BECKMAN, Otto W. 1862-1911

BECKMAN, LEGRANT

Posted By: Tammy (email)
Date: 2/24/2019 at 17:38:16

Otto Beckman Passed Away

Death Claims Him Friday

Funeral Was Held Monday Afternoon and Was Largely Attended--Business Houses Close for Occasion

Otto Beckman is dead. Thus was the sad news communicated to the people of this community last Friday morning in their homes and on the streets, and the news erected a universal feeling of sadness. No man in Grundy county enjoyed the respect and esteem of his fellowmen to a greater degree than did Otto Beckman. Of a quiet unobtrusive nature, yet he had the happy faculty of drawing and retaining the friendship of all with whom he came in contact. If he had an enemy he was unconscious of it, and his friends would not now know where to lay their hand on such a creature. No one spoke ill of Otto because there was nothing in his life to give occasion for so doing. He applied the Golden Rule to all his dealings, and his word was as good as a bond. His death is an irreparable loss to the community as well as to his family, and his death has created a strong bond of sympathy between the two.

Funeral services were held Monday afternoon in the Presbyterian church, conducted by Rev. Krome and Rev. Hastings of Fort Dodge. The latter gentleman was a former pastor of the church here, and a close friend of the deceased.

Mr. Beckman was an honored member of the Knights of Pythias and the Pythian Sisters and both orders were present at the services in a body.

The flowers and floral pieces sent by friends were many and beautiful, thus bearing mute testimony to their love and esteem in which deceased was held. Interment was made in the cemetery west of town.

Otto Beckman, son of Emil H. and Catherine Beckman, was born in Blackhawk township, Grundy county, July 5, 1862. He spent his entire life in this community and was educated in the public schools of Grundy Center. He took up his abode at the farm west of town about 27 years ago, where, with the exception of an interval of two years when he resided in Grundy Center, he has lived ever since. Soon after he had taken up the vocation of farming, he was united in marriage to Miss Abigail LeGrant at Altoona, South Dakota, Oct. 3, 1885. Mr. Beckman's the father of five children all of whom survive him. For some considerable length of time, and longer perhaps than was suspected by his family and friends, he had been the victim of an obscure and deep-seated ailment which only recently and rather suddenly, assumed an acute form. He was taken to Rochester, Minn. for examination, and his trouble discovered to be incurable. He was brought back to his home a week ago last Saturday, from which time his condition gradually grew worse, until at 3:30 o'clock Friday morning, June 2, he fell peacefully asleep at the age of 48 years, 10 months and 27 days.

Otto Beckman was a man of fine disposition and excellent quality of character. He was a great lover of his home and was greatly loved in his home. Here it was that he exhibited the marks of a devoted husband and lovable father, and here it was also that his kindly presence will be most really missed, his loss most keenly felt, as well as his memory most tenderly cherished on the part of his wife and children as the years shall come and go. Otto Beckman was loved and highly respected also by the people of the community in which he has lived. He had friends on every hand, and the passing years only served to increase the number and strengthen the ties that constitute the noble bond. And best of all, this lovable man was a genuine christian. This also was in evidence in his life, and it was with the strong and abiding hope of the christian that he died. He was a member of this church, having united with the same April 19, 1902, during the pastorate of Rev. Hastings, whose presence here today is also a mark of sincere personal appreciation of a truly admirable man. The departed was a member of the local lodge of the Knights of Pythias, whose presence here in a body is a fitting testimony to the esteem in which he was held.

Mr. Beckman's father died Sept. 4, 1881, and out of a surviving family that has continued intact during a period of almost thirty years, Otto is now the first to go, leaving his mother, to whom he was always a great comfort, three brothers, Herbert S., of Grundy Center; Emil H. of Rochester Minn.; Fritz S. of Grundy Center, and Mrs. Augusta E. Butler of Whitten. He leaves also his own immediate family, his wife, Mrs. Abbie Beckman, his five children, William, Fritz, John, Ernestina and Herbert, also Plaetus, a little granddaughter.

It is with a great degree of real satisfaction that those who survive may look back upon the life of this genuine man, and this also will in a measure compensate the temporary loss of his conscious presence, the sorrow thereupon being relieved by the comforting prospect of a blessed reunion in the bright future of God's unfolding providence.

--The Grundy Republican (Grundy Center, Iowa), 8 June 1911, pg 1