SIMON
P. BECKLEY. Farm Industry in Carroll County has found a
vigorous and effective exponent in the person of Mr. Beckley, who is
the owner of a large and well improved landed estate in Lee Township, though
he has deeded a considerable part of his farm property to his sons, the
remainder of his land being rented and his home being now in the attractive
village of Harlem Springs, where he is living virtually retired, though he
still has general supervision of his farm properties and other business
interests.
Mr. Beckley was born in Jefferson County, Ohio,
on the 9th of September, 1859 and is a son of John and Susanna (Reigle)
Beckley. He was a mere boy at the time of the death of his parents
and was reared in the home of Sylvester Moorehead, of Jefferson
County, his early educational advantages having been those of the local
schools and farm work of all kinds having become familiar to him in his
youth, so that he was well fortified when he initiated his independent
career as a agriculturist and stock-grower. For four years after his
marriage, which occurred in 1883, he resided on the farm of his
father-in-law, in Lee Township, Carroll County, and he then purchased a farm
near Amsterdam, that township. There he remained ten years, and he
then rented a farm near Harlem Springs, where he remained two years.
He then traded his farm near Amsterdam for 160 acres in section 22, Lee
Township. He established his home on this latter place and made
numerous improvements of substantial and permanent order. There he
continued his farming operations until 1911, and the following two years he
resided at Harlem Springs. He next passed two years at Carrollton, and
since that time he and his wife have maintained their home at Harlem
Springs, where they own an attractive residence property. In the home
farm are comprised 240 acres, and in addition to this Mr. Beckley
became the owner of an additional tract, of 200 acres, in another part of
Lee Township, where his wife owns a farm of 120 acres. Of this landed
estate he has deeded 262 acres to his two sons, and the remainder of the
land he rents to good tenants. Mr. Beckley is found arrayed in
the ranks of the republican party, and he served one term as trustee of Lee
township. Both he and his wife are active members of the Presbyterian
Church of Harlem Springs and he is a member of its Board of Trustees.
In 1883 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Beckley
to Miss Martha A. Gotschall, who was born in Jefferson County but
reared and educated in Carroll County, where her parents, Samuel and
Betsy A. (George) Gotschall, established their home, in Lee Township,
when she was a child. Of the children of Mr. and Mrs. Beckley the
eldest is Samuel S., who is one of the progressive farmers of Lee
Township. He married Miss Odessa Marshall and they have three
children - Robert M., Homer S. and Freda, a fourth child,
Mary C., having died in infancy. Sarah Bell is the wife of
Charles W. Kail, of Perry Township, and they have one daughter,
Leona. James Ralph, who is a representative farmer in Union
Township, married Miss Hazel Greeg, and they have three children -
Ralph, Helen and Kenneth.
~ Page 932 History of Carroll and Harrison Counties, Ohio - Chicago:
Lewis Pub. Co., 1921 |
