Elizabeth Healey Beck

Sketch read at the funeral of Mrs. Elizabeth Beck

Elizabeth Healey Beck 1858-1925

Sidney Kay Smith Creer's Great Grandmother

Elizabeth Healey Beck was the daughter of James and Mary Carlisle Healey and was born in Alpine, Utah – August 15, 1858. Her parents were of English birth and came to Utah in September, 1854, solely for the gospel of Jesus Christ to which they were converted in their native land. Thus, in a home where love for the gospel was always paramount. Sister Beck grew to womanhood and under the influence of such a home acquired a testimony of the truth from which she never wavered. Her education consisted of only what the little town of Alpine afforded at that early date. 

As a girl she was unassuming but possessed those rare qualities of being jovial without exhibiting boisterousness, clever but not sarcastic, an her ready wit and humor coupled with her good nature made her welcome in any crowd. But with all the pleasures attending youth she did not grow up without a realization of the hardships and poverty of the early pioneer days, and the financial aid she gave to the family before her marriage was greatly appreciated. She found employment in her marriage was greatly appreciated. She found employment in American Fork Canyon and in Salt Lake City and the amount she earned was freely given to the family to assist in the payment of taxes or help to supply the necessities of life. 

On October 2, 1878 she was married to Jacob S. Beck of Alpine where they made their home for about a year. Brother Beck then homesteaded his farm on Highland being among the first settlers there. They established there a permanent home where they lived until 1912, when they moved to American Fork. 

Five years ago Brother Beck died an since that time Sister Beck has lived with her children in American Fork, Idaho, and Salt Lake City respectively. About a month ago she went to Idaho to the home of her daughter Amanda and was in the best of health but was taken suddenly with pneumonia, and after seven days of illness, passed away on November 1, 1926. One great writer has truthfully said that “The greatest battles are not fought on the battlefield but are fought by the mothers of men”. Such was the life of Sister Beck. 

Fifteen times she passed through the valley of death to bring children into the world and fifteen times she came out triumphant and this she did willingly, never once feeling that one was unwelcome. Aside from the duties of caring for her large family, it was Sister Beck’s portion also to care for the many hired men necessary on their farm and many ties it took the day and long into the night to accomplish the work that must be done. All this she did without a complaining word and on every occasion filled her part nobly as daughter, wife and mother. 

Of her nine daughters, five are living, and four of her six sons are left to bear the family name. They are Mrs. Miriam Hicken of Heber, Mrs. Blanche Smith of Salt Lake City, Mrs. Amanda Whiteley of Oakley, Idaho, Vern, Floyd, and Reed of American Fork, Feramore Beck of Charleston, Mrs. Winifred Huffaker of Midway, and Mrs. Golda Sorenson of Bingham Canyon. She also has two brothers and two sisters living at Alpine, James C. and Richard J. Healey, Mrs. Martha Strong and Mrs. Jane Olsen. 

Her gentle presence filled a home With comfort and delight, That radiated from her soul Like soft celestial light. It fell around us like a glow Of sunshine from above. And filled our hearts with solace From a sweet transcendent love. Ah greater love hath none that this: For every life she gave Her own she put upon the rack, Serenely faced the grave. Her cup of sorrow oft’ ran o’er, The days filled up with cares; She lived to bless the lives she bore With love and tears and prayers. 

Elizabeth Healey and Jacob Beck

Elizabeth Healey and Jacob Beck (Emory's Grandparents)

Elizabeth Healey, second child of James and Mary Carlisle Healey, was born August 15, 1858 at Alpine, Utah County, Utah. Her birthplace, where she also spent her childhood was a log cabin with a dirt roof, located on a corner one block north of the church.

As one of the oldest children in a large family, Elizabeth faced heavy responsibilities early in life. While she was yet a young child she worked at milking and herding cows and tending chickens for a neighbor, Kitty Nash, in order to assist her family.

She had little opportunity for schooling, but she learned to read and enjoyed it throughout her life. She possessed a naturally sweet singing voice, which was a delight to all who knew her. A small woman, she was blessed with excellent health. She had a quiet and patient disposition.

When she was in her teens she went to Salt Lake City to work for a polygamous family. When she returned to Alpine, about the age of twenty, she was hired by Mrs. Nash, but this time as a cook in a sawmill in American Fork Canyon. Here she met Jacob Beck who was hauling ore from the mines there.

Jacob Stephenson Beck, son of Stephen Jensen and Kerstine Jacobson Beck, was born in Thorup, Denmark, July 20, 1848, the eldest son in a family of five. He and his parents were baptized in to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on the same day, February 26, 1857, when Jacob was nine years old. They had walked four miles in deep snow. Ice had to be cut so they could be immersed in the water.

Five years later they sailed as steerage passengers on the ship “Franklin” with six hundred others. It took six weeks to reach America. They traveled by train to Florence, Nebraska, where they fitted out for their trek across the plains. They left July 14, 1862, under Captain Christian A. Madsen and the Ole N. Lillenquist Company. They arrived in the Salt Lake valley September 23, 1862, Jacob having covered the entire distance on foot.

They lived two years in Lehi, Utah County, then moved north to Alpine. There was great need in the family. The boys hired out, often making only food and lodging in return for their work.
Jacob went to work in Brigham City. For a full summer’s labor he was paid one old sheep, a shotgun, and five gallons of molasses. Half the molasses went to pay his transportation back to Lehi.

