Francis Jefferson Beckwith

  Noted events in his life were:

• Residence: Living with his brother Addison and his mother, 1850, Scott Township, Steuben, Indiana. Occupation is a farmer.

From 1850 Census

• Occupation: Farmer, 1860, Scott Township, Steuben, Indiana. From 1860 Census

Living with his mother and his wife Sarah.

• Occupation: Farmer, 1870, Pleasant Grove, Greenwood, Kansas. From the 1870 Census

His brother Addison is listed next to him on the same census record.

• Residence: History of Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura counties California, Volume 2, 1917, By Charles Montville Gidney, Benjamin Brooks, Edwin M. Sheridan, Page 734-736, 21 Sep 1874, Ventura, California. Francis Jefferson Beckwith. In the Santa Paula district of Ventura County is a large and beautiful estate which was the home and scene of activities during his later years of the late Francis Jefferson Beckwith, who died there December 30, 1901. He was a California resident for many years, and the improvements which made his estate so valuable as as a business property and so attractive as a home can be traced largely to his energies and his thorough methods of management.

This late honored citizen of Ventura County was born in Ontario County, New York, August 14, 1834, and was not yet seventy years of age when he died. He was of Scotch ancestry. His grandfather Nathan Beckwith, Sr. was one of the early settlers of Oswego County, New York. Three of the Beckwith family had previously shouldered arms and taken an active part on the American side in the War of 1812. Nathan Beckwith, Jr., was born in 1798 and for many years made his home in New York State. In the early years of the century he went out to Indiana, which was then on the western frontier, and acquired considerable land there. He did not remain to cultivate and develop it, but spent his last years in Ontario County, New York, where his death occurred at the age of sixty-five. He married Phoebe Granger, who was born in Ontario County in 1808, her father Elihu Granger having moved to Western New York from New Jersey.

The youngest in a family of seven children, Francis Jefferson Beckwith when still a boy went out with his parents to Indiana and helped to clear up a tract of raw land. After the death of his father he remained at home and looked after the property for his mother, the older children having in the meantime found homes of their own.

When he started for himself it was in the State of Michigan, where he bought land near Vermontville, in Eaton County. Eaton County was then a wilderness. Not a single improvement had been attempted on his land, and like other pioneers his first task was the building of a log cabin. He then undertook to clear and cultivate his place but after two years he sold out and took employment in a mill, where he remained three years.

On September 21, 1874; he arrived in California. For two years he was employed by his brother Appleton on the latter's ranch in Ventura County. The next two years he spent in his old home in Indiana, and on returning to California he was again in the employ of his brother. Appleton Beckwith died February 3, 1881, and bequeathed his fine ranch of 700 acres to his brothers Francis and Addison. Some years later Addison sold his interest in the property to Francis J., making the latter the sole owner of a valuable estate. Three hundred acres of this ranch are now rich farming lands, highly developed, while the rest is adapted to pasturage with the exception of a small area of waste land. In location the ranch has many advantages. It is in the midst of a fine farming country and is in the line of that development which is rapidly transforming vast district of Ventura County into some of the most eagerly sought for lands of Southern California. In earlier days the chief products of the ranch were hogs and cattle, but the most profitable crop today is lima beans. The late Mr. Beckwith was constantly seeking methods to improve his land, and among other things he set out numerous trees which now adorn the homestead and erected some large barns and granaries.

On August 27, 1859, Francis J. Beckwith married Sarah L. Greenmayer. She was born July 5, 1841, a daughter of Jesse and Mary (Paul) Greenmayer, the former born in Pennsylvania in 1818 and the latter born in the same state in the same year of Dutch descent. Mr. and Mrs. Francis Beckwith were the parents of four children: Caroline, born in Indiana, September 20, 1860, now Mrs. George A. Jones of Ventura County; Charles F., born in Indiana, January 12, 1862; Delbert T., born in Michigan, January 31, 1869; and Emma G., born October 22, 1878, the wife of M. M. Baker of Ventura County.

The late Francis J. Beckwith was a republican in politics. His widow survived him some years and passed away February 23, 1909.

• Occupation: Farmer, 1880, Saticoy, Ventura, Califonia. From 1880 Census

Lists his four children as Clara, Charles, Delbert and Emma.

• Family: Photo from about 1890 based on ages of Emma and Delbert, Abt 1890.

• Residence: From Census, 12 Jun 1900, Saticoy, Ventura, Califonia. Also says he has been married 40 years and is a farmer.

Francis married Sarah L. Greenamyer, daughter of Jesse Greenamyer and Mary Paul, on 27 Aug 1859 in Steuben, Indiana. (Sarah L. Greenamyer was born on 5 Jul 1841 in Ohio and died on 23 Feb 1909 in Saticoy, Ventura, Califonia.)

  Noted events in their marriage were:

• Marriage: From Family Search org, 27 Aug 1859, Steuben, Indiana. Francis J Beckwith
mentioned in the record of Francis J Beckwith and Sarah Greenamyre
Name: Francis J Beckwith
Event Type: Marriage
Event Date: 27 Aug 1859
Event Place: , Steuben, Indiana
Registration Place: , Steuben, Indiana, United States
Marriage License Date: 23 Aug 1859
Gender: Male
Spouse's Name: Sarah Greenamyre
Spouse's Gender: Female
Officiator's Name: Rollin H Goddard
Page: 228
Number of Images: 1
GS Film number: 001872264 , Digital Folder Number: 005206329 , Image Number: 00349