Frank Beckwith Family History

by Jay Beckwith, June 10, 1934

THE FRANK BECKWITH FAMILY
   The Family Tree spreads out and new members join us, and our number now has reached the grand total of sixty-eight. I hand along a little folk lore as it has been handed to me, to interest whom it may. The Beckwith Tribe originated in England and legend says they can be traced back to the time of William the Conqueror. The first Beckwith and the one we trace back to, came to America in 1637 and landed at New London, Connecticut: The boat "The Sparrowhawk" was wrecked in landing, but no passengers were lost. The boat drifted ashore and lay on the beach for many years, finally being buried in the sands. Legend tells us of a hardy ancestor in Revolutionary days who was taking food and clothing by ox-train to Washington's army--was attacked by British sympathizers and having no gun, he made such a good showing with his bare fists, that his assailants fled, leaving him to fulfill his mission.

   When the Western Reserve was opened up, Samuel Beckwith, Frank Beckwith's grandfather came through from Connecticut to New Lyme, Ohio. His son, also Samuel later migrated to Portage County. As a farm hand he was told to return a brass kettle to a neighbor in the region between Brimfield and Sandy Lake. Thinking of a fine little girl at the neighbors, he said as he started with the kettle,"today I make my market." He did, and Susan Eatinger agreed that day to cast her lot with the Beckwiths. They were married September 6,1843. Seven children were born t o this union, Marvin, Frank, Mary, Samuel, Melissa and Lucy. One son died in infancy. They (Sam and Susan) Frank's father and mother located on a forty acre farm north of Black Horse near Ravenna. The log house on it was used to house sheep. The sheep were driven out and the place made livable. Melissa and Lucy were born in this log house.

   A lawyer named Whittlesey, induced Sam and Susan to tenant the farm east of Brady Lake now owned by Ralph Brigham. . Marvin was born there in the little red house now used as a tool house and garage. Grandpa set out the orchards on the Brigham farm and one year he raised 1400 dozen bundles of wheat and all accomplished without machinery. The wheat sown broadcast and dragged in and cut with cradle and bound by hand. The threshing was done with a flail and the grain cleaned in fanning millsLater Sam and Susan bought a farm Which now is part of Lake Rockwell, near the dam dyke, just north of the bridge where the Lake Shore R.R. crosses over the Penn. R.R. The maple trees which Frank helped set out are still there just inside the dyke.

   Frank Beckwith was born in a frame house (not a log house) on the river farm June 11, 1851. The frame house was built with a large fireplace in the center, four rooms being built around it. The fireplace was used for cooking and was the sole means of heating the house. The Penn. R.R. was built through in 1851, the year Frank was born. He saw the last of the canal service which was on the decline and was mostly the repair of boats. He saw the Erie built and the fill made which cut the Lake in two--Brady and Pippin Lake being one. This Lake was formed to furnish water for canals and was fed from a dam a few miles north on the Cuyahoga River called to this day "Feeder Dam".

   Sam and Susan realized the advantage of education and encouraged their children along this lines. There was little for girls to do these days with the exception of house-work. School teaching was considered a hard tusk for even the most athletic young men. However Father and three of his sisters taught school. The examinations were oral and when Melissa went to take her examination, her sister Lucy, then twelve years of age wished to go with her, 'just for fun. The examiner asked Lacy som e questions and was so pleased with her replies, that he granted her a certificate to teach. Later she did teach in Shalersville. Melissa taught twelve years of school. Father taught at Prices' Corners , at a corner of four Townships called the Union, a term in Rootstown and one in Paris.His first term, the teachers were "boarded round". Each family was supposed to take their turn boarding the teacher, this being part of his compensation.

   In 1861, Sam and Susan built the house which stood here until 1912 when it was moved by the Akron Waterworks to the hill by the Dam. In 1934 it was badly damaged by fire. Susan Beckwith (Frank's Mother) was left fatherless at an early age. Her father was cutting grain with a sickle, when he Chanced on a rattle snake. He cut the snake's heat off with the impliment and continued his labors. A little la ter he accidentally cut his ankle.This wound caused his death after a few days, presumably the sickle had some of the venom of the rattle snake still on it. Susan had to rely on her own resources, she hired out as a cook and was a very excellent one. She knew Marvin Kent's wife as a girl and Daniel Rhodes' daughter who married Mark Kenna, the politician. She worked for the Longcoy family when Frank and Francis, the twins were born. In later years, when Kent moved to the Mansion on West Main Street in Kent (now the Masonic Temple from a little home on River Street (Now the American Legion House), she Said, "Susan, I was far happier in the little home down by the River." Sam and Susan were very hospitable and without the present lightning methods of transporting news, folks in those days spread news by word. of mouth. Hence there was much "visiting". It seems one snowy day, that seven sled loads of friends came in to " spend the day" at "Aunt Susans" --each family without knowledge of the fact that any one else was coming. Well Susan put in some baking and Sam slipped out and killed a large turkey gobbler and every guest was well fed and a "fine time was had by all."

