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HON. WILLIAM GREEN BECK, farmer and
millman of Beat No. 2, was born in
Wilkinson County, Ga., in 1815. He was a son of John and Mary
(Strong) Beck, the
former of whom was born in Barnwell district, S. C.; in 1792, and
the latter in
Virginia about 1797. They were married in South Carolina and moved
to Georgia in
1818. They removed thence to Montgomery county when there were but
one or two
stores there. In 1835 they removed to what is now Bullock county,
but what was
then Pike county, and in 1840 they removed to Covington, where Mr.
Beck died
about 1878, and Mrs. Beck about 1860. Mr. Beck was a member of the
Primitive
Baptist church and Mrs. Beck of the Missionary Baptist church. He
was a farmer
all his life and quite a successful one, and though uneducated was
generally
well informed. With reference to public matters he was very
conservative and
reticent. He was hard working, industrious, honest and liberal. He
was one of
the first settlers of Alabama and one of the first in Covington
county. His
father, Elijah Beck, was a native of South Carolina and came to
Montgomery,
Ala., where he died in 1821, He was probably a soldier in the
Revolutionary war,
and was certainly a soldier in the war of 1812. Grandfather Strong
was an
Englishman, and died in Virginia when Mrs. Beck was small. The
subject of this
sketch was the second of ten children, of whom three sons and two
daughters are
living. Three of the sons were in the late war; Washington, served
in the latter
part of the war, and died at Montgomery; Charles, of Baldwin county,
and Wilson,
of Brewton. William G. Beck, was reared on a farm, principally in
Montgomery
county, with but a common school education. He began life for
himself at twenty
years of age, farming in what is now Bullock county, where he was
married in
1835 to Louisa, daughter of John Smith, who removed from Georgia to
Alabama. Mr.
Smith died in Tallapoosa county in 1839, and Mrs. Smith in Florida
about 1874.
Mrs. Beck was born in Georgia and died in Covington county in 1846,
leaving six
children, viz.: Oliver, who died in Mobile in January 1863, in the
army from
Choctaw county; Mary Ann, wife of Reuben Diamond; Sarah J., wife of
Henry
Williams, of Texas, Washington, deceased; Robert J., died in 1891;
William, died
young. Mr. Beck was married, the second time, to Mrs. Sarah Tane,
nee Johnson,
who was born in Covington and had ten children, as follows:
Elizabeth, wife of
James M. Smith; Wilson; Eliza, wife of W. Brooks; Annanias, wife of
William
Cobb; Nancy, wife of George Cooper; Charles; John W.; the rest dying
in infancy.
For the first five years after marriage Mr. Beck lived east of
Andalusia engaged
in farming, and then below on the river, and for the past
twenty-three years
upon his present farm of 126 acres, where he has a small grist mill,
which he
built in 1854. He has worked a good many years at blacksmithing,
woodworking and
mill building. In 1844 he was elected revenue commissioner of
Covington county,
holding the office four years. In 1882 he was elected to the
legislature and
served on the committee on local legislation, and on public
printing. He is a m
ember of Dean lodge, No. 182, F. & A. M., at Conecuh. He and his
wife have been
members of the Missionary Baptist church for many years. Although
Mr. Beck had
but very limited advantages for obtaining an education when young,
yet he is one
of the most cultured and best informed men in the county. He is
universally
esteemed and his superior abilities are recognized by all.
Additional Comments:
from "Memorial Record of Alabama", Vol. I, p. 746-747
This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/alfiles/
Submitted By: Yvonne Smith Callaway
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