The Beale House

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Merchant John Morgan Beale (1865-1944) built a Victorian design house
 at 102 Main St. in Guyandotte. By the time this photo was taken
in the 1970s, the house’s stately wraparound
 front porch had been removed.

File photo | The Herald-Dispatch

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HUNTINGTON — Merchant John Morgan Beale (1865-1944) built a
 handsome Victorian house at 102 Main St. in Guyandotte. By the
 time this photo was taken in the 1970s, the house’s stately
wraparound front porch had been removed.

Beale had a dry goods store on the corner of Bridge and Main streets
 in Guyandotte and was one of the businessmen who organized
 Huntington’s Sehon, Blake & Co., a wholesale grocery
firm that operated in a storeroom on the south side
 of 3rd Avenue just east of the Davis Opera House.

Beale was a member of the Guyandotte Town Council. He
 and his wife were active members of the Guyandotte
 Methodist Episcopal Church — South.

In 1909, Guyandotte was given an opportunity to become part of the
City of Huntington, but her residents indignantly rejected the
opportunity. As if to emphasize that refusal, the following
year saw the town stage a mammoth Centennial
Celebration marking the 100th anniversary
 of its founding in 1810.

Beale was the president of the organization that planned
and carried out the celebration, which included a
parade, a barbecue, a mock battle and what
was said to be the biggest crowd ever
 assembled in the county.

But the idea of joining with Huntington persisted, and in 1911 Beale and the
other members of the Town Council decided to put the annexation
question to a vote of the people. On April 11, 1911, the council
met to canvass the results of that vote. The count showed
there had been 260 votes cast for the annexation
proposal and 70 against it. Whereupon the
council declared that henceforth
Guyandotte would be a part
of the City of Huntington,
 then adjourned sine die.

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Note:  This Article and picture appeared in the Herald-Dispatch Newspaper on June 21, 2022..

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