Oliver Sturgis Beers was born January 27, 1819, in Augusta, Georgia to Jonathan Sturges Beers and Cornelia Rebecca Walker. He was the grandson of William Pitt Bears and Anna (Sturges) Bears and the gr-grandson of Jonathan Sturges, (Aug. 23, 1740 Fairfield, Conn. – October 4, 1819 Fairfield, Conn.) a Delegate and a Representative from Connecticut who sat in the Continental Congress (1774-1787) and 1st and 2nd U. s. Congresses 1789-1793, and who married Deborah Lewis.
Oliver was the gr-gr-grandson of Samuel and Abigail (Bradley) Surges of Fairfield, Connecticut and the gr-gr-grandson of Peter and Hannah (Jennings) Sturges of Fairfield, Connecticut and the gr-gr-grandson of Jonathan Sturges (b. 1650-d. 1711 from Fairfield, Connecticut.
Oliver married Amelia Eliza Hogan.(1821-1907). The family moved to Mobile, Alabama by the 1850 census.
Possible children of Oliver and Amelia Eliza (Hogan) Beers according to the census were:
Harris Walker Beers (b. Nov. 20, 1857, Mobile, AL -Oct 20, 1920, New Orleans, LA)
Oliver Sturgis Beers died 1882 and is buried in Magnolia Cemetery in Mobile, Alabama along with his wife Amelia E. (Hogan) Beers (b. 1821-1907) and some of his children.
The following was recorded of him by Rufus Willis Cobb in the C Proceedings of the Grand Lodge of Alabama, 1882
“This occasion, however, is saddened by the fact, that we find one chair vacant heretofore promptly and regularly filled by one whose zeal in the causes of Masonry left nothing undone which his energy and ability could accomplish. I allude to our lamented brother Oliver S. Beers, who for many years past so efficiently and intelligently discharged the laborious duties of chairman of the Committee on Foreign Correspondence; and who died in Columbus, Mississippi, on the 10th day of November last. (1882)
Brother Beers was essentially philanthropic, philosophical, and progressive. He believed that every individual had a duty to perform and a mission to fulfill, and he lived up to his belief by permitting nothing to cause him to swerve from an honest and faithful discharge of every day incumbent upon him. The research, profoundness of thought, and elegance of diction, manifested by his masonic correspondence gave evidence of much cultivation and a mind stored with valuable and useful information concerning our Order, and secured for him an enviable reputation with all the Grand bodies with which he had official correspondence.”
To the Most Worshipful Grand Lodge of Alabama:
Your committee to whom was assigned the duty of preparing a suitable tribute of Respect to the memory of our late Brother Oliver S. Beers, beg leave to report that, the M. W. Grand Master in his address has, so feelingly, and so fully alluded to the life and Masonic virtues of our deceased brother, that we shall content ourselves by submitting the following:
IN MEMORIAM
Brother Oliver Sturges Beers was born in Augusta, Georgia, on the 27th day of January, 1819, and died November 10th 1882 in Columbus, Mississippi., where he had recently gone on a business errand.
He was “Initiated, Passed and Raised, “ in Howard Lodge No. 69, at Mobile, Alabama, February 1st, 23d, and March 11th 1848, respectively, where he remained an active, working member until his death-thirty-four years and eight months.
During his long Masonic life, his zeal for the institution of Freemasonry and its teachings never waned, but seemed to grow stronger and stronger until his death. Whether as Master, in which capacity he served his Lodge many years, or as private member, his energies were always employed in the interest in his Lodge, and the welfare of the widow and the orphan. His ear was never closed to the cry of the distressed, nor his purse to the appeals of the needy. Therefore –
Resolved, That in the death of brother Oliver Sturges Beers, this Grand Lodge has lost an active and useful member, and the Masonic Fraternity, a beloved and honored brother and a friend; and that a page in the proceedings of this Grand Lodge be set apart to his memory.
Fraternally submitted, DANIEL SMITH,
Chairman
SOURCES
1.1850, 1860, 1870, 1880 census Mobile, Alabama, US census
2. Sons of the American Revolution – Louisiana 83335
