Beatty was named after the Reverend Alfred Chester, a distant relative on his father's side who collected stamps, minerals, and trinkets from around the world. When Chester died, he left his collection to be divided equally among the Beatty brothers; but neither of the older boys had much interest in it, and by some shrewd exchanges Chester Beatty acquired nearly all of it.
Beatty received his early education at Westminster School in Dobbs Ferry, New York. When he was fifteen, he was taken on as a protégé by an acquaintance of his father's, John C. Randolph of Morristown, New Jersey, a prospector for gold, diamonds, emeralds, and other metals who worked mainly for the London Exploration Company. In 1893 he enrolled at Princeton University, which did not offer a mining degree but did have a course in civil engineering. The following year he moved to the Columbia University School of Mines, where he was at the top of his class in every subject except geology (in which he was second). In June 1898, after earning a master's degree in enginerring from Princeton, he set off to Colorado to seek his fortune.
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