David Beaty was born in Beaver county, Pa., on the 26th day of October, 1811. His paternal ancestry is derived from Scotland. His grandfather, William Beaty, emigrated from Scotland to Newburg, on the Hudson, in New York State, and thence removed to Beaver county, in this State, nearly eighty years ago. He had a family of three daughters and four sons, of the latter of whom William, jr., the eldest, was the father of David Beaty. William, the younger, was born in Newburg, N. Y., in 1764; could distinctly remember having seen Washington; served in the War of 1812, being stationed at Erie to protect the country from an apprehended invasion of the enemy, and died at his home in Beaver county on the 5th of June, 1859. He was a farmer by occupation, a Democrat of the old school, and a consistent member of the Presbyterian Church. His wife, Mary, had four brothers and three sisters, the children of David Clark, of Irish birth and parentage. He was a giant in stature, measuring six feet two and one-half inches in his stockings. He died in Beaver county about the year 1822. Mary (Clark) Beaty died in the summer of 1868, of palsy.

William and Mary Beaty reared a family of seven sons and six daughters. Of this family of thirteen children, David Beaty was the sixth. Just previous to his nineteenth birthday David Beaty came to Chautauqua county, N. Y., where he remained at work on farms for four years, removing, at the expiration of that time, to Tionesta, Warren county, Pa. There he engaged in lumbering in the forests for a period of five years, when he went to West Hickory, near Tidioute, and was married November 16, 1843, to Abigail Mead, youngest daughter of Joseph Mead; uniting the labors of a farmer with those of his former vocation. At the beginning of the oil excitement, more than twenty years ago, he commenced his operations in petroleum on Oil Creek, eight miles south of Titusville. This occupation gradually assumed larger proportions, and in time absorbed Mr. Beaty's entire time and attention. The material result, however, has been most gratifying. The boy who left home with one dollar and seventy-five cents in his pocket, and with venturesome daring, walked 130 miles to the destination which he had selected as the field for his labors, was bound to succeed, and has succeeded beyond his original calculations. After erecting and furnishing the buildings in which he now lives, Mr. Beaty removed hither from West Hickory on the 11th of March, 1873.