Colonel Ninian Beall - Where was Ninian Beall buried?

Started by Erica Howton on Friday, September 26, 2014
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From http://www.krystalrose.com/kim/BEALL/ninian2.html

George Magruder Battey At a recent dinner party in Washington assembling a group of descendants of Col. Ninian Beall, Maryland pioneer, the question of where he was buried was animatedly discussed.  From the conclusions arrived at it would seem that this red-haired giant, who was reputedly six feet seven inches tall, possessed the unusual faculty of occupying several places at once.*

*The following quotation is from Sally Somerwell Mackally, Early Days of Washington, p. 48:  "In 1783 there were no public burying grounds.  Prominent families had private ones adjoining their homes.  Ninian Beall's lot was on Gay [N] street [Georgetown].  In recent years this lot has been built upon, and when the foundations were being dug... the body of Ninian Beall was removed.  His skeleton was found in perfect preservation, and measured six feet seven inches, and his hair which was very red had retained its natural color."  --En.

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But apparently this (untrue) legend was tracked down to source by the late Robert Lyle of the Georgetown Library:

See http://gloverparkhistory.com/geography/maps-places-features/land-tr...

And if the grandson Ninian who was probably buried there had red hair, what they dug up would not be good evidence of that Ninian's identity, because apparently everybody's hair turns red after death, especially in humid climates.
See http://chemistry.about.com/b/2013/02/27/haircolor-changes-after-you...

So we all become redheads? That's a little ...

Col. Ninian's profile picture has a lot of researchers crying "fake!" "impostor!" and "There never was a picture of Col. Ninian." Now I don't like that profile picture because his left cheek and jaw are drawn out in a long simple curve that looks wierd. But after seeing the version at http://blogs.weta.org/boundarystones/2013/07/18/strange-rock-george... I could be convinced some contemporary did draw a portrait of him. The source of the image on the Boundary Stones web page is the Historical Society of Washington, D.C.
When I tried to trace the source of the picture at the Historical Society's website, their online catalog says they have a portrait of Thomas Beall, grandson of Col Ninian and mayor of Georgetown in 1791. No mention of a portrait of the Colonel himself. This picture is at the museum and no online image was shown, so I don't know if this picture is the same one we see.

Anyway, the picture on the Boundary Stones web page looks much more realistic than the one used for Col Ninian's Geni profile.

I just reset the default image on the profile to another - provenance is not identified unfortunately.

The other images on the media tab seem to be versions of what was shared on http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=pv&GRid=25527218&...

I just added the Beall Tarten to his profile got to love the colors in it too.

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