M. M. BECK

WHEN the Historical Society asked Mr. Beck for a sketch of his life he said: "Born on a farm in Wayne county, Indiana, November 22, 1838. In addition to this encumbrance, and a number of others of a like nature, the farm loaded down with a mortgage, it was not only difficult but practically impossible, with the financial panic that followed the Democratic financial blundering in the late thirties, with pork $1.25 and no market to speak of for other farm products, to raise a mortgage and a family at the same time. Under these conditions my father lost his farm, and I was reared on a rented farm.

"Such an education as could be obtained in the common schools of that time I received, with a term or two of high school and a course in a commercial college. In my eighteenth year I left the farm to clerk in a country store, receiving for my first year's services $75, besides board and lodging. I remained in this occupation until the Civil War was declared, when, on the 18th of April, 1861, I enlisted as a private in company K, Sixteenth Indiana infantry, in which regiment I served on the Potomac, around Washington city, thirteen months. I then, with others, recruited and joined the Eighteenth battery, Indiana artillery, in which I served as second lieutenant, first lieutenant and captain, successively, until the end of the war. After the war I purchased a general store in a country town, which I managed to conduct four years before losing what I had previously saved in clerking and from my army pay.

"In 1869 I came to Jackson county, Kansas, my total assets being a wife and baby. That baby is now managing editor of the Chicago Tribune. In 1870 I started a drug store in Holton, and three years later was appointed postmaster of Holton. In 1875 I was superseded in the post office by the editor of the only paper in the county, and this is why I concluded to embark in the newspaper business, March 2, 1875. Four months later I was reappointed postmaster and held the office until 1886, when I was removed by President Cleveland for being an offensive partisan. I was again appointed by President McKinley in 1898, and held the office four years. In 1881 I purchased my partner's interest in the Recorder, and was the sole proprietor until in 1897 my son, Will T. Beck, took an interest, and soon thereafter became business manager and managing editor, which position he still retains. A year ago I transferred my interest in the paper to my son Will and daughter Martha. They still retain me as editor.

"In addition to the post office, I held the office of director of the Penitentiary two years under Governor Morrill's administration."

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