JAMES BEATTY, one of the pioneers of Minnesota, is a native of Fairfield county, Ohio, born on the 27th of April, 1816. When James was fourteen years old, the family removed to Cass county, Michigan, where he remained until twenty-one years of age. He then settled on a claim in Iowa, where he resided until 1840, after which, he managed the farms of the Winnebago Indians at Fort Atkinson, until coming to Minnesota in 1848. After a short stay in St. Paul, he accompanied a party to Crow Wing, and soon after located an Indian Agency at Long Prairie, Todd county. In December of the same year, he bought a trading post at Sauk Rapids, which he conducted till the fall of 1849, when, in company with T. A. Holmes, he opened a trading post at Itasca, about seven miles above Anoka. In 1855, he left Itasca and took charge of a trading post in Blue Earth county, for Mr. Myrick, which he continued until 1860. He then returned to Itasca, but soon after, engaged in the mercantile business, in Dayton, Hennepin county, which he disposed of in 1869, and came to Sauk Rapids, where he has since been engaged in the hotel business. He was a member of the territorial legislature in 1851, 1853 and 1854; was County Commissioner of Benton county, from 1849 to 1855, and again in 1878. Mr. Beatty was united in marriage with Eliza Foscett, of New York City, in 1854. Of six children born to them, but three are living; James B., Margaret U., and Ella L.

History of the Upper Mississippi Valley (1881) pp. 344-5 [Sauk Rapids]