David E. Beegle and Virginia E. Davis

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Husband David E. Beegle ¹

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           Born: 11 Oct 1877 - Pleasant Valley, Bedford Co, PA 2
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         Father: John H. Beegle (      -Aft 1918) 1
         Mother: Ann Bonar (Abt 1854-1906) 1

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       Marriage: 14 Jun 1906 - New Kensington, Westmoreland Co, PA 3

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Wife Virginia E. Davis ^{3 4}

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         Father: James J. Davis (      -      ) 4
         Mother: Rachel McAnulty (      -      ) 4

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Children

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1 M Darwin Wendell Beegle ³

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           Born: 1911 3
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2 F Helen Elizabeth Beegle ³

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           Born: 1915 3
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General Notes: Husband - David E. Beegle

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He grew to manhood at his native place, and as a boy attended the local public schools. He graduated from the township high school at the age of seventeen. Immediately after graduation he secured a clerical position in the drug store of M. P. Heckerman in the neighboring town of Bedford, Pennsylvania, and continued so employed for some three years. During that time he gained a rudimentary knowledge of drugs and their uses and he determined to study and fit himself to engage in the business independently. Accordingly he left his position and entered the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, at Philadelphia, where, after the usual course, he was graduated with the class of 1902. He then returned to southwest Pennsylvania and made his home for a time at Apollo, securing there a position as manager of the drug concern of H. I. Carnahan. For seven months he remained with Mr. Carnahan and then left him to accept the position of manager of the John Read & Son Pharmacy of Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, filling this place for three years. He exercised the strictest frugality and thrift during this period, saving up for the future all of his earnings that were not essential to maintain himself. Finally, in 1905, he saw his opportunity to come to New Kensington, Pennsylvania, and engage in business there. In December of that year he purchased a place on Ninth street from D. B. Kahle, and over time built up a large and important business. The Ninth Street Pharmacy, as it is popularly known, became one of the oldest and best known establishments of its kind in the district, and was patronized not only by many of the people of New Kensington but by those from the outlying regions.
After coming to New Kensington he identified himself in every manner with the progress and development of the young and thriving community. Socially and in the matter of religion Mr. Beegle was prominent, as well as in the business world, but, perhaps, it was in the matter of the educational system there that he did his most distinctive work. For the seven years between 1908 and 1915 Mr. Beegle served on the New Kensington School Board, and for two of these years served as president of that body. It was during the period of his membership on the board that a handsome high school building was erected there. In addition to the erection of this fine building with its many facilities, there were also introduced many radical improvements in the system of study, which were largely the result of Mr. Beegle's endeavors in behalf of the community. Greater efficiency in the teaching staff was insisted on to correspond with the higher aims of the School Board, better and more modern equipment was installed and the whole curriculum systematized and standardized. Another improvement introduced by Mr. Beegle and his associates in this period was the establishment of vocational training courses for the benefit of those who did not seek for professional courses at university or college.
In spite of the fact that his father had been the most staunch of Democrats all his life, the son, for a number of years, supported the Republican candidates and platforms so far as national politics were concerned. In local affairs he disregarded partisan considerations altogether. Later, however, his intense admiration for and his belief in President Woodrow Wilson, caused him to cast his lot with the new Democracy as led by that most potent personality. He felt intensely that freedom and democracy and all the great ideals for which the civilized nations of the world were battling so fiercely with the huge peril that came out of Prussia, nowhere found their expression with such force and trenchancy as upon the tongue of Woodrow Wilson. It was one of the chief articles of Mr. Beegle's faith that God created the world for all His children and not for a favored few, and he believed that the democratization of the world was as important and necessary as any object of religion and as essential to the happiness of mankind. It is these considerations that have led Mr. Beegle to place himself squarely behind Mr. Wilson and to support with word and act his administration.
Mr. Beegle was a man of wide and keen sympathies, which found expression in many benevolences and charitable deeds, carried on, however, most quietly and without any ostentation. One fruitful field of this kind of work was among the poorer children of the city. He made a careful study of the causes which kept children from attending school regularly during his membership on the School Board and discovered that it was frequently due to lack of footwear and other suitable clothing. It then became his effort to alleviate all such cases of want, and a great deal of this good work he did personally so that there were many poor families in the region who had reason to be grateful for his aid.

1 Fenwick Y. Hedley, Old and New Westmoreland, Vols. III & IV (New York, NY: The American Historical Society, Inc., 1918), Pg 1101.

2 Fenwick Y. Hedley, Old and New Westmoreland, Vols. III & IV (New York, NY: The American Historical Society, Inc., 1918), Pg 1102.

3 Fenwick Y. Hedley, Old and New Westmoreland, Vols. III & IV (New York, NY: The American Historical Society, Inc., 1918), Pg 1103.

4 John W. Jordan, History of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, Genealogical Memoirs, Vol. III (Chicago, IL: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1906), Pg 55.