The Life and Loves of Parmenas W. Beckes

Rose Robeson has been busy hunting obituaries for Tewalt and Price cemeteries. She found the following one for Parmenas W. Beckes, buried in Tewalt, dated December 12, 1890, in the Vincennes Western Sun.

“Intelligence was received today of the death of Parmenas W. Beckes at his home in Russellville, Illinois at 5 o’clock last evening after an illness of but four days of winter fever; age 71 years, 10 months, and 26 days. Deceased was a native of Knox County where he resided until a few years since when he removed to Russellville. He was a brother of Wm. S. Beckes, Thos. J. Beckes and Mrs. Sophi Alexander of this county (Knox) and Mrs. Hugh Barr of Washington, and Benj. V. Beckes of Grand Haven, Kansas. His first illness was felt last Saturday when he was unable to attend the funeral of his sister, the late Mrs. Emma Milam in this city (Vincennes). He grew rapidly worse, and death ensued at the hour above named. The deceased leaves a widow and several children to mourn his sudden demise. He held positions of trust in the communities where he lived; was a man of sterling integrity and was prominent in the Odd Fellowship. At the time of his death, he was a Justice of the Peace. Mr. Beckes was a member of the Christian church at Russellville. His funeral will take place tomorrow.”

We thought it was unusual that the writer would list in detail the brothers and sisters of the deceased, but not name the widow and children so we thought we would investigate, since we had other Beckes’ buried in Tewalt Cemetery. (We also wanted to give the poor widow a name. It turned out that a lot of his wives weren’t named, but more on that later.)

Parmenas W. was sometimes called P.W. and on one census, he was shown as ‘Webb’. Most of the time, the census takers couldn’t spell his first or his last name correctly (ie. Barmenas or Bachus) and finding him was difficult in the census records. We are not sure who his parents were, but we suspect his mother’s name was Webb. And from the obit, we now know, of course, who his brothers and sisters were. But we were really looking for his wife.

Our research led us to another Parmenas Beckes in Vincennes, Knox Co., Ind. around the early 1800’s who was the sheriff of Vincennes in 1807. His brother was also Benj. V. Beckes, and it is easy for internet researchers to get the two Parmenas’ confused. They are probably all related and followed the rather irritating habit of naming their children after the relatives of the previous generation. (Irritating at least to genealogists, but not to imply that there is anything wrong with the practice otherwise.) However, this Parmenas of Vincennes had no children in 1814 when he fought the ‘famous’ duel in Lawrence County. He probably also fought in the American Revolution and/or the War of 1812. We didn’t research this further because we didn’t think he was related to Tewalt Cemetery. (However, we digress. We will post about the duel at a later time!)

In addition to Parmenas’ tombstone at Tewalt, we found a stone for Lavina H. Beckes 1840-1874; one for the Infant daughter of P.W. and E.M Beckes who died March 14, 1870, aged 9 months, and another stone for Caleb B., son of P.W. and E.J. Beckes who died April 10, 1870, aged 21 years. We suspected they were all related, but Caleb and the infant appeared to have different mothers, (E.M. and E.J.). Irene Black’s cemetery book listed Lavina as P.W.’s wife. We naively thought an hour or two of research could resolve perhaps a cemetery transcription error, and in the process determine who his surviving widow was. How foolish we were, as any professional genealogist could have told us.

The first marriage record we found for P.W. was to Elizabeth Jane Overby in Knox County, Ind. on May 12, 1843. The 1850 census (Knox County) showed Parmenas as head of household with an inferred wife named Elizabeth and children - America age 12, Richard age 6, Margaret age 4, and Caleb age 1. Because of America’s age and the date of the marriage to Elizabeth, it appears that Parmenas had been married before. (You can do the math.) The last three children would be his from the marriage to Elizabeth.

The 1860 census (Knox County) is often confused by the internet genealogists, because on the line under P. W. Beckes’ entry is America’s name with a given age of 41, according to transcribers. Thus, she is often mistakenly listed as his wife. In reality, no wife is listed. America, with her correct age of 21, Richard 16, Margaret 14, Butler 10, as well as Wm. S. who was born in 1858 were listed in the household, leading us to conclude that Elizabeth Jane must have died shortly after Wm S. was born. No tombstone for her has been found but we didn’t research Knox County burials. (Note though that the ten-year-old boy is now known as Butler, instead of Caleb just to confuse us, no doubt. However, this would become very helpful later in our research.)

