Ralph Beaumont (b. 1844) was born in England and immigrated to Massachusetts about 1848. He was apprenticed to a shoemaker at the age of ten and practiced that trade until 1881 when he became a newspaper correspondent. In the 1870s Beaumont was a leader of the Utica, N.Y., Knights of St. Crispin, a national organization of shoemakers that had organized in Milwaukee in 1867. Although it was the largest labor organzation in the country between 1868 and 1871, the organization was out of business by 1878. Beaumont was also active in the Knights of Labor. A leader of Local Assembly 1965 of Elmira, N.Y., he represented KOL District Assembly 15 in several general assemblies and was elected to two terms as KOL grand worthy foreman (1878-79, 1882-83). Beaumont ran unsuccessfully on the Greenback-Labor ticket for |
the New York state senate in 1877 and for Congress in 1878. He served as chairman of the KOL's National Legislative Committee in the late 1880s and was a KOL lecturer in the early 1890s. In 1890 he became secretary of the Citizen's Alliance and represented that organization in the founding of the Confederation of Industrial Organizations in 1891. He also served on the executive committee of the National Reform Press Association. Beaumont accepted an appointment as a U.S. immigrant inspector in 1901 and served in various Canadian ports. |