Butte County
Biographies
HENRY ALBERT BEIK
HENRY ALBERT BEIK.--A native son now filling a
responsible post in Oroville, and who has the quiet satisfaction of bearing the
honored name of one of the worthiest pioneers and best-known old settlers
hereabouts, is Henry Albert Beik, who was born two miles from Forbestown, in
Yuba County, on January 13,1865, the son of Frederick Beik, who came from the
German duchy of Baden. His grandfather,
Frederick Beik, brought the family to Iowa, and was a farmer near Muscatine,
where he died. Henry’s father,
therefore, was reared in Iowa, from which state, in 1852, he crossed the
unexplored plains to promising California.
He made the journey wit ox-teams, and soon after arriving in the state,
tried his luck in the mines along the Feather River. His next move was to Enterprise, then to New
York Flat, and finally to Forbestown, where he was a placer-miner. After that he made his home-farm two miles south
of Forbestown, and still later he ran a freight team from Oroville to
Forbestown. And there, after a hard but
successful life as a sturdy citizen who provided as best he could, through
honest industry, for his family he died, in January, 1891.
Henry’s mother was Miss Mary Schmidt
before her marriage, and was born in Germany.
While still a girl, she came out to the United States and California,
traveling by way of Panama; and at Forbestown she met Mr. Beik. She still resides in the town so closely
associated with the happiest years of her life.
Twelve sons and one daughter were the children of their family, and nine
sons and the daughter are still living.
One son, Frank, who was a member of the United States Navy, served in
the Spanish-American War and was on the Yorktown three years of the five spent
in the Navy.
The second eldest of these young folks,
Henry Beik, attended the public schools and from a lad helped his father in
placer-mining. Later, he started to mine
quartz working for the Goldback Mining Company and for the Golden Queen; and he became so expert that he
was made shift boss and then foreman of one of the Goldback’s mines. Then, for three years, he as carpenter and
mechanical assistant in the building of dredgers at Oroville, this time working
for the Western Engineering and Construction Company. Then for
a year and a half he put up dredgers for the Boston and Oroville
Dredging Company., and after that, from 1903 to 1906, he was in the employ of
the Pacific Gas and Electric Company. In
1909 he engaged with the Oro Electric Company, and was made foreman on the
irrigating and ditch system, and was in charge of the main canal from the head
of the dam to Oroville, a stretch of some thirty-five miles. As there are fully one hundred flumes along
the ditch, some idea may be had of the responsibility of such a position, with
its constantly arising and numerous problems.
In 1917, when the Pacific Gas and Electric Company took over the Oro
project, Mr. Beik was made general foreman of the entire Oroville system.
On December 17, 1890 Henry Alert Beik and
Miss Margaret Jane Clemo were married at Forbestown, the bride being a native
of Pt. Oram, N.J., and the daughter of Thomas Clemo, who came from England. He had married there Miss Elizabeth Newcomb
an Englishwoman and they then settled in
New Jersey, where Mr. Clemo took up mining.
In 1876, he brought his family to California, and having already
mastered the ins and outs of some kinds of mining, he went into the mines at
Grass Valley. During the first year that
he was there, however, he met a sad death through being hit by a shift
car. His widow married a second time,
choosing this time Jesse Clemens, also an Englishman and a pioneer of
California and Nevada, who had mined at Virginia City, Nevada City and in
California; and who then finally came to Forbestown. He also died here, and now the mother resides
at her home in Oroville, the center of attraction of the three children still
living. Margaret Jane was the eldest of these
and enjoyed the best of public school advantages.
Three children have blessed the union of
Mr. and Mrs. Henry Albert Beik:
Frederick, who graduated from the Oroville High School and from the University of California in 1914 with the
degree of electrical engineer, was with the Pacific Gas and Electric Company
two years and now is connected with the engineering department of the Western
Chemical Company in Contra Costa County.
He is a member of the Oroville Lodge of Masons. Freda graduated from the Oroville High
School, and in 1916 received her degree of Bachelor of Arts from the University
of California; and she has also graduated from Heald’s Business College at
Oakland. She is now teaching in the
Oroville High School in the commercial department. Elizabeth May is a student in the Oroville
High School.
Mr. Beik is a Republican in matters of
national politics; and a Congregationalist in preference for formal religious
worship. Fraternally he is a Mason,
belonging to Forbestown Lodge No. 50, F.& A. M., and to Franklin Chapter,
No. 20, R.A.M., and to Oroville Commandery, No. 5, K.T., both at Oroville. He is also a Past Grand in the Brownsville
Lodge of the Odd Fellows and both he and his wife and oldest daughter are
members of Amapola Chapter, O.E.S.
Transcribed by Louise E
Shoemaker, March 22nd, 2008.
Source:
"History of Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 826-828,
Historic Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2008 Louise E. Shoemaker.
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