By 1870 P.W. was living in Russellville, Lawrence County, Ill. He is listed as Webb Beckes on the census; no wife is listed but his children were: William 17, Lustro 10, Everettis 7, and ‘Clarance’ 5. Clearly P.W. had married again because Lustro, Everettis and Clarance were born in the decade after the 1860 census. So, we began to search for another marriage license. P.W. was apparently married to M. Richards on July 8, 1861, in Knox County, making her the mother of these three children. (This would be his third marriage?)

Returning now to the two tombstones for his children found in Tewalt, the one for the infant daughter who died March 14, 1870, age 9 months, with her parents listed as P.W. and E.M. Beckes. We think M. Richards might have been E.M. Richards. (Too bad history has failed to give this woman a real name.)

The second stone was for Caleb B. (or Butler) son of P.W. and E.J. Beckes who died 4-10-1870 at age 21 years. His mother, E.J. was probably Elizabeth Jane, P. W.’s second (?) wife. (Are you lost yet?)

A small article in the Vincennes Weekly Sun Saturday, June 11, 1870, was found on- line in the newspaper database offered by the Brockman House library:

“Sad Bereavement—We are pained to learn that Mr. Parmenus W. Beckes living in Russellville, Ill has lost his wife and three children, within the last few weeks, from winter fever. Mr. B. has the heartfelt sympathies of his many friends in his sad bereavement.”

History once again fails to provide this wife of Parmenas with a name. The researchers believe though, based on the above information, that she was E.M. Beckes. Their 9-month baby girl died; Caleb (Parmenas’ son with Elizabeth Jane) died; and another child (not named) also died of winter fever. No tombstone for the unnamed wife, or the third child have been found in Tewalt but they are surely buried there.

We were having so much fun by this time that we decided to determine who Lavina H. Beckes was. Black’s Cemetery book listed her as the wife of P.J. Beckes, which we now know is an error. It should read P.W. Beckes. He did indeed marry Mrs. Lavina Winkles on May 17, 1871, according to the Lawrence County marriage records. This fourth wife then dies on January 9, 1874, just three years later and is buried at Tewalt Cemetery. Lavina was probably the mother of Orville born in 1873.

Thinking that we might be done with our research we re-read the obituary for Parmenas again and realized that he was STILL survived by a wife so it wasn’t Lavina. We returned to the marriage records and found that P.W. once again heard wedding bells and married Elizabeth Buning on May 12, 1874, in Knox County, Indiana. (This would be his fifth wife and… within 4 months of the last one’s death. The man did love his women!)

The 1880 census shows him, age 60, living with Elizabeth age 43, Everett age 17, Clarance age 15, Orville age 7 and Cora Funk, age 9 (listed as his daughter) in Russell Township. This confirmed that he did marry Elizabeth; this may have been his third wife with the name of Elizabeth. We hoped we were done with Parmenas and his wives until we found another marriage record for him to L. Hodges in Knox County, Ind. November 20, 1884. (We are not sure if this is our ‘Parmenas’. Because if it is, Elizabeth died after the 1880 census, and he remarried for the sixth time.)

Parmenus died December 10, 1890, of winter fever, 71 years old, 10 months and 26 days. At the time of his death, he was a justice of the peace and had once been a miller. His obit mentions that he was survived by a wife but doesn’t provide her name. Could it be because no one could keep track of his wives? We believe it was either Elizabeth (wife #5) or L. Hodges (wife #6).

(Disclaimer: We have pieced together what we consider to be primary sources to arrive at our conclusion of the ‘life and loves’ of P.W. Beckes. (In the process we have spent 6 hours or more of our lives . . .and a bottle of wine. . .that we will never get back with no help from J King we might mention.) We did not determine who Cora Funk, age 9, was, listed as his daughter in the 1880 census. And just to add to the confusion, the death certificate for Clarence who died March 18, 1929, listed his mother as an Overby, who we believed died 13? years before he was born. So, if another researcher arrives at a different conclusion, we will be happy to print it. Also, we offer an apology if needed to the descendants of Parmenas. We mean no disrespect to his memory or lovelife.)