Fred Beil was born in 1866 at the Soule Settlement, Angola, Indiana, the son of Henry and Cynthia Beil.

Mary Gilbertson, the daughter of Gilbert and Carrie Gilbertson, was born in 1873. She married Fred Beil in 1892 at Oriska, North Dakota.

Fred Beil's mother died when he was very young so he lived with his mother's brother, David Soule, and wife Marilla until 1884, when Fred was 15 years old. In 1894 Fred, his father, Henry, and four sisters traveled to Dakota Territory where he farmed with his father on the homestead near Oriska until December, 1898.

Fred and Mary Beil had 13 children: Cynthia (Mrs. William Wolski), Emma (Mrs. Rich Eggert), Henry (who married Mrs. Anne Kerbough), Viola (Mrs. Fred Priebe), Lillie (Mrs. John Schulz), John (who married Mayme Eggert), Frank (who married Margaret Jones), David (who married Edna Bontrager), Fred (who married Margaret Lipke), Murlie (Mrs. Clair Cruff), Cliff, the youngest (who married Helen Robel).

The children attended a one-room school located on the corner of the farm that is now the Conrad Hoff farm. Two teachers at this school remembered by one of the daughters, Murlie, were Viola Kranz and Mabel Montgomery. Murlie and Fred, Jr. graduated from Noltimier, while the other children dropped out of school to take jobs.

Fred Beil farmed with oxen, "Ned and Charlie," and a walking plow. The oxen yoke hung in the Beil pump house for years before it was thrown away and no one realized the value it would earn with time.

After Fred's death, July 3, 1928, his eldest son, Hank, took over the family farm. Hank's mother lived there until he was married when she moved to Valley City and lived until her death, August 17, 1945.

Source: Barnes County History 1976 Page 25