Beazley, Harry Leslie, QTR MR SERG

Harry Leslie Beazley was born on October 5, 1877 on the farm of his parents, William Cline Beazley and his wife, Charlotte D Henry. Leslie, as he was called in the 1880 census, was born weeks before his father's 25th birthday. Delana, as his mother was called, was 21. He was their oldest child. The family lived on a farm near Forest City, in St. Francis County, Arkansas. The farm was located at a place known as Crowley's Ridge.

William Cline Beazley, was the oldest of ten children born to George Washington Beazley and Lucy F Michie. Census records show that William was born in Arkansas, his father is listed as born in South Carolina and his mother's birthplace as Tennessee. The same record indicates that Lucy was born in Louisana and lists both parents as natives of Tennessee.

Harry spent his first twenty years living on his father's farm. According to his widow, Harry wanted to go to medical school and his father refused to send him. He moved to Tampa, Florida in early 1898. He spent several months working as a bartender. He was good looking and much a "ladies man". He enlisted to go and fight in the Spainish-American War. Harry Leslie Beazley served in Company A of the First Regiment of Florida Volunteers and was honorably discharged on December 3, 1898 at the war's end, mustered out at Tallahassee, Florida.

Corporal Beazley returned to his father's farm after discharge and remained for about six months. Farm life did not suit Harry, having seen the world, he developed a taste for adventure and exotic lands. On July 27, 1899, Harry reenlisted in the US Army, assigned to Company B of the Thirty-third Infantry of the United States Volunteers.

During the next nineteen months, Harry Leslie Beazley served with honor. His discharge papers indicate that he obtained the rank of Quarter Master Sergeant and participated in a number of skirmishes and other actions involving the Boxer's Rebellion. He was a participate in bombardment and landing at San Jacinto under General Wheaton on November 11, 1899. Master Sergeant's Beazley's discharge was dated February 5, 1901 at Manila.

Harry Beazley joined the Manila Police Force (run by US Army) on February 12, 1901. Patrolman Beazley then joined the ranks of the Phillipine Constabulary being assigned duties at Leon, as of December 19th. Harry spent several years working for the Constabulary, being promoted to the rank of Captain and Inspector on March 26, 1906.

Captain Beazley married a Spainish woman named Irene Santa-Maria. She was a beautiful woman (there was a picture of her that Jennie Beazley had, that since her death has disappeared). She was an opera singer. Her devotion to Harry was less than that of her Spainish roots and was caught by Harry passing information to a local priest, who was passing the information on to rebels. He divorced her. According to Harry she had died by Octboer 1906. Among his stories of this period; one night he came in late and another soldier was drunk and asleep in his bed, he simply slept in the other soldier's bed and in the morning the other soldier had had his throat cut. He believed his wife was behind this attack, having separated from her.

Another story was about traveling with guides through the jungle and reaching an area that seemed disturbed. The guides were leading him to a covered pit with stakes, meant for him to fall in. He claimed he threw the guides in the pit and let them meet the death they had planned for him.

Captain Beazley submitted his resignation from the Constabulary on May 20, 1907. He was very ill and spent most of the year of 1907-1908 in the American Hospital in Manila. He was being treated for Tropical Sprue, which is essentially a form of dysentery. Harry would be affected with bouts of Sprue for the remainder of his life.

Over the next seven years, Harry Beazley held several positions in both the private sector and in civil service jobs in the Phillipines. He worked as an auditor at the Singer Sewing Machine Company in Manila. He also worked in several clerical positions for US Engineers Bureau at Carabas Island, the Bureau of Navigation and the Propery Division of the Bureau of Public Works in Manila. During this time he was treated several times for Sprue and Cholera. The tropical climate of the Phillipines, which he loved, was killing him.

He re-enlisted in the US Army on February 16, 1915, joining the Quarter Master Corps in Manila. Returning stateside, he was honorably discharged at Fort Winfield Scott, California on February 16, 1916, most likely due to health issues. It is believed being well respected among the goverment and military personnel, a few strings were pulled to get him stateside, due to health.

Harry went to work in February 1916 at the Hercules Powder Works in Hercules, California, across the bay from San Francisco. He would work here until leaving California on March 20, 1919. Sometime during 1916, Harry was introduced to Jennie Bullock Beazley, by a distant cousin, Grover Hornrine(sp?). They began a courtship by mail. At some point, Harry asked Jennie to marry him. She accepted, with the condition that he would pay for her return trip to North Carolina if she didn't like what she found. The young schoolteacher packed her bags and left for San Francisco. She must have liked what she found. They were married in San Francisco on December 6, 1916. They spent their honeymoon in San Franciso.

The couple settled in to domestic life. He worked at Hercules and she ran a small tobacco & sweets store. He reenlisted in August of 1917, but within days was disqualified due to health. He was deaf in his left ear and again was suffering from Sprue. Two months later, Harry marked his fortieth birthday.

The year 1918 brought the pandemic known as the Spainish Flu. It was brought back from Europe with the returning soldiers from the world war. According to Jennie Beazley, she was the only pregnant woman to survive in the county. She attributed her survival, solely to Harry's gentle care. She slowly recovered and Harry was starting to worry about his own health. In March 1919, Jennie and Harry relocated to her hometown of Stedman, NC. His first child was born May 14, 1919, Harry Jr. They moved in with her mother, Ellen Virginia Bryant. During this period Harry was unemployed. He was competing with much younger men returning from the war.

On April 20, 1919 things began to look up for the Beazley's when Harry found employment as a supply manager at Erwin Cotton Mills, Plant No. 2 located in the Harnett County town of Duke, NC (now Erwin). His second child, Lillian Maria was born July 8, 1921. Harry asked that she be named for a favorite schoolteacher, Lillian. The newfound happiness was short-lived as Harry's health continued to deteriorate and he would die at the State Hospital on November 21, 1921.

After burying her husband in the Bryant Family Cemetery, Jennie was left with less than one dollar in her purse and two small children to raise. She spent the next few months trying to obtain his Spainish American War Veteran's Pension. She would eventually obtain his benefits for her and her children and would collect this pension until her own death. A small home was built on her family land by the men in the community with lumber supplied by her brother-in-law, John Edward Hubbard. Her sister, Delia was his second wife.

In 1941, a grandson of John Edward Hubbard and his first wife Mary Bunce, married Harry and Jennie's daughter, Lillian. Jennie resided with them for the remainder of her life. She died in the home of Thurman and Lillian Hubbard on September 28, 1985, about two months before what would have been her ninety-sixth birthday.

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