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In 1844, a settlement of German immigrants began in Middleton Township, Norfolk County, Ontario and in Pelham Township, Welland County. Most came from the Kingdom of Wurttemberg, a small German state in the southwest. Sandwiched between Baden in the west and Bavaria in the east, Wurttemberg touches Lake Constance on the mountainous Swiss border in the south and includes the source of the Danube River. The principle city and present provincial capital is Stuttgart.
Among them was Johann Jakob Beck, who went by Jacob. Family researchers Terry Stollsteimer have tracked Jacob’s origins back to his birth on May 19, 1783 to Christian Beck and his wife Christina Schlecht-Weber in Echterdingen, Esslingen, Wurttemberg, Germany. Jacob married at Echterdingen on August 23 1808, Christina Barbara Stollsteimer, daughter of Johann Ludwig and Anna Catharina (Stoll) Stollsteimer), also born at Echterdingen on February 20, 1789. The pictures and biographies below were provided by Sharon Dupre.
The couple had a family of eleven children born in Echterdingen but only three survived childhood: George, Katharine and Michael. They left Wurttemberg in 1832 and lived in Pelham Township for a time until settling in Middleton Township in 1844.
Margaret Jane (McCaffrey) Beck
Michael Beck, born in Echterdingen on December 28, 1826 was the youngest son of Jacob and Barbara Beck. His wife was Margaret Jane McCaffrey pictured at the left with her sister Catherine (McCaffrey) Trembley. Margaret was born to Charles and Jane (McConnell) McCaffrey, at Ganonoque, Escott and Lansdown Twp., Frontenac Co., Canada West on 25 Oct 1836. The couple married in Middleton Twp. on May 18, 1858.
Frederick William Beck
Frederick William Beck at left was born to Michael and Margaret Beck on September 27, 1862. Frederick has not been found in the 1881 Census but this picture taken in a Winnipeg studio may have been around that time. In the notes of Sarah (Wilson) Smith, grandmother of Sharon Dupre is an item, “I was in Hamilton at my Uncle Fred Beck’s. In his workroom he had large doors on horses or sawhorses looked like gold. He said they were doors he had made for McMaster University and were worth $1000 each. A lot of Delhi houses were made by him over 60 years ago.”
Charles Gideon Beck
This photo provides an interesting view of a McMaster University student’s room in the Edwardian period. Charles Gideon Beck, born on February 26, 1875, sitting on the right, sent the picture to his mother Margaret (McCaffrey) Beck before he graduated in 1904. On the reverse it says “Mother—a picture of my room.”
Margaret died later that year on December 27, 1904 and, tragically Charles died early the next year on February 8, 1905.
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