He was born in Wallingford, Connecticut. His father was a plain farmer, and gave him an ordinary education. He early showed a mechanical aptitude, and at 14 was apprenticed to a cabinetmaker. Before his term was up, he purchased his freedom and established a cabinet making business in Northampton, Massachusetts. The business failed, and he moved to Springfield. There he endeavored to manufacture a gunpowder engine for propelling balloons; but this enterprise was also a failure. He next attempted to open steam navigation on Connecticut river between Hartford and Springfield, and would have succeeded if financial difficulties had not obliged him to cease operations before his steamer was completed. He then invented a rag-cutting machine for paper mills. The invention was widely used, but Beach derived no pecuniary benefit due to his tardiness in applying for a patent. He then settled in Ulster County, New York, where he invested in an extensive paper mill. At first he was successful, and after six years was wealthy; but after seven years an imprudent investment dispersed his fortune, and he was compelled to abandon his enterprise. In the meantime though, he had married the sister of the founder and proprietor of the New York Sun, Benjamin Day. In 1835, he acquired an interest in the paper, then small, both in the size of its sheet and circulation. And with a $40,000 payment, he soon became sole proprietor. According to historian Elmo Scott Watson, Beach invented print syndication in 1841 when he produced a two-page supplement and sold it to a score of newspapers in the U.S. northeast. The Associated Press was organized in May 1846 by Beach, joined by the New York Herald, the New York Courier and Enquirer, The Journal of Commerce, and the New York Evening Express. The AP was formed by the five New York daily papers to share the cost of transmitting news of the Mexican–American War. During the War, U.S. President James K. Polk sent Beach to Mexico to arrange a treaty of peace; but the negotiations were broken off by a false report announcing the defeat of General Zachary Taylor by Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna. Beach retired in 1857 with an ample fortune, and left the paper to his sons. He then returned to Wallingford.
Personal life
Beach was married twice and left five sons, Moses Sperry, Henry, Alfred Ely, Joseph and William, and one granddaughter, Emmeline, who married the naturalist and artist Abbott Handerson Thayer. She was the daughter of Moses Sperry Beach. She and her father are described in Mark Twain's The Innocents Abroad.
