James Hugh Beed was born in England in 1835. He settled in Hampton, Iowa in 1856. Beed enlisted in the Fourth Iowa Cavalry as a private and rose to quartermaster sergeant before being discharged in August 1864. He joined his brother William in a firm selling dry goods. Beed was an active member of the local G.A.R. James W. McKenzie Post. He was a member of the Hampton Old Settler association, the National Railroad Commissioners, and Methodist Episcopal Church. He served two terms as Franklin County recorder just after the Civil War. In 1870 he married Charlotte Lyman and they had a daughter Lottie. Lottie married William A. Rohlf and lived in Waverly, where her parents joined her. Charlotte L. Beed died in 1917, and James in 1921.
From the description of Beed, James H. papers, 1804-1951, bulk 1861-1919. (Iowa Sate Historical Society). WorldCat record id: 48218113
