Multnomah-Jackson County OR Archives Biographies.....Beekman, Benjamin B. August 3, 1863 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/or/orfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Ila L. Wakley iwakley@msn.com June 2, 2007, 6:47 pm Author: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company BENJAMIN B. BEEKMAN is a member of an old and honored family of Oregon and has an intimate knowledge of the history of the commonwealth. For many years he occupied a position of prominence in legal circles of Portland and is one of the best known Masons in the state. He was born August 3, 1863, in Jacksonville, Oregon, and is a descendant of Maarten Beekman, who married Susannah Jans and emigrated from Holland to America in 1638. Their son Hendrick Beekman and his wife, Annetje Quackenbosh, were the parents of Marten Beekman, who married Elizabeth Waldron, and their son John Beekman fought in the Revolutionary war, in the Somerset county, New Jersey, militia. He and his wife, Arrianyte Tunison, were the great-great-grand parents of Benjamin B. Beekman. His father, Cornelius C. Beekman, was the son of Benjamin B. Beekman (1804-1879) and Lydia (Compton) Beekman (1860-1891) and was born January 27, 1828, in New York city. In 1830 his parents removed to Dundee, Yates county, in western New York, where his father established himself in business as a building contractor and sash, door and blind manufacturer. He received his education in the public schools and when sixteen years old began to learn the carpenter’s trade, under his father’s direction, and in the course of several years became a skilled workman. He then became a clerk and salesman in a general merchandise store and was so employed when the exciting news of the discovery of gold in California spread throughout the east. He soon decided to seek his fortune in the new Eldorado. His mother was strongly opposed to his going so far away and dissuaded his father from giving him financial assistance to make the trip. However, he obtained a loan of the necessary sum from his employer on his note, which he secured by a life insurance policy with premiums thereon paid several years in advance. This loan he repaid within a few years and many years thereafter reciprocated the favor by a loan to his old employer when in financial straits. In the spring of 1850 he started on the momentous journey to California. Three companions went with him as far as New York city, but there their courage and desire for gold failed them and they returned to their homes. Undaunted, and wisely and providently providing himself with a carefully selected chest of carpenter’s tools, he took passage for Colon by way of Havana. He crossed the isthmus and arrived safely in Panama with his precious tools, but found several thousand men, most of whom had paid for through transportation to San Francisco anxiously and impatiently waiting for steamer accommodation. Having paid for transportation to Panama only and learning that a British bark was in the harbor, he hired natives to row him out to the vessel, and, after desperate appeal and persuasion, secured passage to San Francisco from an, at first, very gruff and obdurate captain. On his return to shore he was surrounded by men who, upon learning that no additional passages would be sold by the captain, began to bid for his passage. The bidding had reached a bonus of $500 when he peremptorily declined to consider any offer. The vessel was becalmed on the way and seven weeks elapsed before he arrived at San Francisco, eager and fearless, but with just enough money for a day’s board and lodging. On the morning after his arrival he set forth in search of work. Being a skilled workman and equipped with the necessary tools, he at once secured employment and received wages of an ounce of gold per day. He delayed going to the mines as there were many unfavorable rumors relative to the opportunities for obtaining paying claims. Desiring, however, to be nearer to the scene of mining activities he secured a position as ship’s carpenter on a boat plying between San Francisco and Sacramento. At Sacramento he soon learned that, while large numbers were still equipping and leaving for the various mining sections, almost as many were coming out and reporting that all desirable claims had been staked and that many claims were about worked out. After several months’ service on the river boat he resumed his work at San Francisco at the ounce of gold per day wage and bought an interest, as silent partner, in two restaurants, one of which was located on the present site of the Chronicle building. The following year he started for the mines in northern California, going by way of Eureka on Humboldt Bay. The party, of which he was a member, was snowbound in the mountains for several weeks and, with provisions exhausted, was forced to resort to mule meat to sustain life. The party, however, reached Scott’s Bar in safety and during that season he and his partner worked a claim which yielded them eight thousand dollars in gold dust. At the close of the season he went to the Klamath river and, with a number of associates, constructed a mining wing dam, which was swept away by high water following the early fall rains and he lost all that he had made at Scott’s Bar. He then went to the mining camp of Yreka, where for a short time he followed the carpenter’s trade, building miners’ cabins and making twenty dollars or more a day. While in Yreka he acted as attorney for three miners before the miners’ court and, although opposed by an experienced attorney, won all three of his cases. Captain Wadsworth, father of Henry Wadsworth, for many years cashier of the Wells Fargo & Company Bank at San Francisco, was the Yreka agent of the Cram Rogers Express Company, a branch of the Adams Express Company. Mr. Beekman became well acquainted with Captain Wadsworth and often assisted him in his work and had charge of the express office while Captain Wadsworth was absent at meals and at other times. When the Cram Rogers Express Company extended its service to Jacksonville, Oregon, in the late fall of 