   If you should follow the dyke from the hill at the dam , east, you would find at the east end two large elm trees on the north side of the road, set very close together. This was the site of the school, years ago. About 1855 a call was sent out for the neighbors to plant trees in the school yard. Sam crossed the river on a pole, there being no bridge and came back with these trees as whips and set them where they now stand. The Sam Beckwith who came to New Lyme from Connecticut came to spend his last years with Sam and Susan. Marvin once said, "he was an ornery old man and died in midwinter just to cause as much discomfort as possible".` This happened in 1861. He was put in a rough box and Marvin put it on a sled drawn by a span of colts, just broken and they started for Briar Fill cemetery at least twenty-five miles north. The snow was so deep that they often opened fences and took to the open fields, upsetting the coffin in the snow several times. Sam, Susan and the girls went with them in another sled. They had wool socks and leather shoes, but the girls froze their feet to the point that they had severe chilblains afterward. The party staid at a relative's home near Briar Hill Cemetary ant the interment was made the same day.

   Frank's father died January 6,1886, his Mother living until 1909, she then being 85 years of age. It seems that a certain telegraph repairman whose name was James Criss came along the Penn. R.R. Line past the old Beckwith Farm quite often and. stopped in for lodging. On one visit he bought his daughter Mary. Frank Beckwith's eyes were not closed and using his usual good judgment--well anyway, 4 years later March 7, 1876 they were married at Wellsville, Ohio. In 1932, fifty-six years after the ceremony, as they toured thru Lisbon, they stopped at the Courthouse and looked up the marriage record and found it O.K. During one visit to the Criss home Mary's brother Stephen took Frank out on the Ohio River in a skiff. The waves were high against the current and shore was not in sight from the trough of the waves. Dad s ays this was quite an experience. Frank and Mary lived on the River Farm from 1876 to 1891 when they built their present home on the Pippin Lake road. Maud, Ida, Minnie, Myrtle, Grace, James Susan and John were all born on the River Farm. Jean, Jay. Al, Lucy (A t win, her sister died in childbirth) were born at the new house. Father took good care of his mother until her death in 1909 and he and Marvin bought out the heirs.In 1912 Akron City bought this farm to form part of the Resevoir now called Lake Rockwell. The house was moved, the other buildings torn down, a steam shovol dug most of the upland to make the dyke leaving only a memory of the place where so many pleasant memories originated.

   Susan was a fine old lady and as a lad I sat and listened to her tales of pioneer life, of the night the stars fell--in I belive, about 1832. The heavens being in perpetual constellation of shooting stars all night, so light that newspapers could be read and people were sure the end of the world as at hand. Her sister came running home to bid farewell, prayer meetings were held. She also told of seeing wild turkeys cross the yard with a flock of young ones and of being awakened by a noise one night and looking out the window, saw fifteen deer in the garden digging up turnips with their sharp hoofs and eating them. I must relate a bit about the old bridge across the Cuyahoga River on Grandmas' farm. The span was 63 feet and about ten or twelve feet above the water. When Frank was driving the cows across the bridge one morning, the bottom of a section of it dropped and he was buried on the bottom of the river under a lot of plank and cows. He struggled for many seconds before he could release himself.The cows clambared out of the debris, the planks floated up and finally Frank got out. He says, "I held my breath until I couldn't hold it any longer. I got a mouthful of water and than struggled until I got free."

   When he reached the surface, every cow had reached the shore. When he reached the shore the cows all gathered around him and bawled and a big three year old bull came up and sniffed at him curiously-- probably offering congratulations on his escape. The bridge was repaired and about 1910, some years later, the bridge totally collapsed when Dad drove across it with a team of colts. Marvin and Jay were within hearing and George Dewey came down and we succeeded in reassembling the box and wagon and getting the horses out of the wreckage and drove on home--a little late for dinner. The river seemed bent on getting this bridge which had spanned her for so many years, for when we hauled some of the timbers to a high spot which floods had never reached in a lifetime, the 1913 flood came and took every stick away.

Jay Beckwith, June 10, 1934