THOMAS BECK
(1763-1840)

by Jane Duvall Smith (Mrs. Frank) Woolf

Thomas Beck was the first Beck settler of Kentucky.  He was born in Kent 
County, Maryland, in 1763, the fifth child of Samuel and Sara Davis Beck.

His father, Samuel, was commissioned as 2nd Lt., 13th Battalion Militia, 
in Kent County, Maryland, on June 4, 1778.  Thomas served as a Drummer Boy 
during the Revolution. He was a young lad of 13.

Thomas Beck married Ann Vickers, daughter of Benjamin and Rachel Roberts
Vickers, in Baltimore, Maryland in 1793.  He and his wife moved to Kentucky 
shortly thereafter.  They settled in Caldwell County on a large plantation, 
which they homesteaded.  Thomas was an old time physician, who pulled teeth, 
bled folks, and poured down lobelia tea.

A quote from an old letter of the late Marcus P. Molloy, the husband of 
Thomas's daughter, Ann said, "He was a man of considerable means, as he brought 
slaves with him from Maryland, and lived a pretentious life.

Thomas died in Livingston County, Kentucky on November 10, 1840. (Livingston 
County and Caldwell County were the same in those days)  Thomas was the father
of eleven children.

The only descendant of Thomas Beck who is a member of the Jacob Flournoy 
Chapter is Mrs. Frank Woolf.

Taken from the Fulton Daily Leader, Fulton, Kentucky, March 7, 1975