Pyram Ripley Beckley

BECKLEY, GERSLINO, CAMP, SHAEFFER, ALLEN, WHEELER, WALTON, PIERSON, HOLLOWAY

Posted By: Volunteer - Rich Lowe
Date: 10/31/2002 at 21:28:26

An Illustrated History of Sacramento County, California by Hon. Win. J. Davis
Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company 1890.
California State Library #131744
Page 422

Pyram Ripley Beckley was born in Athens County, Ohio March 2, 1835, his parents being Lucius Ripley and Marie Ann (Gerslino) Beckley. The father was a native of Ohio and the mother of Indiana, her parents living near Fort Wayne. Grandfather Daniel Beckley married a Miss Camp and both lived to a good old age, perhaps 60 years. In 1844, the parents with three sons and a daughter moved to Van Buren County, Iowa, where the father was engaged for a time selling the products of a local pottery, chiefly to dealers. He afterward moved to Lee County and went to farming near Montrose for two years, when he returned to a previous pursuit in Van Buren County. The grandparents also spent a few years with him in Iowa, but afterward went back to Ohio.

In 1850, L. R. Beckley, with his wife and children, crossed the plains to California with three ox teams and some cows, forming part of a company of over one hundred persons, and a train of 38 wagons. The Beckleys left Bonaparte, Iowa, April 5, but did not cross the Missouri River until about May 1, not daring to venture into the interior because of the backward condition of the grass that season. They arrived in Hangtown, now Placerville, California, September 20, 1850, where the father soon went forward to Sacramento to buy flour and other supplies with which he started a bakery at Diamond Springs for a few months.

In December 1850, they moved to Sacramento where the father built the Washington Hotel near the corner of Fifteenth and J Streets. After a few months he rented it to another party and he conducted the Prairie House on the Placerville Road. There the mother died June 5, 1851 and the family returned to the Washington Hotel in Sacramento.

In the Spring of 1852, he was again married to Mrs. Phoebe Shaeffer, a widow having one son. He was burnt out in the great fire of November, 1852 and soon afterward bought the Monte Cristo House on the Coloma Road, which he carried on for about three years.

In 1855, he moved into Franklin Township and the fortunes of the family have been connected with this township ever since. He first took up 320 acres about two and one-half miles west of where Franklin now stands with a frontage of one mile on the road to the Sacramento River. Soon afterward he bought about one thousand acres five miles north of Franklin. He was elected Supervisor for the years 1855 and 1856 and he was afterward Public Administrator for one term. He died May 15, 1859 after two or three years of broken health, leaving three sons and a daughter born of his first marriage:

Benson D., born 1833, now a rancher in Calaveras County and the father of four children; Edmond J., born in 1836, a hotel-keeper in Portland, Oregon and the father of one child; Mary Maria, born in 1838 by the first marriage, Mrs. Isaac Allen; and by second marriage, Mrs. S. F. Wheeler, who lived in this county from 1850 to 1883 and died in Nevada County in 1885.

P. R. Beckley, the subject of this sketch, worked with his father and afterward for a time in charge of his ranches almost continuously boyhood until the death of the latter in 1859. Meanwhile, he had bought 160 acres adjoining his father's place on the road from Franklin to the Sacramento River and about 320 acres of low land near the river.

Mr. P. R. Beckley was married December 30, 1858 to Miss Sarah Clark Walton, born in Delaware January 3, 1838, a daughter of William and Maria (Fountain) Walton, both now deceased--the father May 27, 1877, aged seventy-eight; the mother, December 25, 1885, aged seventy-six. The father was of English and the mother of French descent. Their son, John Henry, died in Franklin November 24, 1888, aged 42 of blood poisoning from what seemed at first a trifling wound on the hand. Another son, William J., died in Iowa in 1854 at the age of 19. A daughter, Elizabeth J. was married to Dr. B.H. Pierson, one of the first residents of Woodland, Yolo County, and previously for 15 years a practicing physician in Sacramento. He died in Franklin January 10, 1883, leaving three children now living with their mother in Auburn, Placer County. Another daughter, Esther Ann, was married to T. J. Holloway, rancher at Santa Barbara. They are the parents of four daughters and two sons.

Mr. Walton with his family came to Sacramento in May 1956 from Iowa, where they had settled in 1849, at Farrington, Van Buren County. In 1857, they moved from Sacramento to the Twelve-Mile House on the Lower Stockton Road, which Mr. Walton carried on about three years.

Early in 1859 Mr. Beckley built a new house on his place, which, however, he soon sold, being invited by his father to live with him on his upper ranch. The father's death in May threw the estate into Court for distribution.

In 1860, Mr. Beckley took charge of the Twelve-Mile House previously run by his father-in-law. In 1860, he bought the ranch of 320 acres now owned by Weller Freeman, about two miles east of Franklin.

In 1864, he was elected County Assessor for two years. In December, 1866, he sold his ranch and settled in Georgetown, now Franklin, of which he has been a second venture.

He bought four acres along the west side of the road on which he has since erected the most substantial building in the valley. He first put up a store and dwelling, the former now being used as a saloon, having been replaced as a store in 1881 by the large two-story brick, a conspicuous landmark for miles around, of which the upper-story is used as a public hall. The dwelling of 1867 is embodied in the two-story building known as the Franklin Hotel, began in 1885 and finished in 1887.

In February 1867, Mr. Beckley opened his place for business as a general store which he conducted until 1875, at the same time carrying general farming on the McCracken ranch of 400 acres adjoining the village plat at its southwest corner, which he continued until 1885. Being elected as Supervisor in 1875, he sold out his stock of goods and rented the store.

He entered on the duties of his office on the first Monday in October of that year and retained it by re-elections until 1882. After an intermission of seven years in official life he was appointed, after the election of 1888 to position of sub-sheriff, and entered on the discharge of its duties on the first Monday of January, 1889. He had been postmaster continuously since 1868. Mr. Beckley is a member of the Masonic brotherhood, and is a highly esteemed and public-spirited citizen of Franklin Township--a sort of genial head-center of all local interests. Mr. and Mrs. Beckley are the parents of ten children, the crown and glory of their useful, industrious and unpretentious lives: Lucius Ripley, born November 23, 1859; William Walton, born June 3, 1861; Mary Maria, born January 8, 1864; John Augustus, born December 26, 1865; George Irville, born December 16, 1867; Lizzie May, born May 1, 1871; Isaac Freeman, born May 25, 1873; Sarah Esther, born March 11, 1876; Laura Alice, born January 14, 1878; Ora Edna, born July 17, 1883. Of these, the oldest daughter, Mary Maria, was married June 29, 1882, to John W. Hall, a native of Canada, son or John E. and Jane Elizabeth (Benjamin) Hall, then residing in this township and now in Yolo County. John W. Hall had taught school in Georgiana Township nearly four years, when, at the age of twenty-six, he was accidentally drowned April 1, 1884, while hunting on the Whitcomb place, leaving two children, Elmer Ernest born April 25, 1883 and a posthumous child, Myrtle Gertrude born September 4, 1884. The children and their mother are members of the Beckley household.

Lucius R. Beckley, the oldest son of P.R. Beckley owns 160 acres in Jenny Lind Township, Calaveras County; and William W. the second son, owns an adjoining quarter section.