| Notes |
- Elizabeth's family moved into the same township as the Beck family when they came to Wabash County, Indiana, from Ohio and in 1850 the Becks, Harkriders, and Millers lived in close proximity. Alfred came from a German family as did Elizabeth and neither of their mothers were literate. However, both their mothers left wills, not common for even literate women in the 1870's and 1880's. Alfred's mother only left him $1.00 and one wonders if that was because he was the only one of her six children to leave Wabash County. The birth places of Alfred and Elizabeth's children reflect the family's moves. Their first child Mary was born in Indiana, the next three were born in Michigan, and the last was born in Missouri. after they. Following Elizabeth's parents to Cass County, Michigan, Elizabeth and Alfred lived in Penn Township, Cass County, saving enough money to buy a farm within a mile or two them on 30 October 1858. Their 160 acre farm straddled sections 8 and 9, while Elijah and Mary's 160 acres was in section 17 of Howard Township. A year and a half later they raised some cash by selling a 20 acre piece.
The Beck children played with their nearby cousins because their widowed Aunt Anna and her four children were living with their grandparents. Sisters Elizabeth and Anna each had a daughter Mary, both girls named for their grandmother and great-grandmother. When Aunt Anna remarried in 1861, all three families must have contemplated moving together. Deed records suggest that Elijah sold his land first after the harvest in 1861. The Becks did not sell their remaining 140 acres until 9 January 1862. It is not likely the family group would have begun traveling to their next destination in the winter, so they probably waited until spring was well under way. No records uncovered indicate where the Becks lived between the sale of their farm in 1862 and their appearance on the 1870 census in Missouri. Three of their five children, John, Samantha, and Daniel, were living with them. Mary, the oldest, was probably married and James was yet to be born.
Elizabeth died before 1880 when Alfred was listed as a widower in Lake County, California. In his household were Samantha and James, age 9, born in Missouri. It is reasonable to wonder if Elizabeth died in childbirth as she would have been in her early 40's when James was born. A cursory search of cemetery records in Benton County, Missouri, revealed no burial for Elizabeth, but a more thorough search is needed. And of course, she may have died in another Missouri county or even in California. However, judging from the family's habit of staying close together in Indiana and Michigan, it follows that they did the same in Missouri. No further information is known about why Alfred Beck went to Lake County, California, but it was an agricultural area producing crops similar to those grown in Cass County, Michigan. Fruit trees and grapes flourished there as they did in Michigan. Because Alfred was listed as a carpenter in 1880 and he had been out of work for six months of the year, it is not likely he was involved in California agriculture by farming. The orchardists did need carpenters, though, to build their fruit barns and to build the crates for shipping the fruit to the entire United States, so Alfred could have been involved in the industry peripherally. Today these two counties in widely separated states retain their agricultural roots, the difference being that grapes are pressed for wine and recreation facilities rim the lakes.
Kay Germain Ingalls 2003
|
1827 - 1880 (52 years)
