automotive & Industrial Supply.

Roland's son Paul Beeler, and grandson John Robert Beeler, continue to operate Beeler Equipment Company/The Color Shop at 1502 4th Avenue.

Chris McDaniel can be reached at cmcdaniel@yumasun.com or 539-6849.