Biography - Jacob Beck
Jacob Beck, gun-Smithing and cancer doctor, Hillsboro, was born in Franklin County, Penn., November 30, 1820. He was taken to Virginia when about nine months old by his parents, and there raised. Christian Beck, born in Lancaster County, Penn., on June 17, 1785, was a gunsmith by occupation, and died in Oregon on July 15, 1863. Mother was Lena Ahl, born February 6, 1790, in Cumberland County, Tenn., and died September 5, 1821, in Williamsport, Md., while en route to Virginian with her husband and family. Parents had seven sons, subject the youngest. Subject was educated at Martinsburg, VA. common schools. Began life as a gunsmith, an occupation he has kept up through life. In 1860, subject began the practice of cancer doctoring with a remedy he had come into possession of some two years previous, and had experimented with it sufficiently to satisfy himself and its merits. From that time to the present time he has treated large numbers of cases successfully, having never lost a single case that came to him before cancer had been out. Subject was Commander in Chief of the Anti-Mormon forces of Hancock County, IL, in 1845-46, and forced them into the city of Nauvoo from all parts of the county and surrounding counties, and there they submitted to a compromise too the effect that they (the Mormons) be allowed sufficient time to send a committee West and seek a suitable location and return and report, which they did during the summer of 1846, and left that fall for St. Joseph, Mo., where they wintered, leaving twelve men behind at Nauvoo to dispose of their property and settle up their business. Immediately after the settling of the Mormon difficulties, subject enlisted for the Mexican war, or rather bought the place of another young man in a company that was already organized, paying the young man $27 for his position. It was Company A, First Illinois Volunteers, called the Quincy Riflemen, commanded by Col. John J. Hardin, James D. Morgan, Captain. He participated in the battle of Buena Vista. In politics he is a Democrat. Self and family are all members of the Lutheran Church. He was married at Indianapolis, IN., February 10, 1848, to Phebe Ringer, who was born in Frederick County, MD., March 5, 1821, and was the daughter of Jacob and Maria Magadalena (Darr) Ringer, he a native of Washington County, MD., and was born March 15, 1791 and died April 22, 1859; she also a native of Washington County, MD., was born February 22, 1790, and died in the year 1824. They have had four children born to them - Julia Agnes, born November 2, 1848, and died in 1856; Virginia Magadalena, born November 9, 1853; Luther Melanchthon, born September 4, 1856, and Clara Belle, born June 1, 1859. Subject belongs to the Masonic order, and also to the Good Templars.
Extracted 19 Nov 2016 by Norma Hass from 1882 History of Bond and Montgomery Counties, Illinois, Part 2 Biographical Department, pages 95-96
