CAPTAIN GEORGE W. BECKWITH,
keeper of the lighthouse on Stonington Breakwater, was born April 1, 1845,
in Salem, Conn., a son of Ezra P. Beckwith. His grandfather, William Beckwith,
was a lifelong farmer in Waterbury, this State.
Ezra P. Beckwith was born in New London,
Conn., in 1817, and died at Willimantic, Conn., in 1884. He was a stone-cutter
by trade, expert in the use of tools, and worked at his chosen occupation
in Norwich and Westerly. In 1842 he married Harriet De Wolfe, of Hadlyme,
in the town of Lyme, New London County, Conn., a daughter of William De
Wolfe, a quarryman. Her father was one of a family of seven children born
to his mother, who attained the venerable age of ninety-six years, and
was full of life and vigor to the close of her days. Her maiden name was
Betsey Woods. William De Wolfe married Hannah Bailey, and had four children,
all of whom are living, namely: William De Wolfe, of Salem, Conn., now
seventy-four years old; Albert, also a farmer in the same town, seventy-two
years of age; Harriet, formerly Mrs. Beckwith, now Mrs. Hibbard, nearly
seventy years old; and Mrs. Sarah Minor, the youngest of the family. Ezra
P. and Harriet (De Wolfe) Beckwith reared three children, namely: Dr. Beckwith,
a practising physician, who died in 1886, aged thirty-five years, leaving
four orphan children, his wife having died previously; George W., the special
subject of this brief biography; and Hattie, wife of Thomas Turner, of
Oakdale, Mass. The mother, after living a widow for some time, married
for her second husband John Hibbard, who died in 1885, after five years
of acute suffering from rheumatism. He was a son of Andrew Hibbard, of
Norwich, Conn. John Hibbard was a mechanical engineer, and during and after
the Civil War was an engineer in the United States navy. His widow now
draws a pension.
George W. Beckwith was educated in the common
schools of Salem, and at the age of twenty-one shipped in the cabin as
steward of a vessel, a capacity in which he served twenty years. Previous
to this time, however, he served nine months as a private in Company G,
Twenty-seventh Connecticut Volunteer Infantry, having enlisted in October,
1862. He was an active participant in two battles, but was neither wounded
nor captured. While a steward Mr. Beckwith visited every clime and zone,
going twice, in 1874 and 1876, to Greenland, where he spent sixteen months
among the Esquimaux for his health. For the past nine years he has been
in the government service, at first as keeper of the Penfield Lighthouse
and in recent years keeper of the Stonington Breakwater Lighthouse, where
he is discharging the duties of his responsible position with conscientious
fidelity and ability. Captain Beckwith is a member of Sedgwick Post, No.
I, G. A. R., and is a pensioner of the government.
Biographical Review Volume
XXVI
Containing Life Sketches of Leading Citizens
of New London County Connecticut
Boston
Biographical Review Publishing Company
1898
pgs 421 - 422
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