Published in The Garland Daily News on July 20, 1980, as part of a series by Betty Roberts
THE BEAVER AND MCCALLUM FAMILIES
In September 1960 Garland honored two of its pioneer families with the establishment of Beaver Elementary School, named for Edith McCallum Beaver.
The school, located at 3232 March Lane, has about 300 students in grades kindergarten-fifth and employs 20 professional teachers and five para-professionals under the direction of principal John Tucker.
The school was built on land originally owned by the A. J. Beaver family and later purchased by Charles McCallum of Dallas. McCallum eventually donated the land to the City of Garland.
Mrs. Beaver, who was born on January 13, 1877, and died October 13, 1957, at the age of 80, was the only daughter of William Augustus Josephus McCallum. She married James A. Beaver in the early 1900s and he died in 1961.
McCallum, who also had four sons, came here from South Carolina during the 1850s and settled in Pleasant Valley, where he raised cattle.
Of McCallum’s other children, Charles became a doctor in Sapulpa, Oklahoma; Claude served for more than 20 years as a district judge in Dallas County, and another boy became a game warden.
Edith attended elementary school and two girls finishing schools in Pleasant Valley. She became a skilled equestrian and won many prizes at fairs and horse shows.
When Edith married James E. Beaver early in this century, the couple settled on a farm in the Pleasant Valley area.
They later moved to Garland and lived for several years in the 300 block of South 11th Street. During this time, Mrs. Beaver worked as manager of a school cafeteria.
The Beavers purchased a farm near Wylie and lived there until the federal government bought the farm as part of the Lavon reservoir site.
Finally, the Beavers moved vback to Garland spent the reset of their lives at a house at 1204 Garland Avenue. Garland Federal Savings & Loan is now located where the house once stood.
James Beaver, a lifetime Garland resident, was the son of A. J. Beaver, who moved to Dallas County from Georgia.
A.J. Beaver, with partners, established a general merchandise store during the 1880s in Duck Creek. In 1891, Duck Creek and the small town of Embree united to create Garland (a history of the Garland names was printed July 13, 1980, in the “Newcomers” supplement to The Garland Daily News.)
At one location, Garland’s boundary line went “south to the northwest corner of J. Beaver’s block.”
A year later, Garland’s principal business was a store owned by Beaver and two other individuals.