Lee Beem

BEEM KNAPP LARSEN

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 4/2/2010 at 16:44:19

Woodbury County History 1982

Lee Beem
By Mrs Arthur (Irene) Beem and Mrs Ed (Alma) Beem

An early resident of the Climbing Hill-Hornick area, Lee Beam was born in Smith County, Kansas, August 18, 1878. He was the second son of DeWitt F and Anzonetta Knapp Beem. His grandfather, James Alexander Beem had migrated from Tomkins County, New York to Jones County, Iowa about 1850; then moved to Smith County, Kansas, about 1873.

Anzonetta Beem with her two sons, Samuel and Lee left Kansas about 1886 and migrated by covered wagon to Rolla, Missouri, then moved on to Council Bluffs, Iowa, then to Lake Circle near Albaton, Iowa. As a young boy, Lee was a water boy for the railroad when it was being built though Hornick. As a tall wiry teenager, he herded cattle on the Winnebago Indian reservation; and as a top notch horseman he was hired as a jockey in local horse races.

Samuel had gone to college in 1897 when Anzonetta and Lee moved to section 5 in Willow Township. In February, 1902, Anzonetta bought 40 acres in section 28 of West Fork Township, southwest of Climbing Hill.

On October 5, 1905, Lee married Anna Larsen at Lincoln, Nebraska. They traveled to Lincoln by train where the wedding ceremony was performed by Lee’s brother, J Samuel Beem, a Christian Church minister. Stories are still told in the family about the tomato diet that they had while there.

Anna was the oldest daughter of Thomas Larsen and Mary Madsen. Thomas and Mary had emigrated from Denmark to Bronson, Iowa, where they married in March of 1885. The Larsens moved to section 33 in West Fork Township in 1888. This was the first place south of Anzonetta Beem on the same side of the road. Anna had been born July 8, 1887.

After their marriage, Lee and Anna lived with Anzonetta for just over a year, then they moved to the first place south of Anna’s parents in February 1907. They bought this farm in 1910 and lived there for the remainder of their lives.

In December 1919, Lee bought the land that his mother had purchased in 1902. He added to this over the years, owning a half section in the late 1920’s. Lee and Anna were able to hold onto the land during the 1940’s and 1950’s.

Lee Beem was a progressive minded man, although not formally educated. He was instrumental in bringing a number of small schools together into one location at Holly Springs. He helped modernize the area with electricity, telephone, conservation, and decent roads. Lee and Anna helped to improve the church at Holly Springs from a one room structure to a modern church. The church always had a place in their lives. Lee also designed the home they built in 1925-26. His son Earnest did the drawings as a school project.

In his farming practices, he irrigated land in the drought years. A picture in the Sioux City Journal in the fall of 1936 attested that the corn grown on this irrigated land was over twice as tall as his 6 feet 4 inch height. Lee raised and bred Belgian draft horses throughout his wife. The barn on the home place had a capacity of 24 horses. He still owned two Belgians just prior to his death in 1959.

Always active in his community, he served on the Holly Springs School Board, was an elder in the Holly Springs Christian Church and a director of the Hornick State Bank.

Lee and Anna had five sons and three daughters. They were: a baby girl who died at birth; Earnest L, b 1908, married Lois Boyer of Sloan; Arthur J, b 1908, married Irene Smith, of Sloan; Marie A, b 1911, married Frank Knorr of Colorado Springs, Colorado; Clarence, b 1913, d 1935, never married; Elda, b 1915, married Lewis Eichorn of Hornick; T DeWitt, b 1916, married Irene Moss of Oto; Edwin D, b 1922, married Alma Owen of Omaha, Nebraska.

Arthur and DeWitt always farmed near Climbing Hill and Hornick. Art was a top dairy farmer. DeWitt, Inez, and two of their children were killed in a car accident in November of 1962. Edwin returned to a farm near Climbing Hill after being involved in airplane manufacturing in Baltimore, Md and Omaha, Neb, and serving in the Navy in WWII. Earnest moved to a southwestern South Dakota where he was a hardware merchant, then county auditor. He’s now retired in New Mexico. Marie lived in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where her husband was a fire chief. Elda and Lewis lived in Hornick where she was a beautician, he was the elevator manage. They are now retired in Lake View, Iowa.

At the time of this writing, of ten grandsons; three farm in Iowa, two are self-employed businessmen, four are managerial sales people, and one is a corporate lawyer. Of nine granddaughters; four are farmer’s wives, two work in medical dental occupations, and three are homemakers.

Lee and Anna celebrated their golden wedding anniversary in October of 1955. Lee died June 11, 1959, age 81 and Anna died May 12, 1972, at age 86.