Harrison County Iowa Genealogy

HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY, IOWA, 1891
BIOGRAPHIES
Page 952
FRED BECKER

Fred BECKER, a farmer living in section 13, of Cincinnati Township, came to Harrison County in the autumn of 1877, and worked out by the month on a farm until the spring of 1882, when he moved on the farm he now lives upon, which he bought in the fall of 1881. It consisted of eighty acres that had twenty acres of breaking on. In the spring of 1882 he built a frame house 16x24 feet, with a kitchen 12x14 feet, and broke out forty acres more of his land. In the spring of 1883 he bought eighty acres more land, upon which forty acres were broken. He now (in 1891) has forty acres of tame pasture land and fourteen acres of wild meadow, while the balance is under the plow. In the spring of 1882 he erected a barn 16x24 feet, and is now making preparations the present year to build a barn 58x60 feet.

Our subject was born in Rock County, Wisconsin, January 31, 1852, and remained with his parents until he was sixteen years of age, and then went to the big woods lumber region of Michigan and remained there until the spring of 1873. We next find him working on a farm by the month in Fayette County, Iowa, where he remained until the spring of 1875, and then went to Sedgwick County, Kansas, and bought eighty acres of land and remained until the spring of 1877, when he came to Harrison County. Since that time he has sold his land in Kansas.

Our subject was united in marriage in Harrison County, Iowa, February 26, 1879, to Miss Margaret J. Richardson, and they are the parents of three children -- George R., born April 8, 1880; Ora B., Mach 12, 1882; and Robert W., October 20, 1884.

Margaret J. (Richardson) Becker, was born in Middlesex County, Canada, July 19, 1856, and in the spring of 1857 came with her parents to Harrison County, Iowa, and remained with them until she was married. Both our subject and his wife received their education at the district schools. Politically, Mr. Becker is a Republican.

The father of our subject, who is George W. Becker, was born in the State of New York in 1821, and remained there until after his marriage, and then moved to Rock County, Wisconsin. He was a ship-carpenter for about ten years prior to his death. He was also in the grain business at Footville, and died there in the sping of 1865. His wife, Lucretia (Johnson) Becker, was born in New York, near Syracuse, in 1831, and remained there until her marriage. They are the parents of eight children -- two daughters and six sons, our subject being the fifth child. There are four living at this time, two brothers in Bremer County, Iowa; a sister, now Mrs. Charles Viney, living in Harrison County. After the death of our subject's father, the mother married again in Rock County, to Abraham Peak, who was a farmer, and they came to Fayette County, Iowa, in the spring of 1874. By this marriage union one child was born -- Sarah M., now deceased. The father and mother of our subject were members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

Mr. Peak had in his employ, during haying, a young German, by the name of Schmidt, who was in the habit of getting drunk. Schmidt went to town one day and came back the next, under the influence of liquor. Mr. Peak was away from home, and Schmidt wanted Mrs. Peak to pay him off; but she wanted him to go over and see her husband. But he would not, and he went away angry, and stopped with a man named Smith who was living with Mr. Leonard, a neighbor of the Peak's. They had trouble some nights after Schmidt left Mr. Peak's, and it happened that Mr. Leonard was at Mr. Peak's place over night, and the man Smith told Schmidt that he would give him $500 if he would go over and kill Mr. Leonard. And, according to Schmidt's confession, they both went over to Peak's. Schmidt crawled in at the window, went to the bed of Mr. Leonard, and shot him through the body, but the ball glanced around a rib, so he was not killed. Mr. Peak rushed out to where Leonard was, and Schmidt left the room. Schmidt then went and got a bundle of hay and set fire to it in the next room, calculating to burn the house. Mrs. Peak then saw him and recognized that it was Schmidt, and she tried to get out of a window and go arouse the neighbors, but as she stuck her head out the window, she was shot, the ball entering her head just below the eye. As soon as this had occurred, Mr. Peak went out of the house after the murderer, and was killed outside, and beat over the head with a club until his brains were knocked out. The young German was arrested the next day at church, and was hung in Fayette County, after having made a full confession upon the trial, which implicated Smith, against whom no positive proof could be found, so he was not convicted. Our subject's mother died as above related, on September 20, 1886 -- two weeks and one day after she was shot. A half sister of our subject -- Sarah M. -- was away from home during the evening of this tragedy. Subsequently she went to California, and at Santa Anna married a Mr. Sharp, and about eighteen months later she died, having a boy baby by the name of Archie.

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