One of Tazewell County’s early pioneer families were the Beckleys, a Pennsylvania Dutch (German-American) family whose surname was spelled Böckli or Böckle in German. Before coming to Illinois, the Beckleys lived in Union County, Pennsylvania. Beckley family records recall that their patriarch Daniel Beckley Sr. was the proprietor of a hotel or inn on the Susquehanna River in the early 1800s, and he had served as Constable for several years.
Daniel Sr. and his wife Mary (Tittle) Beckley had nine children, six of whom survived to adulthood: Sabina, who married D. S. Risinger; Mary, who married her sister Sabina’s husband and Sabina’s untimely death; Eliza A., who married John Wenck; Henry; Daniel Jr.; and Alexander. In 1839, Daniel Beckley Sr. left his native state of Pennsylvania with his wife Mary and their children, taking a riverboat named the “London” from Pittsburgh down the Ohio River to the Mississippi, and then up the Mississippi and the Illinois up to the little pioneer town of Pekin. It is said to have been the first time settlers had taken a riverboat all the way from Pittsburgh to Pekin.
After arriving in Pekin, Daniel Sr. engaged in farming until his death in 1846. His wife Mary predeceased him in 1841. Their son Daniel Jr., who was born in Union County, Pennsylvania, on 15 April 1831, would go on to become one of the prominent citizens of 19th-century Mackinaw in eastern Tazewell County, the village that had been our first county seat. Daniel Jr. was only eight years old when he came to Pekin with his parents. He got his first job at the age of 13, working for a Tazewell County pioneer named Mathias App who had settled on the Mackinaw River. App paid Daniel Jr. $3 a month and supplied him room and board and washing.
The year of his father’s death, Daniel Jr. started a three-year apprenticeship with a Tazewell County blacksmith named Henry Clauser. In 1849, when his apprenticeship was done — and the same year that Pekin’s residents voted to incorporate as a City — Daniel went to work making wagons in Pekin for his brother-in-law D. S. Risinger. Then in May of 1854, Daniel moved to Mackinaw where he opened a wagon-making and general repair shop, engaging in that business until 1868.
Two years after his move to Mackinaw, Daniel married Margaret Elizabeth Flesher (1835-1919), who was a member of two of Mackinaw’s most prominent founding families, a daughter of Samuel and Sophanna (Hittle) Flesher. Elizabeth’s father Samuel Flesher was one of the two first-appointed Deacons of Mackinaw’s Christian Church when the church was founded in Sept. 1837, the other Deacon being George Hittle. Daniel and Elizabeth had a daughter, Lora E. Beckley (1857-1944), who married Levi M. Brock (1847-1929), an ice dealer who was one of Mackinaw’s prominent businessmen. Lora’s father and husband were later business partners in the Beckley & Brock farm machinery company in Mackinaw.
Meanwhile, Lora’s father Daniel shifted his focus toward farming, acquiring the old Hittle place to the southwest of Mackinaw and later adding a second farm to his agricultural operations, in which he was engaged from 1868 to 1876. In the latter year, Daniel opened his agricultural implement firm in Mackinaw, with his son-in-law soon joining him in the business, located in a two-storey brick building. During these years, Daniel became active in local politics, serving as Mackinaw Township Collector from 1874 to 1876. Then on 1 April 1878, Daniel was elected as a Trustee on the Mackinaw Village Board, and nine days after the election his fellow Trustees voted to appoint him Board Treasurer.
In 1888, Daniel turned his attention from his business back toward running his farms, having acquired 450 acres of farm land. He also was half-owner of a business block of buildings in Mackinaw. One of them, Beckley Hall, was where the Royal Neighbors of America, Mackinaw Camp 2750 (Camp Hawthorn), used to have their regular meetings.
Daniel Beckley Jr.’s successful life is commemorated in a biographical sketch that was published in “Portrait and Biographical Record of Tazewell and Mason Counties (1894), pages 353-354, transcribed here below:
“DANIEL BECKLEY is one of the most highly respected citizens of Mackinaw. He has been prominently connected with its business, social and official interests, for on a number of different occasions he has been called upon to serve his fellow-townsmen in positions of public trust. All who know him esteem him highly for his sterling worth, and we feel assured that this record of his life will prove of interest to many of our readers.
“Mr. Beckley was born in Union County, Pa., April 15, 1831, and is a son of Daniel and Mary M. (Tittle) Beckley. The paternal grandfather was of English [sic – German] descent, and the grandmother was a native of Wales. Daniel Beckley, Sr., was born in Pennsylvania, and engaged in keeping hotel on the Susquehanna River in the early days, when people shipped their produce to market on rafts. There his children, nine in number, were born. Six grew to mature years. Sabina became the wife of D. S. Risinger; Mary, after the death of her sister, became the wife of Mr. Risinger; Eliza A. became the wife of John Wenck; Henry is the next younger; Daniel is the fifth; and Alexander is deceased. The parents were both members of the Presbyterian Church, and in politics Mr. Beckley was a Whig. For a number of years he served as Constable. He removed to Pekin in 1839, and for a few years engaged in farming. His death occurred in 1846, and his wife passed away in 1841. The boat in which they came to their new home was the first to make the trip from Pittsburgh to Pekin, and was named the ‘London.’
“Daniel Beckley, whose name heads this record, remained at home until his father’s death, but for two years previous had worked for Mathias App, a pioneer on the Mackinaw River, receiving $3 per month and his board and washing. He was then apprenticed to Henry Clauser, a blacksmith, with whom he remained until 1849, after which he worked by the day or month with D. S. Risinger, making wagons. In May, 1854, he located in Mackinaw, where he established a general repair and wagon making shop, carrying on business along that line until 1868, when he turned his attention to farming. He became the owner of two farms, and continued to engage in agricultural pursuits until 1876, when he established an agricultural implement store which he carried on until 1888. In that year he resumed farming, in which line of business he is still interested. He has accumulated four hundred and fifty acres of valuable land, owns a half-interest in a brick business block, and has one of the finest residences in Mackinaw.
“Mr. Beckley was married in this place in the year 1856 to Elizabeth, daughter of Samuel and Sophia Flesher. The parents removed from Virginia to Illinois in a very early day, and her birth occurred in Mackinaw. Mr. and Mrs. Beckley have a daughter, Lora E., who was educated in Eureka College, and who is now the wife of L. M. Brock, an ice dealer of Mackinaw. They and their daughter are members of the Christian Church and are numbered among the most prominent people of this community.
“Since the fall of 1854, Mr. Beckley has been a member of the Masonic fraternity, and belongs to the blue lodge, chapter and council, having taken the higher degrees in Pekin. In 1856 he became a member of the Odd Fellows’ society. He is now Master of Mackinaw Lodge No. 132, A. F. & A. M., and has filled this office for nineteen years. He cast his first Presidential vote for Winfield Scott, but since that time has been a supporter of the Democratic party, and has served in local offices of the town and township. His well spent life is one worthy of emulation.”
The above biographical sketch is summarized on page 62 of “Mackinaw Remembers: 1827-1977,” the Village of Mackinaw’s Sesquicentennial volume.
Daniel Beckley Jr. lived out the remainder of his days in Mackinaw, dying at the age of 74 on 27 Nov. 1905 at Cottage Hospital in Peoria of gall bladder and liver disease. His wife Elizabeth survived him by 14 years, dying from complications of a stroke on 11 Dec. 1919. They, their daughter Lora, and Lora’s husband Levi are buried together in Mackinaw Township Cemetery. Daniel Jr.’s obituary follows below:
