My Canadian Branches ~ The 3 Wives of Jacob Beck (1850-1938)

The main reason I wanted to talk to first cousin, 2x removed, Virginia Beck Golding in 2000 was to pick her memories of my Smith line. 72 years old back then, she came to our hotel room in Moncton, and told vivid stories of my great grandfather, the Baptist preacher, Wylie Herbert Smith, her Uncle Wylie. She really got my genealogy juices flowing 15 years ago. 

So, naturally, I am returning to her place in my Beck lineage and the information she passed on to me that evening in Moncton and in subsequent correspondence.

True to form, her father, Joseph Alexander Beck, married a Smith, my great grand aunt Estella Angelina Smith, in 1907. And it is with Joseph and Estella's marriage record that the puzzle presents itself.

The marriage record gave Joseph's parents, at the time of his marriage, as "Jacob & Late Charlotte Beck." This told me that Charlotte was deceased by 1907, but I still didn't have her maiden name. It took Joseph's death record to find it.

 

Now I had Charlotte's maiden name. It was Mattix. My cousin, "Mrs. Alden Golding." was the informant of her father's death.

The 1881 Census of Canada shows Jacob's first wife, spelled as "Sharlot," as well as Joseph's three older sisters, Alberta, Anna, and Orpa. Joseph was born two years later in 1883.

Sadly, a 1928 transcription of the graves in the Elgin Baptist Burial Ground, aka the Old Elgin Cemetery, lists Charlotte, wife of Jacob, Jr. d. 1887, ae 27 years. 

Two years later, Jacob married for a second time, this time to Priscilla Capson.

A child was born to Jacob and his second wife in the fall of 1889, and named Lottie Jane. Unfortunately, Lottie Jane only lived about a year, and her cause of death was particularly poignant, "The Lord wanted her."

A more "scientific" explanation of her death was deduced when her mother Priscilla's death occurred 17 days later. She had been suffering from "Consumption" (modern day Tuberculosis) for about 8 months. She was 24 when she died.

It was another two years before Jacob married again, and this time it was probably a practical close-to-home choice. He married Priscilla's younger sister Minnie.

Soon after marrying, Jacob and Minnie (Minerva Bernice) moved across the nearby border to the States. The 1900 US Census shows them living in Calais, Maine, with 3 of their 6 children born there.

Minnie Beck outlived Jacob, who died on August 20, 1938. Minnie died two years later in 1940, and is buried with Jacob in Oak Bay Cemetery, Oak Bay, Charlotte County, New Brunswick.

Oak Bay Cemetery
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nbstdavi/photooakbaycem.html

Sources:

1881 Census of Canada; Census Place: Elgin, Albert, New Brunswick; Roll: C_13177; Page: 63; Family No: 253.

1900 US Census; Census Place: Calais, Washington, Maine; Roll: 601; Page: 17B; Enumeration District: 0198; FHL microfilm: 1240601.

Kanner, Ken and V. Bing Geldart, Marriages Register 1846-1887, Albert County (1984), Ref. 1625, p.91.

New Brunswick. Dept. of Health and Social Services. Index to Death Certificates (RS141C5), Reg. 4927, Vol. 220, Microfilm F20848. Provincial Archives of New Brunswick, Fredericton, NB, Canada. http://archives.gnb.ca/. Accessed  and downloaded 5/28/2012.

New Brunswick. Dept. of Health and Social Services. Index to New Brunswick Marriages (RS141B7), No. 1144, Code B4/1907, Microfilm F15925. Provincial Archives of New Brunswick, Fredericton, NB, Canada. http://archives.gnb.ca/. Accessed  and downloaded 5/28/2012.

New Brunswick. Dept. of Health and Social Services. Vital Statistics from Government Records (RS141), Index to New Brunswick Marriages (RS141B7), No. 45, Code B4/1889, Microfilm F13388. Provincial Archives of New Brunswick, Fredericton, NB, Canada. http://archives.gnb.ca/. Accessed and downloaded 1/25/2015.

New Brunswick. Dept. of Health and Social Services. Vital Statistics from Government Records (RS141), Index to County Death Registers (RS141C1), Code C1b, Page 9, Line 73, Microfilm F13391. Provincial Archives of New Brunswick, Fredericton, NB, Canada. http://archives.gnb.ca/. Accessed  and downloaded 2/7/2015.

"New Brunswick Provincial Deaths, 1815-1938," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1-159391-991320-5?cc=1840147) : accessed 25 January 2015), 004529710 > image 721 of 1211; Provincial Archives, Fredericton.

"New Brunswick Provincial Deaths, 1815-1938," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1-159391-991517-76?cc=1840147) : accessed 25 January 2015), 004529710 > image 722 of 1211; Provincial Archives, Fredericton.