“I cannot end this account without paying tribute to Dr. David J. Beale, the pastor of the Presbyterian Church. During the whole time of the flood and afterward, he forgot himself in his care and ministering to us and our suffering people. Throughout that dreadful night in Alma Hall, he was incessant in his attentions, though his own wife and children were among the suffering multitude. By his kind, consoling words, by his calmness and self-control, by his fervent prayers, directing us to our only help in this time of trouble, he made it possible for us to endure the horrors of that night.” 

David was born the son of Joshua and Milly (Milliken) Beale on July 1, 1835 in the village of Honey Grove which is located about forty-five miles west-northwest of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. While he was a boy his father moved the household east to Mifflintown on the Juniata River. He was a student at Tuscarora Academy and for spiritual fellowship and worship he attended the Lost Creek Presbyterian Church, Old School. Matthew Allison, an immigrant from Scotland, was David’s pastor when at the age of seventeen he professed faith in Christ. Beale graduated Jefferson College in Canonsburg in 1861, then in the fall he began ministerial studies in nearby Western Theological Seminary but left after only a semester. His next venue for divinity education was Princeton Seminary in New Jersey, but he did not complete the program there either. Despite not having a seminary certificate in hand, he was licensed April 16, 1863 by the Presbytery of Huntingdon, Old School, and supplied the pulpit of Middle Tuscarora Presbyterian Church until ordained and installed the pastor August 11, 1864. The small community had a sizeable congregation with 347 communicant members, but Pastor Beale added to his ministry by supplying a mission in Peru Mills until it was organized in 1867. He left the state for the next two successive churches—the first call was for three years in St. George’s, Delaware, and the second was at the Light Street Church in Baltimore for eleven years ending September 3, 1883. Pastor Beale’s next ministry relocated him back across the Mason-Dixson Line in his Quaker State homeland.

When he was installed by the Presbytery of Blairsville in the Johnstown church, October 10, 1883, he could not have imagined the part he would play in the city’s history. At the time he began the call Johnstown was bustling with about 30,000 inhabitants and many of them worked for Cambria Iron Company. For the residents, noise, smoke, soot, and smells were a way of life. The Presbyterians enjoyed a good ministry among the residents with Pastor Beale’s congregation numbering nearly 400 members and an evangelist named David M. Miller was working to establish a second church. By 1888, Beale’s flock numbered 551 and Miller’s efforts were blessed with seventy members organized as the Conemaugh Presbyterian Church. Johnstown was growing with hopes for a continued prosperous future and the Presbyterians were increasing their ministry.

The Conemaugh Valley could be a rainy place during the spring. It was not unusual for Johnstown to have some flooding, but the spring of 1889 was different because there were record setting showers “sent on the just and the unjust” (Matthew 5:45). Up the valley about fourteen miles from Johnstown was a private organization named the South Fork Hunting and Fishing Club located on Lake Conemaugh. Among its members were prosperous businessmen from the Pittsburgh area who frequented the retreat for cool weather in summer and outdoor recreation. The lake was man-made. Its restraining dam was in poor shape at the time of its sale to the South Fork developers. The weakened structure was shored up, patched, and worried about, but nothing was done to properly rectify the situation. It was not an issue of money; the prosperous club members could have financed a dam reconstruction project.

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