Samuel F. Beede was born on February 6, 1840, in Dover, New Hampshire, to John Beede and Eliza Roberts. His father was a farmer who owned $1,000 of personal property by 1860. He probably grew up and attended school in Dover before moving to Sandwich, New Hampshire, in the summer of 1861.

 

He enlisted in the Union army on August 6, 1862, and he mustered in as a private in Company K of the 14^th New Hampshire Infantry on September 24. The regiment spent the winter of 1862-63 on picket duty along the Potomac River and spent most of 1863 on guard duty at the Old Capitol Prison. It took part in the Red River campaign and the Shenandoah Valley campaign. He eventually earned a promotion to corporal and then to sergeant. He was severely wounded in the Battle of Cedar Creek on October 19, 1864, and he spent the next several months recovering. He mustered out on May 24, 1865.

 

He returned to New Hampshire after leaving the army, and he enrolled at Dartmouth College in September 1865. He graduated three years later and worked as a teacher in Lyons, Wisconsin. He moved to Worcester, Massachusetts, around 1871 and spent three years teaching at the Highland Military Academy. He moved to Racine, Wisconsin, around 1874 and worked as a school principal there.

 

He married Belle Remington in August 1874, and they had two children: Harry, born on October 2, 1875; and Thad Sheridan, born on October 19, 1878. He applied for a federal pension in August 1881 and eventually secured one. They moved to Northfield, Minnesota, in the 1880s and then to Minneapolis, Minnesota, in the 1890s. He died in 1908.

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