IAGenWeb Project - Clayton co.

Fred A. Beckett

Fred A. Beckett passed virtually his entire life in Clayton county, as he was an infant at the time when his parents became pioneer settlers of the county, and here it was his to achieve definite independence and success through his effective association with the basic industries of agriculture and stock-growing and to win and retain the confidence and good will of all with whom he came in contact. He was one of the representative farmers of Clayton township at the time of his death, which occurred on the 24th of April, 1908, and his widow still resides upon and has the general supervision of the affairs of the fine homestead farm, which comprises one hundred and five acres and which is most pleasingly situated in section 34, Clayton township.

Mr. Beckett was born at Belvidere, Illinois, on the 13th of September, 1858, and is the only deceased member of a family of four sons born to Peter B. and Charlotte A. (Wayman) Beckett. His parents were born and reared in England and immigrated to America in 1852. They were residents of Ohio about one year and thereafter maintained their home at Decatur, Illinois, until 1854, when they removed to Rock county, Wisconsin, where the father initiated activities as a farmer, of which line of enterprise he became an exponent a few years later in Boone county, Illinois, where the birth of the subject of this memoir occurred and whence soon afterward the family came to Clayton county, Iowa, where Peter B. Beckett eventually became one of the substantial and prominent farmers of Clayton township and where he continued to reside, a sterling and honored citizen, until his death, which occurred in 1901, his devoted wife having passed away in 1894.

Reared to maturity upon the farm of his father, Fred A. Beckett early learned the valuable lessons of practical industry and availed himself simultaneously of the advantages afforded in the public schools of the locality. He was a young man when he initiated his independent career as an agriculturist and stock-grower on the fine farm upon which his widow still maintains her home and which he developed into one of the model places of Clayton township. Here he continued his well ordered activities until he was called from the stage of life's mortal endeavors, a few months prior to his fiftieth birthday anniversary, and he left as a gracious heritage the untarnished reputation and the record for worthy accomplishment that indicate the finest sense of personal stewardship, his mortal remains having been laid to rest in the cemetery at Clayton. He was a loyal and publicspirited citizen, was a Democrat in his political allegiance and was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, as is also his widow.

In the year 1881 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Beckett to Miss Bessie Robinson, who was born in England and who came with her parents to the United States and became a resident of Clayton county in the year 1873. She is a daughter of William and Elizabeth (Drake) Robinson, both representatives of fine old English lineage, and her parents continued their residence in Clayton county until their death, their five children still surviving them. Mr. and Mrs. Beckett became the parents of ten children, concerning whom brief record is made in conclusion of this memoir: Cora E. is the wife of August Saacke and they maintain their home at McGregor; Hettie May is the wife of Percy Anderson, of McGregor; Bessie is the wife of James Duval and they reside in South Dakota; Albert drowned at the age of 9 years; Anna R. is the wife of John McWilliams, a representative farmer of Clayton county; Beatrice is the wife of Frederick Sibell, of Madison, Wisconsin; Peter F. and George remain with their widowed mother and are associated in the work of the home farm; Lucile likewise remains a member of the home circle; and the tenth child died in infancy.

source: History of Clayton County, Iowa; From The Earliest Historical Times Down to the Present; by Realto E. Price, Vol. II; pg. 31-32

-OCR scanned by S. Ferrall

 

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