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• While journeying to the territorial capital of Yankton in 1869, Beadle wrote in his memoirs that he told his traveling companion that the school lands "were the great trust of the future commonwealth and should be absolutely secured from waste and cheap sales."
• Beadle traveled throughout Dakota Territory and used every effort to impress upon people the importance of saving the school lands from falling into the hands of speculators. Beadle's philosophy was that the school lands should not be sold rapidly; that the land should be appraised by a responsible board of directors; that school land should not be sold for less than its appraised value and never less than $10 an acre; that sections that might contain minerals were not to be sold for less than their appraised values; and that all money raised from the sale of school lands be safely invested as a permanent school fund and only the interest from that fund could be used for operating schools.
• Beadle wrote the section into the state constitution that ensured that none of the school land could be sold for less than $10 an acre and that established a trust fund for education. Congress compelled other states which came into the union at the same time or later to include the same principles and provisions in their state constitutions regarding the school lands and permanent school funds.
• Beadle was appointed president of Madison State Normal School in August of 1889. A normal school was a school created to train high school graduates to be teachers. Its purpose was to establish teaching standards, or norms, hence its name. Beadle recognized the need for adequately trained teachers who would be able to handle rural children. Beadle served as the school's president for 16 years, and then continued as a history professor until 1912. The college was renamed General Beadle State Teachers College in his honor in 1947 and is now called Dakota State University.
• Beadle assisted in organizing the South Dakota Education Association. When the cornerstone of the state Capitol was dedicated on June 25, 1908, Beadle gave the address.
• Beadle was honored in his lifetime when a life-size marble statue of him was placed in the Capitol in Pierre. School children had contributed pennies and nickels to a fund promoted by the SDEA. Beadle was present at the dedication on Nov. 27, 1911. The Pierre Daily Capital-Journal reported after the program that "hundreds
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