Billy Beal

William Sylvester Alpheus Beal (16 January 1874 – 25 January 1968) was a Canadian sawmill engineer. Beal was one of the first Black settlers to move to Manitoba and lived in Swan River Valley for almost sixty years, homesteading property there after his arrival in 1906. Among his many interests were book collecting and photography; his photographs have attracted attention for their artistic merit as well as being a record of pioneer life in rural Manitoba around 1920.