Beeks line: John Beeks 1809-1872

 I don't know very much about John Beeks, which is a shame because he is the first Beeks ancestor in Wabash County, Indiana, and his grave is only a few miles from our home.  His parents were William and Mary Nimerick (Neimrich) Beeks, and he was born about 1809 near Staunton, Virginia.  It would be in Augusta County except that Staunton is an independent city.  (Staunton has a fascinating history but that is neither here nor there, since John left there at an early age.)

His grandparents, Christopher and Catherine Barnes, Beeks, moved to Xenia, Greene County, Ohio before 1814 and it must have been a multi-generational family that made the trip, as William was likely there, too.  John travelled with them.  On June 30, 1830, when he was 21, he married Mary (known as Polly) Carter there.  I've written before of Polly, mentioning that she may have been the daughter of John Carter of Greene County, but I still haven't been able to prove that.  

I've not located John in the 1840 census, so I'm not sure how long he stayed in Greene County.  Some sites say that his son William was born in Clinton County, Ohio, which is just east of Greene County.  It is possible but I have no proof.  (Beeks is a name that is spelled a lot of different ways, and some of the handwriting on the census sheets is pretty bad, but he was obviously somewhere.  

We do know he and son William and daughter Lucy, along with an unidentified Anna Meadows, who was three years old, were in Lagro Township, Wabash County, Indiana in 1850. We don't know what happened to their other two children, Casey and Polly, but they were not with them that year.  In 1860, Casey is listed as living with them, and right next door is son William with his first wife and their infant son.  I haven't located daughter Polly Beeks at all and possibly she died young.

The only other little nugget I've been able to locate about John is that he was a land owner and farmer.  In an 1875 map, Mrs. John Beeks is listed as owning 100 acres just south of Lagro, and this would have been his land.  A census question advises that he could write, but we don't know how much education he had.  

We also don't know his religion, if any, or why and how he came to live in Lagro Township, or whether he ever served in the military.  The man who died March 25, 1872, and is buried at the IOOF cemetery in Lagro, kept all these things secret.  If someone knows more, please contact me!

The line of descent is

John Beeks-Polly Carter

William Beeks-Mary Wise

John Beeks-Elizabeth Wise

Wilbur Beeks-Cleo Aldridge

Mary Beeks-Cleveland Harshbarger

Their descendants