The family of John W Beeks 1867-1946

 Some of the Beeks men have large families, and some don't.  This is one of the men with a smaller family, and this will be a very short post.  John Beeks was born in Lagro, Wabash County, Indiana to William and Mary Wise Beeks, the subjects of last week's blog post.  John died in 1946 in Andrews, Huntington County, Indiana.  (Lagro and Andrews are about 6 miles apart, so he didn't travel far.)  John's first wife was Elizabeth Wise, the daughter of David and Matilda Martin Wise of Lagro, and she was the mother of his three children. 

Charity, their only daughter, was born in 1890 and died in Andrews in 1956.  She married Howard Humphrey, whom I have not been able to trace further.  This couple had no known children.  

Chester, known to the family as "Bud", was born in 1893 and died in 1973.   He married Myrtle Swindell, daughter of Arthur and Ellen Collins Swindell, and widow of Grover Bullinger.  Although "Grover Lee" is shown as a son on the 1930 census, he was Myrtle's son and Bud's step son.  I have been unable to locate a divorce date for Bud and Myrtle, and it is possible that they didn't divorce.  Myrtle died in 1940 and the 1940 census lists Chester as single.  He was a World War I veteran, serving in France.

Wilbur, the last son, was born in 1895 and died in 1970.  He also stayed close to Andrews for most of his life, except for the time he spent in Russia during World War I as part of the "Michigan" Polar Bears.  He married Gretta Cleo Aldridge, the daughter of Harvey and Margaret Dunham Aldridge, and they had 16 children, 8 of whom died as infants or toddlers.  Charles, Vivian, Kenneth, Eldon, Evelyn, Maxine, Raymond, and Phyllis, sadly, were all in this category.  Those who lived to adulthood are James, Anna Mae, Mary, Norman, Norma, Bonnie, Donald, and one other still living.  All of these had children, but since many of the grandchildren of Wilbur and Cleo are still living, I will not mention any of their names.  (Also, I doubt that I have them all. There were nearly 50 grandchildren.  Some of these grandchildren are now great grandparents themselves.)  Therefore, this is my last post about the Beeks family.

Elizabeth  died in 1922 and five years later, John married Winifred Knight, daughter of William and Elisabeth Boxell Knight.  She had been married twice before, to William Rowland, who died, and to William Gwynn, who filed for divorce in 1918.  Her 1943 obituary refers to only her first marriage, and she died in Dayton, Ohio, so there was possibly another divorce or at least a separation from John.  

John and Elizabeth left only one child who had children, to the best of my knowledge.  But the Beeks family is alive and thriving, many still in Huntington County or nearby, and some in locations such as Florida and Texas.  There have been many sad funerals to attend as age and accidents take their toll, but this is a family that loves and supports each other.