After the family moved to Alpine, Jacob made his home with Bishop McCullough, who had no children of his own, until he was about nineteen. Then he was the stage keeper between Salt Lake City and Wyoming for two years. He purchased his own team and wagon and began hauling ore.

Elizabeth and Jacob were married October 2, 1878. They went to live in a two-room adobe home, which had been built for them by Jacob’s father, a carpenter, and his Uncle Frederick, a mason. This home and an adobe granary are still standing, so well were they constructed.

This home was where their fifteen children were to be born. It was located on a 160-acre homestead on what was then known as American Fork Bench (now Highland).
As soon as the newlyweds arrived on the homestead they began to clear the sagebrush for what was to become literally an empire. Other buildings were added to house their livestock. More and more crops and animals were added until the Beck Ranch became one of those selected for study by students from the Utah State Agricultural College in Logan. They would arrive by train to study the latest methods. Mr. Beck was the biggest cattle raiser in Utah County at one time, and his ranch furnished a ready market for all the feed that could be grown in the area. He invested in the Chipman Mercantile Company and other intuitions of the area, and was acclaimed by many of the farmers to have saved many of them from financial failure.

With fifteen children eventually arriving to bless their home, and as the ranch enlarged and many hired hands needed to be boarded, the home was enlarged to include ten rooms and two cellars. Several fine orchards grew about the home as young trees were planted.

Some years after crops had been put in there would not be a harvest for lack of water, and the father would then work in the mining camps in Nevada, Bingham, and Park City. Elizabeth would care for the stock and milk the cows, having everything ready for shipment when Jacob arrived home in the spring. Later another eighty acres were added to the homestead, making two hundred forty in all. More water rights were purchased and additional grazing rights were acquired in the Wasatch Mountains. They had a winter ranch at Goshen, south of Utah Lake, and they later extended their beef cattle business into the Gunnison valley.

Two homes were built on the original homestead for married sons who were assisting with the work. A corporation know as the Beck Land and Livestock Company was formed with Jacob and his four sons, Reed, Floyd, Stephen F., and Vern. This operated successfully until the father’s death, when a depression hit the industry forcing the brothers to sell their interests and dissolve the corporation.

In 1912 Elizabeth and Jacob retired from the ranch and purchased a home on Main Street in American Fork. Here the father continued to assist the sons with planning, selling, and buying. He had taken an active part in church affairs, and when Elizabeth was tied at home with the many children, it was he who took them to church in Alpine. He had been a stake missionary and was a member of the high priest quorum at the time of his death.

Elizabeth, relieved now of the heavy work of caring for the farm and the helper, as well as her family, now busied herself with entertaining all who came to visit. She had always worked hand in hand with her husband and often did things beyond her strength rather than have “Jake” wait upon her. In her new home she had a little leisure, which she spent in doing many types of needlework, crocheting and knitting. She pieced many quilts and was generous with the things she made. She had always found pleasure in her work as seamstress for the family. She enjoyed good books and did all she could to study and learn of the finer things. She loved church work and at one time was a member of the Alpine Ward choir.

Although prosperity followed the hard work of Elizabeth and Jacob through the years, they were not without sadness, for six of their children were to die without reaching maturity. Their third child and first son, Joseph Raymond, lived only one year, dying of brain fever. Their tenth child, Martha Irene, lived only three weeks. Alice Maud and Vera Eliza died within a few days of each other of diphtheria. This was an especially trying time for the parents, as they were not allowed to even hold funeral services for them, so great was the epidemic. The town constable buried them and all the family had left were memories.

For a while after those things seemed to go well as the children totaled to fourteen. Then the baby, Daniel Lyman, died when less than four months old, and two years later they lost Cora Rowena, they’re thirteenth, at the age of five years of typhoid. The long, constant nursing by the mother had been of no avail as the child wasted away.

At first the Alpine cemetery, where the children were buried, was just a hill of dust and weeds, but in later years the family built a retaining wall around the little graves, and markers were placed there, largely due to the efforts of their brother, Stephen F.

Elizabeth was forty-five when her last child, Golda, was born. After they had moved to American Fork, Elizabeth and Jacob went to the Salt Lake Temple and were sealed with their children in 1915. In 1921 Elizabeth was saddened by the death of her husband. Lonesome after the almost furious years of activity on the ranch, she continued with her life of service as she visited her children’s families, doing all she could to assist them. She was on a visit to Amanda in Oakley, Idaho, when she was stricken with pneumonia and died November 19, 1926, at the age of sixty-eight. She was buried beside her husband in the American Fork cemetery.

Although Elizabeth was saddened deeply each time death took one of her children, she never complained, nor did she lose faith. After the death of Cora, just before Christmas in 1894, she told the other children, “You must enjoy your Christmas, for the Lord will take care of our little Cora.” This was typical of her consideration of others which she practiced even to the extent of scraping the supper dishes with a piece of bread so she would not disturb her sleeping tired husband. She always encouraged the family in faith and good works, although it was many years that ties at home prevented her from attending meetings with them.

Jacob and Elizabeth encouraged each of their children to obtain a good education. They bought the first piano in the area and furnished them with all the advantages and luxuries they had missed in their own youths.

They were the parents of the following children: Miriam Josephine, Mary Blanche, Jacob Raymond, Alice Maude, Elizabeth Amanda, James Vern, Stephen Feramorz, Vera Eliza, Laura Winifred, Martha Irene, Floyd Richard, Reed Fields, Cora Rowena, Daniel Lyman, and Golda Lyman.