CHARLES A. BECKLEY

BECKLEY, SIMMONS

Posted By: STurner (email)
Date: 4/19/2019 at 14:50:52

MONTROSE TOWNSHIP

BECKLEY, CHARLES A., farmer, Sec. 9 ; P. 0. Montrose ; Mr. Beckley was born in Lawrence Co., Ohio, in 1831; his father, Solomon Beckley, was a pioneer of Lee Co. ; he came to Farmington, Van Buren Co., in 1841,and removed in 1844, to Montrose, where he engaged in mercantile business for one year ; he then purchased the farm now owned and occupied by his son Charles ; he was a member of the Presbyterian Church for fifty years, always contributing liberally to the support of the Gospel. Ever laboring in the cause of education, and in all projects for public improvement ; he was formerly a Whig; a Republican after the organization of that party, and strongly Antislavery in his views; he was a lawyer by profession. He planted a fine orchard on his farm in 1846; its fruit was about the first evidence of the fact that apples may be successfully cultivated in this portion of Iowa. Mr. Solomon Beckley died in 1874, at the age of 82 years; his wife, Mrs. Laura Beckley, still survives, at the advanced age of 85 years. Mr. Charles A. Beckley married in 1855, Josephine Simmons, a native of Ohio; born in 1834; they have had eight children; four now living - Henry S., Mary I., Laura C. and Louis S. Mr. Beckley was Township Clerk for the tears 1872 and 1873; is Assessor for 1879. Mr. Henry Simmons, a brother-in-law of Mr. Beckley's, resides with the latter; he was born in Ohio in 1832; came to Iowa in 1844, and to Montrose in 1851; was educated at Yellow Springs College, Des Moines Co. He enlisted in 1861, in the 2d Iowa Inf.; remained with his regiment two years; participated in the battles of Fort Donelson, Pittsburg Landing, Corinth, Iuka, etc; was promoted to a acptaincy (captain?) in the 55th U. S. C. Inf.; was discharged at Baton Rouge, La., December, 1865; he went to Montana in 1866, and engaged in mining; he lost his sight by an explosion in the mines, in 1870, and returned; is now an occasional contributor to several newspapers, under the nom de plume of Petros.

Source: BIOGRAPHICAL DIRECTORY
HISTORY OF LEE COUNTY IOWA
CHICAGO: WESTERN HISTORICAL COMPANY, 1879

Transcription typed/proofed as article was originally published in 1879