No. 5. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 291 



Probably the most distinctive attribute of General Beaver's char- 

 acter, if, indeed, it were not its very keynote, was his exalted con- 

 ception of the duty, and more particularly the joy, of service; ser- 

 vice to his family, service to his neighbors, service to his town, his 

 State, his country, and service to his Lord. Only those who knew 

 him best realized the keen delight he felt in doing something for 

 somebody or even anything for anybody. However arduous may 

 have been any duty required of him, whatever may have been the dif- 

 ficulties of any task assigned him, he undertook it with undaunted 

 courage and large faith and its accomplishment, if accomplishment 

 were possible in the best way and to the best purpose for which his 

 physical, mental and moral powers equipped him, was certaftn. 

 Whether, as a second lieutenant, drilling the "awkward squad" of the 

 "Bellefonte Fencibles" before the outbreak of the Civil War; as a 

 colonel guarding the cross roads at Spottsylvania Courthouse, or as 

 a general fighting his brigade and losing his leg at Ream's Station; 

 whether as councilman or burgess of his home town or as Chief Exe- 

 cutive of his native State, financing the relief of the Johnstown 

 Flood victims; whether as a prep student at the Pine-Grove Mills 

 Academy, as member of the graduating class of Washington College, 

 or Chairman of the Governing Board, and sometime acting President 

 of Pennsylvania's great State College; whether as a student at law 

 in the office of his future father-in-law or a dispenser of justice from 

 the Appellate Court of his State; whether teaching in his home 

 Sunday school, counseling the Y. M. C. A., serving as ruling elder 

 of his own congregation or moderating the National General As- 

 sembly of his loved Presbyterian Church ; the same cheerful spirit, 

 optimistic energy and absolute integrity of purpose, spurred him to 

 give the very best service of Avhich he was capable. He represented, 

 whether as ''Farmer," "General," "Governor," or "Judge," the 

 highest type of American citizenship devoted to service. 



It was not the least of the many distinctions which came to this 

 all-round man, nor was it the one which he least esteemed, that from 

 the time he was commissioned lieutenant of the "Belief onte Fen- 

 cibles," in the late fifties, by the then Governor Packer, who was 

 himself a native of Centre county, until for the last time in his note- 

 worthy career, he received re-appointment as member of this body 

 from Governor Tener, he held a commission for every Governor of 

 the State, excepting of course, himself. By the commission as Gov- 

 ernor, received direct from the people, he automatically became, for 

 the first time, a member of this body. His after service on the Board 

 began with a commission from Governor Stone and was followed 

 by those of Governor Pennypacker, Governor Stuart and Governor 

 Tener, which latter remained in force until the Grim Reaper brought 

 him his final commission, commanding him to "Come up higher." 



It is by warrant of these commissions that we memorialize hira 

 to-day. These appointments and the commissions they carried with 

 them, were by no means complimentary; for be it known that as a 

 farmer, in his private life, a practical farmer of his own farm, he 

 was governed by the same characteristics that exhibited themselves 

 in all his work, whether as soldier, executive or judge. His large 

 abilities and fine successes as a practical farmer were the efficient 

 reasons for his several appointments as our earnest and efficient col- 

 league. That high conception of the duty of service which governed 



