Gustavous Winfield Beecher 1
- Born: Feb 1848, Tuscawarus Twp., Stark County, OH 2
- Marriage (1): Jennie
- Marriage (2): Angeline Feeler on 4 Feb 1885 in San Diego, San Diego, CA 1
- Died: 18 Nov 1915, , Los Angeles, CA at age 67 1 3
Other names for Gustavous were Augustus Becker,4 Augustus Beecher, G. W. Beecher,5 Gus Beecher, Gustav W. Beecher,3 Gustave Winfield Beecher,6 Gustavius W. Beecher 7 and G. W. Bucher.2
Noted events in his life were:
1. Census in 1850 in Tuscawarus Twp., Stark County, OH. 4 Isaac Becker, tailor, 40, was living with wife Mary, 39; Alexr, 19; Ann, 15; Anthony, 12; James, 4; and Augustus, 1. Also in the home: Ann Shaw, 85 [mother-in-law]; and Rudy Harris, 23. Everyone was born in Pennsylvania except Ohio for James and Augustus.
2. He was educated at LaGrange Collegiate Institute in 1856 in Ontario, LaGrange, IN. 8 List of STUDENTS- GENTLEMEN:
...
Gustavus Beecher, Lima 1856....................................S California
...
3. Census in 1860 in Lima Twp., LaGrange, IN. 9 Isaac Beecher, day laborer, 54, was living with wife Amanda, 50; James, 14; Gustavius, 11; Margaret, 8. Isaac and Amanada were born in Pennsylvania, the children in Ohio. Isaac had no real estate value; his possessions were worth $163.
Living on the same page: James Beecher, 31, boot & shoemaker; his wife Maryann, 27; Louisa L., 8; Daniel B., 6; and Henry M., 1. James' real estate was worth $200 and his personal possessions $150. Everyone was born in Ohio.
On the next page: Alexander W. Beecher, clerk, 28; his wife Adalaid P., 23; Charles H., 3; and Edward, 1. Alexander was born in Pennsylvania, his wife and children in Indiana. His real estate was worth $600 and personal possessions $250.
4. Census in 1870 in Tehama Twp., Tehama, CA. 5 G.W. Beecher, laborer, 21, was living with wife Jennie, 18, in a building headed by Geo. Champlin, 43, and his wife Nellie, 33. There are 10 other single people in the 20's living with them, so it appears like Geo. is running a business with his employees living with him. Geo.'s occupation is "Stock." but he has no real estate value and his personal estate is worth $1000. He was born in Rhode Island, his wife in Pennsylvania. G.W. and wife were born in Ohio.
[Note: Nellie is Gus Beecher's sister who married George Champlin in San Francisco. See Champlin for his complete biography which was published, which describes his occupation as a miner and later running livestock ranches in California. Per the above census listing, it looks like Gus Beecher was working on one of those ranches. The book also mentions that George returned to Nellie's former home in Lima, Indiana where their first child was born, and then they returned to California.].
5. Occupation: Rancher in 1872 in Red Bluff, Tehama, CA. 6
6. Census in 1880 in Red Bluff, Tehama, CA. 10 Geo. Champlin, farmer, 52, was living with wife Nellie [nee Beecher], 44; George, 8; and Mary, 2. Also in this home are others with surname Beecher: Jennie, 26, sister-in-law, housekeeper; Fannie, 18, niece; Jno. W. , nephew, farmer, 23; Chas., nephew, farmer, 21; G. W., brother-in-law, merchant, 29 [husband of Jennie]. Also: brother Lester Champlin, 26, stockman; and boarder J. G. Brown, 51, horseman. There were living at 29 Hickory Street.
Birthplaces:
Geo. Champlin: RI, father CT, mother RI
Neillie: PA, father OH, mother PA
George: IN, father RI, mother PA
Mary: CA, father RI, mother PA
Jennie Beecher: OH, father OH, mother PA
Fannie Beecher: OH, father OH, mother PA
Jno W. Beecher: OH, father OH, mother PA
Chas Beecher: OH, father OH, mother PA
G. W. Beecher: OH, father OH, mother PA
Lester: PA, father CT, mother RI.
7. On 10 Feb 1887 in Kingman, Mohave, AZ. 11 The first church in Kingman was organized on February 10, 1887. The methodist Episcopal Church of Kingman was formed and the first directors of the organization were Gus W. Beecher, E. L. Burdick, William G. Blakely, Ebenezer "Eb" Williams and Eugene D. Whipple. Col. L. C. Almond, attorney for Conrad Shenfield, donated lots 2, 4 and 6 of block 15 in the Kingman Townsite for the location of the church.
8. Book: Memorial & Biographical History of Northern California, 1891. 12
Note: The reason Gus Beecher ended up mining and cattle stocking in California is likely because his sister, Nellie, married a colorful explorer named George Champlin. Gus, his brother, and nephews worked and lived with George, whose story was published in a history book. Here's part of it that pertains to the Beechers...
