{{Short description|American politician (1894–1971)}}{{Use mdy dates|date=December 2025}} {{for|his son, also a representative and senator from Maryland|J. Glenn Beall Jr.}} {{Not to be confused with|text=Texas politician James A. Beall, or California politician James T. Beall}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = J. Glenn Beall | image = Jamesglennbeall.jpg | jr/sr1 = United States Senator | state1 = Maryland | party = Republican | alma_mater = Gettysburg College | term_start1 = January 3, 1953 | term_end1 = January 3, 1965 | preceded1 = Herbert O'Conor | succeeded1 = Joseph Tydings | state2 = Maryland | district2 = 6th | term_start2 = January 3, 1943 | term_end2 = January 3, 1953 | preceded2 = Katharine Byron | succeeded2 = DeWitt Hyde | office3 = Member of the Maryland Senate | term3 = 1930–1934 | birth_name = James Glenn Beall | birth_date = {{birth date|1894|6|5}} | birth_place = Frostburg, Maryland, U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|1971|1|14|1894|6|5}} | death_place = Frostburg, Maryland, U.S. | spouse = Margaret Schwarzenbach | children = 3, including Glenn and George | branch = United States Army | service_years = 1918–1919 | unit = Ordnance Corps | battles = }} '''James Glenn Beall''' (June 5, 1894 – January 14, 1971) was an American businessman and politician. A member of the Republican Party, he served as a U.S. representative (1943–1953) and a U.S. senator (1953–1965) from Maryland.
==Early life and education== J. Glenn Beall was born in Frostburg, Maryland, to Olin and Florence (née Glenn) Beall.<ref name=dictionary>{{cite book|title=Dictionary of American Biography, 1971-1975|year=1994|publisher=Scribner}}</ref> He was a descendant of Colonel Ninian Beall, who immigrated from Scotland in 1658 as an indentured servant and eventually became a wealthy landowner.<ref name=national>{{cite book|title=The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography|year=1960|publisher=James T. White & Company|location=New York}}</ref> His maternal grandfather served as a captain in the Confederate Army during the Civil War.<ref name=national/> As a child, Beall suffered from polio and underwent several operations before age 12; his left arm and leg were permanently withered.<ref name=dictionary/> He received his early education at public schools in Frostburg, and then studied at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania.<ref name=congress>{{cite news|work=Biographical Directory of the United States Congress|title=BEALL, James Glenn, (1894 - 1971)|url=http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=B000271}}</ref>
==Early business and political career== Beall briefly worked in a clerical capacity at the First National Bank of Frostburg.<ref name=national/> During World War I, he served in the United States Army Ordnance Corps (1918–1919), being discharged as a sergeant.<ref name=nytimes>{{cite news|date=1971-01-15|work=The New York Times|title=J. Glenn Beall, Former Senator From Maryland, Is Dead at 76}}</ref> He subsequently worked in the insurance and real estate business in Frostburg and Cumberland, establishing the Beall Insurance & Realty Company in 1919.<ref name=nytimes/>
Beall began his political career as a member of the Allegany County Road Commission, serving in that position from 1923 to 1930.<ref name=congress/> In 1926, he married Margaret Schwarzenbach (1900–2005), to whom he remained married until his death; the couple had three sons, including John Glenn Beall Jr. and George Beall.<ref name=obituary>{{cite news|date=2005-07-27|newspaper=The Washington Post|title=Beall, Margaret S.|url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/2005/07/27/beall-margaret-s/}}</ref><ref name="Sandomir">{{cite news|last1=Sandomir|first1=Richard|title=George Beall, Prosecutor Who Brought Down Agnew, Dies at 79|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/18/us/george-beall-dead-prosecuted-agnew.html?smid=pl-share|access-date=19 January 2017|work=New York Times|date=18 January 2017}}</ref> He served one term in the Maryland State Senate, where he represented Allegany County, from 1930 to 1934.<ref name=congress/> He then became a member of the Maryland State Roads Commission, serving as chairman from 1938 to 1939.<ref name=nytimes/>
==Congressional career== ===House=== In 1942, after Democratic incumbent Katharine Byron decided to retire, Beall was elected as a Republican to the U.S. House of Representatives from Maryland's 6th congressional district.<ref name=congress/> He defeated Democrat E. Brooke Lee, a former Speaker of the Maryland House of Delegates, by a margin of 59%-40%.<ref name=election>{{cite news|work=Clerk of the United States House of Representatives|title=Statistics of the Congressional Election of November 3, 1942|url=http://clerk.house.gov/member_info/electionInfo/1942election.pdf}}</ref> He was subsequently re-elected to four more terms. During his 10-year tenure in the House, he served on the committees on the District of Columbia, flood control, roads and public works.<ref name=nytimes/>
