Ephraim Beldam is living on a good farm on section 15, Bunker Hill Township, about one mile north of the city of Bunker Hill, at which place he recently settled and where he owns seventy acres of good land well improved. Dr. Beldam formerly lived in the city of Bunker Hill. He has lived in the county for fifteen years and has owned different farms and conducted them successfully. Dr. Beldam came to Bunker Hill from Kansas City where he was variously engaged during eight years in the poultry and egg business and dealing for a time in horses.
Dr. Beldam is a native of England, born in Cambridgeshire at Staunton, March 29, 1841. His father, Thomas Beldam, was born in England and was a dealer in swine and successful in that line. The father married an English lady, Ann Smith. After the birth of part of the fancily Thomas Beldam, wife and children left London in 1848, on a sailing vessel. They were out at sea five weeks and five days, landing in New York City and thence coming to Cleveland, Ohio, where they lived for some years. coming later to Englewood, Chicago, in about 1860. It was here that the father and mother died, the former from a cancer when just fifty-five years of age. The latter died some years later at about sixty years of age. Mr. Beldam was a Methodist in belief and the mother a Baptist. Our subject was a boy of only about seven years when his parents came to the United States and he reached his majority after they had settled in Chicago. Ill. He was here a horse-dealer, baying and selling. He has a brother George in the city of Chicago who is a prominent liveryman. owning two stables. Another brother, Thomas, is also a prominent horse-dealer. The subject of this sketch was married in Bunker Hill to Miss Sophronia H. Sherwood. She was born October 7, 1850, in the American Bottoms, Madison County, Ill., and was the youngest of the family. With her uncle Eastman T. Irish, she moved to Bunker Hill, Macoupin County. Here she was reared, and educated at Greenville College. She is now the mother of one child, Bertha, who lives at home and is a bright and accomplished young woman. Mrs. Beldam is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Mrs. Beldam’s parents died when she was young and she knows nothing of their history.