The Biographical Dictionary of America/Beach, Moses Yale

​BEACH, Moses Yale, publisher, was born at Wallingford, Conn., Jan. 7, 1800. He learned the business of cabinet making, and failed in establishing a manufactory at Northampton, as he did also in his effort at steamboat building at Springfield, Mass. Soon after he made an attempt to propel balloons by gunpowder explosion, and to establish a line of steamers between Springfield and Hartford. He then engaged in the business of paper-making, to which he was able to make a valuable addition by inventing a rag-cutting machine, which was adopted in many paper-mills. After delays in obtaining a patent he realized enough from his invention to enable him to purchase a paper-mill in Ulster county, N.Y., which was not successful. In 1835 he secured an interest in the New York Sun. In the course of a few years he gained complete control of the paper, from which he realized considerable wealth. In 1846 President Polk sent Mr. Beach to Mexico to arrange a treaty of peace, but this commission failed, by reason of a false rumor of the defeat of General Taylor by Santa Anna. In 1857 Mr. Beach retired from active work as publisher of the New York Sun, and returned to Wallingford, where he died July 19, 1868.