Ventura County Biographies

Francis J. Beckwith

Submitted by Sandy Neder

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

 
Francis J. Beckwith is one of the reliable ranchers of the section of the county 
where he resides. He was born in Ontario County, New York, August 14, 1834, of 
Scotch ancestry.  His father, Nathan Beckwith, Jr., was born about the year 
1798, resided in the State of New York for many years, and removed to Iowa, and 
from there back to Ontario County, New York, where he died at the age of 
sixty-five years. His grandfather, Nathan Beckwith, Sr., was a resident of 
Oswego County, New York, for many years, and an early settler there. Three of 
the Beckwiths were in the war of 1812. Mr. Beckwith's mother, Phebe (Granger) 
Beckwith, was born in Ontario County, New York, in 1808. She was the daughter of 
Elihu Granger, who came from New Jersey and settled in New York, where he 
resided for many years. Their ancestors had for a long time been residents of 
America. Mr. Beckwith was the youngest of a family of seven children, three of 
whom are now living. The family moved to Indiana when he was quite young, and he 
was reared on a farm and educated in the public schools of that State. Early in 
life he lost his father, and he remained on the farm with his mother until he 
was twenty-seven years old, and has made farming his life occupation. When Mr. 
Beckwith left home he removed to Michigan and purchased a farm near 
Vermontville, Eaton County, where he resided for two years in a log house of his 
own building - the only kind in which the early settlers lived. He sold out and 
worked in a mill for three years. In 1874 he came to California, and September 
21 he came to his present ranch. He remained with his brother, Appleton 
Beckwith, who owned the ranch, for two years. Then he returned to Indiana, and 
two years later came back to California and worked for his brother nearly a 
year. February 3, 1881, Appleton Beckwith died, bequeathing his ranch to the 
subject of this sketch and another brother. This brother Mr. Beckwith has since 
bought out, and now owns the whole ranch, about 700 acres. Three hundred acres 
are farming lands, and the rest is pasture and waste land. The location of this 
property is in a beautiful farming country. Hogs and cattle were formerly the 
chief products of this district, but now the principal crop is corn and beans, 
twenty-five centals of corn to the acre and 2,000 pounds of Lima beans per acre 
being an average crop. Mr. Beckwith has made most of the improvements on the 
place. The grounds, with trees and flowers, everything about the house, the 
large barns and well-filled corn-cribs, all denote plenty and comfort. Twelve 
acres are in bearing English walnut trees, sixteen years old, and there is also 
a fine orchard containing a variety of fruit. The walnut grove yields at present 
$100 per acre.
    In 1859 Mr. Beckwith married Miss Sarah Greenmayer, who was born in Ohio, 
July 5, 1841. Her father, Jesse Greenmayer, was a native of Pennsylvania, born 
in 1818, of Pennsylvania-Dutch ancestors. They have had a family of four 
children, all living. The two oldest were born in Indiana: Caroline M., 
September 20, 1860, now the wife of George A. Jones, and resides near Ventura; 
Charles F., January 12, 1862. Delbert T. was born in Michigan, January 31, 869, 
and Emma G. was born in California, October 22, 1878. Charles and Delbert are 
settled near their father, and Emma is at home with her parents. Mr. Beckwith's 
political views are Republican.
 
BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY OF THE COUNTIES OF SANTA BARBARA, SAN LUIS 
OBISPO, AND VENTURA, CALIF. by Ida Addis Storke, 1891, p 313