Samuel Beaton
Somhairle Iain Alasdair
(1834 - 1913)

Somhairle Iain Alasdair | Sam Beaton was born March 15, 1834 in Isle of Skye, Scotland to Jonathan Beaton and Margaret MacDonald. At age ten, he emigrated to Whycocomagh, Inverness County with his parents in 1844. He first married Catriona Bain of Big Bras d'Or in 1859 and they had three children. Catriona died in 1866 and he later married Anna MacLeod in 1869.

He was a coal miner and lived and worked in Broad Cove, the Sydney area, and Thorburn. Sam was a bard and his songs can be found in in MacTalla and the Angus Stephen Beaton Collection. His best seller was "The Ostentatious Trousers" written about his work on the pump at Victoria Mines.

Sam died at age 79 on March 1, 1913 at the home of his daughter Lydia and son-in-law Alexander MacDonald in New Aberdeen, Cape Breton County, where he had been staying.