GEORGE CHAMPLIN.-Among the representative citizens of Northern California, and especially of Tehama County, this gentleman holds an honorable place. He is a native of Rhode Island, born at Providence June 14, 1827, his parents being Jabez and Sarah Ann (Cole) Champlin.
George Champlin, the eldest of the eleven children of Jabez Champlin, lived from the age of five to eighteen years on a farm in Bradford County, Pennsylvania, attending the common schools of that county until he was sixteen, and the two subsequent years at the high school of Owego, New York. He taught school one year in Bradford County, and subsequently went to Norwich, Connecticut, for the purpose of recuperating and recovering his wonted strength lost in an attack of sickness two years before. He remained at Norwich one summer, during the fall went to Providence and New Bedford visiting, and in the winter attended school at the latter place, making his home with his uncle and aunt, Mr. and Mrs. Ebenezer Ryder; Mrs. Ryder is the sister of his mother. The following summer he worked upon a farm east of Providence, and in the fall engaged as baggage boy on the steamer Bay State, plying between New York and Fall River, and was engaged on her for six months, after which he was on another steamer under Captain Van Pelt, running between Norwich and New York, until the commencement of the winter, 1848.
Early in 1849 he, in company with twenty others, bought the schooner Odd Fellow, a fishing smack of ninety-two tons' burden, provisioned her for a three-years' cruise, and sailed from New London, Connecticut, February 2, 1849, for California. They made only one stop at Port Famine, in the Straits of Magellan, for wood and water, and then set sail again direct for San Francisco, where they arrived July 2, 1849. There they loaded their vessel with passengers and freight and sailed for Sacramento, and on their arrival there they put up a skeleton house, covered it with canvas which the company had made on shipboard on the way to California, and put in it their provisions and cooking stove, thus making a home for the company, which was a joint-stock concern. Then a portion of the company went to the mines, while the rest remained on the vessel, and ran her on the river transporting freight and passengers. Mr. Champlin was among the former number. They went up on the North Yuba River, and, after mining there for about a month with poor success, they returned to Sacramento, from which point each one struck out for himself.
Mr. Champlin again went up the Yuba River, this time alone; but becoming sick there he again went back to Sacramento, having on his way back, at Marysville, his first experience with chills and fever. Arriving at Sacramento he went directly to the company house, and after a few days' rest there he started out again for the American River, and brought up at a place called Rock Springs, about two miles from Condemned Bar. There he found a Mormon living with his family in a brush house, which he conducted as a boarding-house, with one eating table, and in which he also kept a store. He also had a yoke of oxen, a wagon and two cows. As he was anxious to sell out Mr. Champlin and a man named Bronson bought his effects. Mr. Champlin carried on business there from October, 1849, until the following summer, when he sold out to B.N. Bugbee, afterward sheriff, and the man who started the Natoma vineyard and failed.
Mr. Champlin then went to Sacramento and entered a commission house with James Barnett from Virginia. He was thus engaged until the following summer, when the firm dissolved partnership and went out of business, our subject going up the Sacramento River to Grand Island, where, in company with Isaac Rand, he engaged in cutting hay, which was sold to parties all the way from there up the Sacramento River to Shasta. After that he engaged in ranching at the head of Grand Island, in partnership with John Fitch. He remained there about two years, but as he suffered severely from fever and ague, he left there and went up South Yuba River to the mountains and engaged in mining, which he followed with very poor success, for the next year. He then went to Snow Point and went to work in the drift diggings, at underground work for Frank Hayes. After a year there he and John Miller took up a quartz ledge at Eureka, where they took out a six-horse load of quartz, had it hauled to a water-mill about three miles from Eureka, where it was crushed, and then they found that they had hardly enough gold to pay the cost of crushing. From there Mr. Champlin went to Moore's Flat, Nevada County, where he went to work in the Paradise Lost drifting mine, and after two weeks was promoted to the position of night foreman, which he held for about two years. He then left there and went to Sutter County, where he engaged in the cattle business in company with John Miller, his sister keeping house for him, she having come out meantime. This partnership was dissolved in 1860, and Mr. Champlin came in November of that year to Tehama County. On the day on which Abraham Lincoln was first elected president, he bought 500 sheep in partnership with his brother-in-law. William Woodward, from Rawson & Grayson. He bought lands and managed them in connection with his sheep until 1865, when he sold sheep and ranch to J.S. Cone. In 1866 he went to Oregon and bought a band of wethers, which he drove down here and sold them to J.S. Todhunter, late in the fall of the same year.
In November, 1866, he was married, in San Francisco, and went directly thence to Red Bluff. In February, 1867, he bought the ranch of Rawson & Grayson, consisting of 3,300 acres of land together with 2,000 sheep and about 1,600 lambs. He conducted that ranch alone for about a year, then Phillips & Chandler acquired an interest with him. They carried on the business together about three years, and in the fall of 1869 Mr. Champlin sold the ranch and sheep to Brown & Curtis.