1852, Mr. Beekman and W. O. Brastow, afterward superintendent of the Wells Fargo Express Company, upon Captain Wadsworth’s recommendation, became the express messengers between Yreka and Jacksonville. Occasionally Mr. Beekman made trips between Jacksonville and Crescent City to meet vessels which came in there. He remained in the service of the Cram Rogers Express Company until 1856 when the company failed as a result of the failure of the Adams Express Company. He immediately established his own express messenger service between Jacksonville and Yreka, a distance of about sixty-five miles, and for nearly seven years thereafter made two and, in busy seasons, three round trips per week. In the same year he established a gold dust buying office in Jacksonville, placing in charge thereof U. S. Hayden, who was elected by the miners as supreme alcalde of Jacksonville to review an unpopular decision of the first alcalde. The gold dust buying establishment soon developed a banking business. He personally operated the express messenger service, riding horseback and using three mounts to cover the distance of sixty-five miles. He secured the best horses obtainable, one favorite mount, a thoroughbred Spanish horse, costing him a thousand dollars. During the periods of Indian hostilities he made the trips at night and used mules over the Siskiyou Mountain trail, finding them more sure-footed, less noisy and better able to keep the trail. At the beginning of his messenger service he received five per cent for the transportation of gold dust and gold coin and one dollar each for letters and newspapers carried. In 1863, when the Wells Fargo Express Company extended its service northward into Oregon, he retired from the messenger service business and obtained the agency of the company at Jacksonville, which he retained for forty-two years, as it enabled him to ship gold dust, gold coin and currency without publicity. In 1858 he erected a bank building on California street, Jacksonville, in which was constructed a commodious and strongly built stone vault, which served for many years as the strong box of the people of the Rogue river valley and the adjacent territory. In that building he continued and successfully conducted his banking business until his death on February 22, 1915. In the earlier years of the banking business, instead of paying interest on deposits, he received one per cent a month for the safe keeping of gold dust and gold coin. In 1887 he associated Thomas G. Reames with him in the banking business under the firm name of Beekman & Reames, continuing the business in his own name after the death of Mr. Reames in 1900. Mr. Beekman was regarded as one of Oregon’s foremost men and in 1878 was the republican candidate for governor, losing the election by only sixty-nine votes. In 1887 he was appointed a regent of the University of Oregon, serving until 1903, and, with the late Henry Failing, of Portland, was the donor of the fund for the Failing and Beekman prizes at that institution. He was a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason and had the honor and distinction of serving as worshipful master of Warren Lodge, No. 10, A. F. & A. M., for twelve consecutive years. He represented the finest type of the Oregon pioneer and his memory is revered by all who were privileged to know him. Julia Elizabeth (Hoffman) Beekman, the mother of Benjamin B. Beekman, was born in Attica, Indiana, October 1, 1839. Her parents, William Hoffman (1801- 1885) and Caroline Barbara (Shaffer) Hoffman (1813-1900) were born in Maryland and were married in Baltimore in 1836. In 1853, after seventeen years residence in Indiana, William Hoffman, with his wife and six daughters, and accompanied by his sister and her husband, Dr. Henry McKinnell, the pioneer homeopathic physician of Portland, made the overland journey to Oregon, arriving in the Rogue River valley in October of that year. For two years he operated a dairy and chicken farm about four miles east of Jacksonville, residing in a frame house painted white and for several years known throughout the valley as the “White House.” In 1855, having been elected county auditor under the territorial government, he removed with his family to Jacksonville. There he built a permanent home, with spacious grounds, where he and Mrs. Hoffman passed their remaining years serenely and happily and where their six daughters were married. He served as county clerk from 1859 to 1866 and also as U. S. Commissioner, by appointment of Judge Matthew P. Deady, and engaged in the hardware business for a number of years. He was a devout and faithful elder of the Jacksonville Presbyterian church and took a keen interest in religious and public affairs. His was a hospitable home made additionally attractive by the presence of six eligible daughters. The messenger route of Cornelius C. Beekman ran directly past the Hoffman dairy farm and there he first met the daughter Julia, a meeting which culminated in their marriage at Jacksonville, January 27, 1861. To them were born three children: Benjamin B., Carrie C. (a resident of Jacksonville), and Lydia L., who died in 1873, when a child of six years. For several generations past the Beekman family has been inclined to the use of a middle letter without a middle name. Of the six Hoffman sisters, five (Mrs. Mary H. Vining, of Ashland; Mrs. George B. Dorris, of Eugene; Mrs. Florence Whipp, of Fallon. Nevada; and Mrs. C. C. Beekman and Mrs. Kate F. Hoffman, of Jacksonville) are still living (1928), the youngest being seventy-eight and the eldest ninety-one years of age. The other sister, Mrs. David Lime, passed away in 1907. With the passing of the ‘50s the hardships, perils and privations incident to pioneer life in the Rogue River valley came to an end, and the rough and turbulent mining camp of Jacksonville was transformed into a prosperous and well ordered town and became the principal business, financial and political centre of southern Oregon. The ‘60s and ‘70s may be regarded as the closing and golden years of the pioneer era in that section of the state, and the boys and girls of that