My Genealogy Hound

MICHAEL BECK, gardener and ice-dealer, post office Chartiers, was born in Germany in 1833, a son of William and Theresa Beck. He came to this country in 1852, and settled in Stowe township, where he has since resided, engaged in farming and gardening, at which he has been very successful. He worked some two years in the Pittsburgh Union Saltworks, was a member of the firm that erected them, and has some twenty thousand dollars worth of stock in them. The works do an extensive business, making about four hundred barrels of salt per day, and also manufacture their own barrels, etc. Mr. Beck also owns thirty acres of very valuable land adjoining Chartiers village, and has quite a large amount of surplus capital besides, but when he came to Pittsburgh he had not money enough to pay his toll across the bridge over the Monongahela river. In September, 1858, he married Catherine, daughter of Jacob and Eva Knell, of Stowe township, and their children are Elizabeth (wife of Nicholas Huffnagle), Justina M. (wife of Valentine Ruffler), Titus G., Ulrich M., Laurence W., Margaret P., Emma T., John M. and Conrad W. Mr. Beck has been one of the most successful financiers in Stowe township.