A full and eventful life has been the portion of Albert A. Beck, who has weathered both prosperity and adversity, and has built his fortunes anew with unfailing optimism. Born in Canajoharie, Montgomery County, N.Y., May 21, 1844, he was raised on a farm in that state. At the outbreak of the Civil War he enlisted in Company B, One Hundred Fifty-seventh New York Infantry, and served three years, receiving his discharge May 24, 1865, after seeing action in several of the important battles of the war; among them the battle of Honey Hill, S.C., on November 30, 1864, when he was wounded through the leg, his officers being Col. Philip Brown and Capt. Charles Van Slyke; the battles of Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, and Morris Island, opposite Fort Sumter. In August, 1865, he enlisted again in the regular army, in the Sixth United States Cavalry, Company I, and saw service in New Mexico and the Indian wars, under Captain Adna R. Chaffee, who later became commander-in-chief of the United States Army. He spent three years on the border and saw active service in many Indian wars.
After leaving the military service, Mr. Beck located in Cowley County, Kans., where he was engaged in freighting into the Indian Territory; in 1871 he took up government land in Cowley County and farmed and freighted until 1874, when he came to California. For three years he was in Los Angeles, and while there he came to Pomona in 1875, then but a small village. He returned to Kansas and again took up land and improved a farm. During the time he was there he leased his farm and went to Colorado, where he mined for about six months, but did not realize his ambitions, so he returned to his farm and farmed until 1887, when he once more came to California. He settled in San Diego for three years, and during that time he spent the year of 1888 in the placer mines in Lower California; he did not get rich, but he made wages, and he wears a nugget as a souvenir of his mining days. In 1890 he located in Pomona and for a time worked at drying fruit. He had lost everything received from the sale of his Kansas farm in the real estate boom in San Diego in 1888-1889, and when he arrived here he had just fifty cents as his capital. He worked at any kind of labor to get a start, and soon bought two acres of land on West Orange Grove Avenue, to which he added, in 1898, four more acres, all of which he planted to oranges and walnuts. All of this is now in the city limits of Pomona. He succeeded in his ranching with his limited area, and in 1918 his walnut crop netted him over $1,000.
Though the years have brought him many trying times, he is well and hearty at the age of seventy-five and is enjoying his declining years in the peace and prosperity of beautiful Pomona. A member of the G.A.R. Post of Arkansas City, Kans., having joined in 1878, he was transferred to the Post in San Diego, but when he came to Pomona he transferred to Vicksburg Post No. 61, of Pomona, of which he is still a member. He is a member of the First Christian Church. Mrs. Beck was active in church work as well as in the Women's Relief Corps.
On November 17, 1877, A.A. Beck was united in marriage with Mary E. Brash, born in Illinois, and of their six children five are still living. William H. now lives in Pomona, and is the father of a daughter; Fannie M. is the wife of William Horsewood of Los Angeles and the mother of three children; Bertha became the wife of G. Blewett and she has three children; Albert H. was a member of the supply train division of the United States Army, served with the Thirty-second Division of the Army of Occupation in Germany, and was overseas for eighteen months. He was honorably discharged and is now at home; Roy A. is on the home ranch with his father. Mrs. Beck passed away on November 17, 1909, after an active and useful life, and was mourned by a wide circle of devoted friends.
On July 3, 1913, while on a visit East in attendance at the fiftieth reunion of the Battle of Gettysburg of the Blue and the Grey, Mr. Beck dug up a small cedar tree which he sent to Pomona, and it was planted in Garfield Park, on East Holt Avenue. In 1919 he selected a California boulder, had an appropriate place engraved and set in the rock and it was placed as a monument by the tree he had secured from the historic battlefield by Park Superintendent Paige, whose father was also in the Battle of Gettysburg. Mr. Beck made another trip back East to attend the G.A.R. Convention at Columbus, Ohio, leaving Pomona on October 4, 1919, and after spending three weeks meeting relatives and old friends he returned to his Pomona home, well satisfied that he had cast his lot in the Golden State.
History of Pomona Valley, California, with Biographical Sketches
of The Leading Men and Women of the Valley Who Have Been
Identified With Its Growth and Development from the Early Days
to the Present
Published in Los Angeles, Cal., by the Historic Record Company
1920
Transcribed by Linda Jackson 10/05/08, Pages 506-509
Los Angeles County Biographies ~ Archive Biography Index ~ Archive Index
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