period lived amid an environment not only of rare natural beauty but also of plenty and contentment, and enjoyed, in abundant measure, the advantages and opportunities of well settled and progressive community life. The childhood and youth of Benjamin B. Beekman, as of the average boy of that time and place, were happy and full of the joy of living and untouched and untroubled by the harder and more exacting conditions of the earlier years. In 1869 he started to school in the newly erected two- story public school building, his teacher being that worthy pioneer woman, Mrs. Jane McCully. The following year Mrs. McCully, with her daughter Mollie, opened a private school, in which he was a pupil for several years. Later he was taught by Professor W. J. Stanley and Professor Banford Robb. In the fall of 1875 he became a student under Professor John W. Merritt, who was a graduate of a normal school in New York and an exceptionally capable educator. He studied under Professor Merritt for five years and holds him in grateful and affectionate remembrance for his unfailing kindness and inspiring influence. Frank A. Huffer, now a well known lawyer of Seattle, was Mr. Beekman’s classmate and constant companion. Although the Jacksonville public school was of grammar grade, by special permission of the board of directors and through the kindly interest and zeal of Professor Merritt, they received instruction in latin, higher mathematics and other high school subjects and were able to matriculate at the University of Oregon as full freshmen and to graduate at the end of the usual four year period. During 1879-80, their last year under Professor Merritt, they had night lessons in latin and greek at the home of their instructor, the Friday evening lessons being usually curtailed and followed by hardly contested games of chess, the two students being matched against the teacher, with victory generally resting with the latter. In the fall of 1880 Mr. Beekman and Mr. Huffer entered the University of Oregon. Mr. Beekman was graduated with the class of 1884 and Mr. Huffer, who was obliged, by financial reverses, to drop out for a couple of years, with the class of 1886, each receiving the degree of B. A. During the year 1884-85 Mr. Beekman was an instructor of latin, greek, algebra and geometry in the preparatory department of the University and was urged by President Johnson and other members of the faculty to continue his work as a teacher in that institution but he preferred the profession of law. In 1886 he matriculated in the law school of Yale University from which he graduated in 1888 with the degree of LL. B. Immediately following his graduation he was admitted to the Connecticut bar and, upon his return to Oregon in the spring of 1889, was admitted to practice by the supreme court of Oregon. In the fall of 1889 he came to Portland and associated himself with the firm of Watson, Hume & Watson and also with Robert G. Morrow, now circuit judge for Multnomah county, until 1893, when he became a member of the firm of Watson, Beekman & Watson. This relationship was dissolved by the death of Judge J. F. Watson in 1897 and was succeeded by the firm of Watson & Beekman which continued until the death of Judge E. B. Watson in 1915. Mr. Beekman was a member of the faculty of the University of Oregon law school in Portland from 1907 to 1915. After the affairs of the firm of Watson & Beekman he retired from active practice in the latter part of 1916 and has since devoted his attention to personal affairs and to various organization activities. Mr. Beekman’s fraternal, social and other affiliations and associations have been numerous and varied. In 1889, shortly after coming to Portland, he enlisted in the Oregon National Guard and was a member of old Company K, of the First Regiment until 1892. While a student at Yale University law school he became a charter member of Waite Chapter of the legal fraternity of Phi Delta Phi. He is a Charter member of the University Club of Portland and served as its president in 1909-10. He is also a charter member of the Oregon Historical Society and has served as a director thereof since 1921 and is at present (1928) its vice president. In 1920 he donated a fund to the society, in memory of his father, the income whereof is used to provide four annual prizes and medals as awards for meritorious essays written by Oregon school girls and boys, between fifteen and eighteen years of age, on subjects relating to the history of Oregon and the United States. He became an early member of the Oregon Society of the Sons of the American Revolution and served as the president of the society from 1921 to 1926. He is a life member of the Multnomah Amateur Athletic Club and is also affiliated with the Multnomah County, the Oregon and the American Bar Associations. In 1923, when the Oregon Alpha Chapter, Phi Beta Kappa, was installed at the University of Oregon, he was initiated as an alumnus member. He is a Knight Templar and a Scottish Rite Mason, has served continuously since 1910 as commander of Multnomah Council of Kadosh, No. 1, in the Scottish Rite, at Portland, and in 1913 was honored with the thirty-third degree by the Supreme Council of the Rite. He is also a life member of Al Kader Temple of the Mystic Shrine. In 1909-10 and again in 1924-25 he served as grand orator of the Grand Lodge of A. F. & A. M. of Oregon. In recent years he has been active in the promotion of the observance of Constitution Day and in the work of the Portland Americanization Council. He is a stanch republican in politics, and while he has never aspired to official position, he has steadily maintained a deep interest in public and community affairs. Aspiring to high ideals, he has used practical methods in their attainment and his life has been a constantly expanding force for good citizenship. Additional Comments: History of the Columbia River Valley From The Dalles to the Sea, Vol. II, Pages 343-347 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/or/multnomah/bios/beekman385gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/orfiles/ File size: 18.7 Kb