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WILLIAM R. BEAL, president of the Newburgh Light, Heat and Power Company, was born in Newark, N. J., in 1838.
His father, Joseph Reynolds, a gentleman by birth and education, and his mother, Elizabeth Austen, came to this
country from England about 1830.
Left an orphan at an early age, he first engaged in a fifteen hour a day business for nearly two years and then
commenced his career with gas companies. His experience in the latter line of business was with the Newark, N.
J., Gas Light Co. and then with the gas company at Elizabeth. In 1855 he became manager of the Yonkers Gas Light
Co., leaving it in 1866 to take the same position in the territory now known as the Twenty third Ward, New York
City. In 1870 he organized the company and built the works now controlling the sale of gas in the Twenty fourth
Ward, New York City. In 1895, and as president of these companies, he sold them to the New Amsterdam Gas Company
of New York City, now controlled by the Consolidated Gas Company, New York City.
While living in the Twenty third Ward, he was actively identified in church and Sunday schools and church construction
and management, and for twelve years with the public school system of New York as trustee and chairman.
Mr. Beal was president of the American Gas Light Association in 19o2, and is now a trustee and treasurer of its
educational fund. In two he became president of the Newburgh Light, Heat and Power Co., and a little later of the
Poughkeepsie L, H. & P. Co. His policy throughout his career of more than half a century with gas enterprises
has been to use the best manufacturing and distributing apparatus and to give the best possible service at equitable
rates.
For many years Mr. Beal has been largely identified with real estate and building operations and in the organization
and management of incorporated enterprises. He is a warden of Holy Trinity Church, New York, is an officer of Christian
associations, a Free Mason and a Grand Army man, as well as a member of several clubs, church and benevolent institutions.
In 1863 Mr. Beal was united in marriage to Eleanor Louise Bell. Their living children, Reynolds and Gifford are
artists, Thaddeus R. is manager of the Poughkeepsie L., H. & P. Co., Albert R. is manager of the gas department,
Newburgh L., H. & P. Co., Mrs. Charles E. Acker and Miss Mary Reynolds Beal.
From:
The History of Orange County New York
Edited by: Russel Headley
Van Deusen and Elms, Publishers
Middletown, N. Y. 1908
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