Beamsville

History

Beamsville was named after Jacob Beam (1723-1812), a United Empire Loyalist. Both of his homes—the original one, on Thirty Mile Creek, and the one near downtown Beamsville—are still intact. Jacob Beam (1723-1812), his wife Anna Catharine (Boughner) Beam (1737-1820) and their daughter Catharine (Beam) Merrell (1766-1842) and son-in-law Samuel Russell Merrell (1757-1835), emigrated to Canada from Hopewell, Sussex County, New Jersey in 1788, and founded Beamsville. By 1869, it was a village of 550 in the Township of Clinton, Lincoln County, on the Great Western Railway. In 1898, hockey players in Beamsville were the first to use a hockey net. In 1917 the Royal Flying Corps established a School of Aerial Fighting on the farmland immediately east of Beamsville. It consisted of a camp, an airfield, and a gunnery range over Lake Ontario. Today an historical plaque at 4222 Sann Road marks the geographical centre of the 300-acre school property. Adjacent to the plaque is an original hangar building. In 1970, the Town of Beamsville was amalgamated with Clinton Township and (half of) Louth Township to form the larger Town of Lincoln.