===Senate=== In 1952, following the retirement of Democratic incumbent Herbert O'Conor, Beall was elected to the U.S. Senate from Maryland.<ref name=congress/> He defeated Democrat George P. Mahoney, a former chairman of the State Racing Commission, by a margin of 52%-47%.<ref name=results>{{cite news|work=Clerk of the United States House of Representatives|title=Statistics of the Presidential and Congressional Election of November 4, 1952|url=http://clerk.house.gov/member_info/electionInfo/1952election.pdf}}</ref> His 449,823 votes were the largest number a Republican Senate candidate ever received in Maryland.<ref name=day>{{cite news|date=1971-01-14|work=The Day|title=Former Senator Beall Of Maryland Dies at 76}}</ref>
During his Senate career, Beall earned a reputation as a moderate Republican.<ref name=nytimes/> In 1954, he served as chairman of a subcommittee of the Senate Banking and Currency Committee that investigated a dramatic rise in coffee prices. He supported home rule for the District of Columbia, ceasefire with China, and the creation of a national institute for medical research. He also introduced legislation to create an Inland Navigation Commission, to permit voluntary non-sectarian prayer in public schools, and to turn White Sand Island off the Maryland coast into a federal recreation area.<ref name=nytimes/> Beall did not sign the 1956 Southern Manifesto, and voted in favor of the Civil Rights Acts of 1957,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/85-1957/s75|title=HR. 6127. CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1957.|work=GovTrack.us}}</ref> 1960,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/86-1960/s284|title=HR. 8601. PASSAGE OF AMENDED BILL.}}</ref> and 1964,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/88-1964/s409|title=HR. 7152. PASSAGE.}}</ref> as well as the 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/87-1962/s226|title=S.J. RES. 29. APPROVAL OF RESOLUTION BANNING THE POLL TAX AS PREREQUISITE FOR VOTING IN FEDERAL ELECTIONS.|work=GovTrack.us}}</ref>
Beall was narrowly re-elected in 1958 after defeating Democrat Thomas D'Alesandro Jr., the mayor of Baltimore and father of future House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, by a margin of 51%-49%.<ref name=result>{{cite news|work=Clerk of the United States House of Representatives|title=Statistics of the Congressional Election of November 4, 1958|url=http://clerk.house.gov/member_info/electionInfo/1958election.pdf}}</ref> However, he was heavily defeated in his bid for a third term in 1964; he lost to Democrat Joseph Tydings, the United States Attorney for the District of Maryland (a position Beall's son George later held from 1970 to 1975), by a margin of 63%-37%.<ref name=elections>{{cite news|work=Clerk of the United States House of Representatives|title=Statistics of the Presidential and Congressional Election of November 3, 1964|url=http://clerk.house.gov/member_info/electionInfo/1964election.pdf}}</ref> Beall's son, J. Glenn Beall Jr. in turn defeated Tydings for re-election in 1970. Maryland's other U.S. Senate seat had been held by Millard Tydings (the father of Joseph) from 1927 to 1951. As a consequence of this, Maryland was represented by a father and son of the Tydings family, and then a father and son of the Beall family, trading seats almost (with a break only from January 3, 1951 – January 3, 1953) consecutively from 1927 to 1977 (Tydings 1927–1951, Beall 1953–1965, Tydings 1965–1971, and Beall 1971–1977), when the chain was broken by the re-election defeat of J. Glenn Beall, Jr. in 1976 by Democrat Paul Sarbanes, the father of U.S. Representative John Sarbanes.
==Later life and death== Beall returned to Frostburg, where he resumed his insurance business. He also served as president of the League for Crippled Children of Allegany County, of the Cumberland Fair Association, and of the First National Bank of Western Maryland.<ref name=nytimes/>
Beall died at age 76, and is buried in the Frostburg Memorial Park.<ref name=congress/>
==References== {{reflist|30em}}
{{s-start}} {{s-ppo}} {{succession box |before= D. John Markey |title= Republican nominee for United States Senator from Maryland<br>(Class 1) |years= 1952, 1958, 1964 |after= J. Glenn Beall Jr.}} {{s-par|us-hs}} {{US House succession box | before=Katharine Byron | state=Maryland |district=6 || years=1943–1953 | after=DeWitt Hyde}} {{s-par|us-sen}} {{U.S. Senator box |before = Herbert O'Conor |state=Maryland|class=1 |years = 1953–1965 |after = Joseph Tydings|alongside=John Marshall Butler, Daniel Brewster}} {{s-end}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Beall, James Glenn}} Category:1894 births Category:1971 deaths Category:20th-century members of the Maryland General Assembly Category:American businesspeople in the insurance industry Category:American businesspeople in the real estate industry Category:United States Army personnel of World War I Category:Gettysburg College alumni Category:Republican Party Maryland state senators Category:Military personnel from Maryland Category:People from Frostburg, Maryland Category:Republican Party United States representatives from Maryland Category:Republican Party United States senators from Maryland Category:United States Army non-commissioned officers J. Glenn Category:20th-century United States senators Category:20th-century United States representatives