Source: History of Boone County, Indiana, by Hon. L.M. Crist, 1914.

LARKIN BECK Year has been added to year and decade to decade until four score and
five years have been numbered with the irrevocable past since Larkin Beck, a venerable
and highly honored pioneer citizen, now living in retirement in his cozy home at
Zionsville, Boone county, first opened his eyes to the light in Hoosierdom and he has
been contented to spend his long, active and useful life upon her soil and has thus lived
throughout her real historic period, little being recorded on the printed page before the
year of his advent into the world. When he was a boy, the state, except in a few places,
was an undeveloped region, wilderness, in fact, awaiting the awakening touch of the
sturdy pioneers to transform its wild lands into rich farms and beautiful homes, to found
towns, establish schools and churches and in many other ways to reclaim the country for
the use of man. As one of the early workers in this locality he led the van of civilization
into this favored region. Mr. Beck well deserves mention with the historical characters of
this locality, and it is with pleasure that a brief review of his life is herewith presented,
for the present generation owes to him and to his contemporaries who paved the way by
their laborious endeavor for the present advanced state of society, which we can never
repay.

Mr. Beck was born in Union county, Indiana, April 11, 1829. He is a son of John Beck, a
native of North Carolina. He was a son of Solomon Beck also a native of the old Tar
state, but the latter's parents were natives of Germany, from which country they
emigrated to the United States and settled in North Carolina in the old colonial days and
there the family became widely known and well established. The parents of our subject
grew up in their native state and emigrated to Indiana in a very early day, settling in
Union county when the wide reaching woods were yet filled with all kinds of wild beasts
and nomadic bands of red men. They were people of courage, honesty and hospitality,
which traits are marked in our subject also. They erected a log cabin, cleared by degrees
their virgin land and eventually had a good farm and a comfortable home. And in that
pioneer environment Larkin Beck grew to manhood and worked hard assisting his father
on the homestead. Like other pioneer children his education, obtained in the log-cabin
subscription schools, was meager. Upon reaching manhood he married Sarah Pauley,
who was born in Alabama, of English ancestry, and she was young in years when she
came to Indiana. Seven children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Beck, named as follows: Mrs.
Margaret Ann Beeter, Joseph, John, Oliver, Alice and Julia. The mother of these children
passed to her rest in 1901, after a long record as a faithful helpmeet and good mother and
neighbor.

Mr. Beck came to Boone county in early years and lived near Thorntown many years and
is well known in that part of the county. He later owned the Berry Hill farm in Eagle
township, now the property of his son-in-law, James E. Holler, who married Alice Beck.
This place consists of forty acres and is an excellent fruit, berry and dairy farm. Our
subject has been living retired for a number of years and is spending the December of his
years in quiet and comfort. He has always been noted for his honesty and uprightness,
and, like a number of his brothers, is well known in both Boone and Union counties. He
is a faithful member of the Methodist Episcopal church.

BECK BEETER HOLLER

Submitted by Amy K Davis