Surnames: BECK, SANFORD, STANCEL, BATISTE
I sent this off to several of you related to these surnames. In typing I skipped a whole
paragraph. I have retyped the whole article and have had it proof read by another person.
I put
an * next to the missed paragraph. Sorry . jp
Jamestown Press
Jamestown, (Boone County) Indiana
Friday, 15 September 1905 page 1
Last of a Generation
Mrs. George Sanford Honored at Beck Family Reunion
Martha Beck Sanford, daughter of Solomon and Elizabeth BECK, was born near Old Town,
North
Carolina, 12 November 1823. When she was five years old her parents moved with their
family to
near what is Beckville, Montgomery County. They settled in an almost unbroken forest and
for
quite a while had no neighbors nearer than four miles. They lived on an Indian trail that
lead
from Thorntown to Cornstalk Creek. The Indians came frequently by her home to trade beads,
silver
plates, blankets, soap and eatables. These Indians had in their possession to white women
whom they had doubtless stolen. They gave their names as Nancy and Sallie BATISTE. Little
Martha's home for the first summer was a small three- sided tent made with poles and
covered with
bark. Before winter came, however, her parents had erected a small, low log hut, with a
string
door latch and a stick and mud flue. The floor of the cabin was made of puncheons and its
roof of
clapboards. The loft was reached by means of a peg ladder stairway. She had as her
neighbors the
turkey, black bear, deer, wild hogs, pheasants, wolves, wildcats and rattlesnakes.
* Her bread for the first year was made of Indian meal ground by a water mill, more
than a
score of miles from their home. Her parents made their own hominy in a mortar. Their
turkey and
venison were cooked in the broad fire place on a spit. Later they made their bread from
wheat
they grew on their place, which they cut with a sickle and threshed with a flail.
Her education was received from subscription school, which lasted only three months
in the
year. In accordance with the times, her master had a very limited education. She studied
the
testament, the spelling book and wrote a little. The schoolhouse where she first attended
was a
low building made of logs. It had a puncheon floor, a broad board door, a fireplace,
nearly
across the end of the room, benches supported by round sticks, and a writing desk made of
hewn
log, which extended along the
sides of the room. The windows consisted of greased paper. She wrote with a goose quill
pen, made
and kept in order by the master. She learned to scutch, hackle and spin flax, which she
wove into
towels, tablecloths, sheets etc. Remnants of her work are kept in the family, which have
been in
use over sixty years. While her opportunities for an early education were poor, she
afterward
acquired a fairly good, practical education.
One of her superior accomplishments is that of cooking. She has earned many prizes at
the
county fairs on her most excellent bread.
Her immediate relatives belong largely to the Peredestinarian (sic?) Baptist church.
Her
fathers house served as a Baptist tavern and people rode for many miles on horseback to
attend
church. She has been a faithful member of the Disciples church for about a quarter of a
century.
She is a great lover of flowers and adorns her home with most beautiful ones. She is
of a
kind cheerful disposition and has not an enemy on earth.
She was married to George SANFORD 1847, with whom she has lived happily ever since.
She has
seven children. They are Mary E. STANCEL, of Advance; Sarah J. STEPHENS, R.W. SANFORD of
Lebanon,
and Eliza M. EVANS of Indianapolis. Her daughter Ella died in 1879.
She has moved only twice in her married life of 58 years. She has had a good
comfortable
home all these years. She and her good husband are living at present at New Ross,
Montgomery
County.
Mrs. SANFORD is in her 82 year. Being the only one living of the old generation of
BECKS,
she was chosen to allow her picture to be placed on badges worn by the BECK people at
their
reunion, Sept. 7, 1905.
Lebanon Pioneer.
Note by Janet ISLEY Price, This newspaper story was posted in the Jamestown press 15
September
1905 and was a reprint of a story in the Lebanon Pioneer. I have no clue what some of the
words
mean. Scrutch is not in my vocabulary the only mention I have been able to find on the
Internet is it is a tool like a hammer to make bricks. I am not related to this woman or
the BECK
family. I am just posting it for others.