Stanley Yale Beach papers

Stanley Yale Beach, an American inventor, descended from a prominent family of noted inventors, engineers, and publishers in New York and Connecticut. His great-grandfather was Moses Yale Beach (1800-1868), an inventor, publisher of the New York Sun, and founder of the Associated Press. His grandfather was Alfred Ely Beach (1826-1896), for fifty years the editor and publisher of the journal Scientific American, though best remembered for two of his inventions, a Braille typewriter for the blind and the Beach Pneumatic Railway, the first subterranean transit system in New York City. His father was Frederick Converse Beach (1848-1918), an 1868 graduate of the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale University, a New York patent attorney, photographer, founding editor of the journal American Amateur Photographer, publisher and editor of Scientific American, and editor-in-chief of the Encyclopedia Americana.

Stanley Yale Beach was born on July 9, 1877, in Stratford, Connecticut, to Frederick and Margaret Gilbert Beach. Like his father, he attended the Sheffield Scientific School, graduating in 1898, and afterward developed a lifetime interest in aeronautics, engineering, and inventing. In 1897 Beach eloped with Helen Birdseye Curtis, a student at Wellesley College and a resident of Stratford, where the couple settled and raised their children Frederick, Alfred, and Margaret. Even though he had a career as first "Automobile Editor" and then "Aeronautic Editor" of Scientific American, Beach appears to have been primarily supported by income from a trust set up by his father in 1914, and by checks received periodically from his mother. During the week Beach operated out of the Beach Building at 125 East 23rd Street in New York City, and from there ran various entrepreneurial enterprises such as the Beach Engineering Company, the Beach Laboratories, the Scientific Aeroplane Company, and associations including the Aero Science Club. Also during the week and in New York, Beach maintained an apartment and a secret second family: his paramour Marie Danner, also known as Caroline Watson, and their daughter Winifred, also known as Marguerite. Helen Beach was aware of her husband's infidelity from Winifred's birth in 1908, but refused his request to grant him a divorce so that he might marry Marie and allow Winifred to be legally recognized in the Beach family inheritance his other children would receive. His wife, sister, son, and other family members collaborated to suspend Beach's trust payments when the affair became public in 1925, and when Beach subsequently took them to court, the proceedings were covered in the New York newspapers with headlines such as "Stirs Skeleton of Blue Bloods." Stanley and Helen Beach were divorced in 1928 and he married Marie Danner on June 14 of that year.

Although he fell out with most of the members of his family over his finances and life choices, Beach maintained a good relationship with his wealthy aunt, Jennie Beach Gasper, who was one of his trustees. He was also a favorite of his grandmother, Harriet Holbrook Beach, who had developed a great interest in Spiritualism. Within a year of her husband Alfred's death Harriet Beach married a medium, Henry Richardson Rogers, in Alexandria, Egypt, and soon after her two children, upon finding that their mother had signed their late father's significant fortune over to Rogers, began legal proceedings to declare her mentally incompetent; they succeeded, and the marriage was annulled in May 1899. A quarter-century later, Stanley Yale Beach also took an interest in Spiritualism and formed a friendship with the blind New York clairvoyant Vesta la Viesta, known for her detailed public presentations on her journeys to Mars and Venus. He appears to have worked as a secretary to her, and used the verso of her letterhead to make carbon copies of his outgoing correspondence.

Stanley Yale Beach died in New City, New York, on July 13, 1955.

Principal correspondents are underlined.

Moses Yale Beach (1800-1868) m. Nancy Day

- -1 Alfred Ely Beach (1826-1896) m. 1847 Harriet Eliza Holbrook (1828-1905)

- -- -- 2 Frederick Converse Beach (1848-1918) m. 1875 Margaret Allen Gilbert (1848-1932)

- -- -- -- 3Stanley Yale Beach (1877-1955) m. 1897-1928 Helen Birdseye Curtis (1878-1947)

- -- -- -- -- - 4Frederick Converse Beach (1898-1940) m. 1934 Matilda Florence Sparling (1911-1941)

- -- -- -- -- - 4 Alfred Birdseye Beach (1899-1985) m. ca. 1929 Alice Elizabeth Perkins (1901-1978)

- -- -- -- -- - 4 Margaret Stanley Beach (1901-1983) m. 1933 Elwyn Moore Deakins (1905-1986)

- -- -- -- - m. 2nd 1928 Marie Danner [also known as Caroline Watson] (1888-1961)

- -- -- -- -- - 4 Winifred [also known as Marguerite] (1908-2002) m. 1933 Leonard Martin

- -- -- -- 3 Alfred Gilbert Beach (1879-1890)

- -- -- -- 3 Ethel Holbrook Beach (1886-1937) m. 1909 James Albert Wales (1879-1970)

- -- -- -- -- - 4 James A. Wales Jr. (1913-1985)

- -- -- -- -- - 4 Richard B. Wales (1917-2009)

- -- -- -- -- - 4 Nancy Holbrook Wales (b. 1927) m. 1947 Gordon Douglas Swaffield (1919-2003)

- -- -- 2Jennie Holbrook Beach [called "Tante"] (1850-1932) m. 1896 Marquis Cossitt Gasper (d. 1908)