In the summer of 1871 he went East with his wife, and while on this trip their son was born in August, 1870, at Lima, LaGrange County, Indiana. They returned to California in the fall of 1876, and soon after our subject, in company with Phillips & Chandler, bought back the old ranch from Brown & Curtis. They ran it together until February, 1884, when they sold the ranch and farming utensils with a portion of the sheep to Albert Gallatin. In November, 1883, Phillips & Chandler's interest, eight years before selling to Gallatin, and Boggs & Champlin sold to Gallatin.
Governor Stanford, by Ariel Lathrop, his attorney, went into partnership with Mr. Champlin in the sheep business on the outside lands of the Vina ranch, where they owned from 18,000 to 20,000 head. He also has a one-half interest with Drs. West and Westlake in 509 acres of orchard land at Vina, of which 400 acres are in fruit rented out with an annual increasing rental, which is now $5,000 per year. He owns, with W.H. Kruger, Bell & Waldeyer and E.T. Farnham, a one-quarter interest in 14,000 acres of timber land in Butte and Plumas counties, the concern being organized into a joint-stock company. He also owns 1,500 acres of timber land in Mendocino County. Mr. Champlin has had a busy life, and for years has had large interests to look after, but has always preserved a calm exterior and a pleasant demeanor. He is a good example of the typical California pioneer-a "success" among that grand body of men-the pick and flower of all States and all countries, who congregated in California in 1849, and here met in the great struggle of supremacy. Only the best specimens came to the top in that struggle between such competitors.
Mr. and Mrs. Champlin have two children: George Beecher, who was born at Lima, Indiana, August 25, 1871, and Mamie, who was born in Red Bluff May 6, 1878. Mrs. Champlin's maiden name was Nellie Beecher. She is a native of Pennsylvania, born in Lancaster County, and daughter of Isaac and Mary (Shaw) Beecher, the father born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, of German and English ancestry, and the mother in Philadelphia, of Scotch origin. When Mrs. Champlin was in her third year, her parents removed to eastern Ohio and thence to northern Indiana, when she was a young girl. Her father died at Lima, Indiana, about 1873, and her mother now resides there, at the age of eighty-one years. Mrs. Champlin came to California in 1859, arriving in October, and was married to Mr. Champlin at San Francisco, November 24, 1867. She is a lady of rare accomplishments, and with her husband takes a great interest and pride in the future of their promising children.
9. Evidence: 1891, Kingman, Mohave, AZ. "Picnic to Jack Johnsons. First stagecoach owned by Taggart and Beecher." Richard Taggart and Gus Beecher were prominent local merchants in Kingman and Mineral Park. This is probably a Taggart and Beecher coach belonging to the Kingman/Mineral Park Stage Line although the panel on the side of the coach reads "Arizona Coach Company."
See photo at:
http://azmemory.lib.az.us/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/mmhtrnhist&CISOPTR=11&CISOBOX=1&REC=13.
10. Census in 1900 in Kingman, Mohave, AZ. 2 G. W. Beecher was indexed in 1900 Census as Bucher since the two ee's look like a u in handwriting. He is listed as age 52, born Feb 1848, occupation mining broker, and married for 15 years to his wife, Angie, 39, born Jul 1860. She had birthed 5 children, all alive in 1900. Living with them: Sumner, 14, Mar 1886; Gladys, 9, Feb 1891; and Ruth, 4, Aug 1895. Ruth was born in California, and the other two children in Arizona. Angie was born in Iowa, her parents' birthplace "unknown." G. W. was born in Ohio and his parents in Pennsylvania. He owned the home at 408 N. Main St.
11. Pension: for the Civil War in 1903. Name: Gustavus Beecher
Rank:
Company: F
Regiment: 152
State: Indiana
Arm of service: Infantry
Event date: 1903
State/Arm of service: Ind. Inf.
Company/Regiment: F,152
Publication title: Organization Index to Pension Files of Veterans Who Served Between 1861 and 1900
NARA publication number: T289
Publisher: National Archives and Records Administration
Collection title: Civil War Pensions
Collection: Civil War Pension Index Cards.
12. Evidence: 1910, Kingman, Mohave, AZ. Fletcher Talbert and Ora Gruninger families on a Sunday outing near Kingman, Arizona ca. 1910. Mr. Talbert may have been connected to Richard Taggart, a prominent Kingman business man who partnered with Gus Beecher to run the Kingman-Mineral Park Stage line. Mr. Gruninger came to Kingman in 1908 and was a building contractor before working for the Mohave County Assessor's Office. He later became a Justice of the Peace in Kingman.
See photo at http://azmemory.lib.az.us/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/mmhtrnhist&CISOPTR=23&CISOBOX=1&REC=10.
13. Death Certificate: 18 Nov 1915, , Los Angeles, CA. 3 Gustav W. Beecher, 64, died 11/18/1915, in Los Angeles County. #34445.
Gustavous married Jennie. (Jennie was born about 1852 in , , OH 5 6.)
Gustavous next married Angeline Feeler, daughter of Archibald Feeler and Marianne, on 4 Feb 1885 in San Diego, San Diego, CA.1 (Angeline Feeler was born in Jul 1860 in , , IA 2 13 and died on 8 Apr 1908 1.)
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