William Beers was born, reared and educated in New Jersey, and removed to Sullivan County, Pennsylvania, where he followed the life of a farmer and there died. He married and had several children, including Jacob Beers, the father of Asa R. Beers, who was born on the old home place in New Jersey in 1809. His educational privileges were those afforded by the public schools. Throughout his active career he carried on agricultural pursuits in Carbon County, Pennsylvania, until after the Civil war. He lived latterly in Luzerne County, where he died in 1867. At the outbreak of the Civil War, he enlisted in Company E, Twenty-eighth Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteer lnfantry, and served with the Army of the Potomac until 1864, when the regiment was transferred to the west. He served with Sherman in the operations about Atlanta, and followed that great soldier on his famous March to the Sea. On September 17, 1862, he fought side by side with his son Jacob Beers, Jr. at the Battle of Antietam at the edge of the East Woods near the Cornfield. His son was wounded in the heel and was later discharged from the service. William Beers married Elizabeth Henry, of Sullivan County, who is also now deceased. They were the parents of eight children, of whom five sons followed the example of their sire and served with courage and fidelity in the army during the Civil War. The children were: John A., a retired farmer at Weatherly, Pennsylvania; Henry W., who served in the same company and regiment with his father; Wilson, who served in Company K. Eighty-first Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers; Pamilla; Anthony, who was captain of Company H, Eleventh Regiment, Pennsylvania Cavalry Volunteers; Jacob, who served in Company E, Twenty-eighth Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers.

Taken From: Historic Homes and Institutions and Genealogical and Personal; Volume 2, By John Woolf Jordan, Edgar Moore Green, George Taylor Ettinger