My Genealogy Hound

BECK, JOSEPH MARCUS, HON., was born April 21, 1823, in Clermont Co., Ohio; he was the youngest of eight children, whose parents were Samuel Beck and Hannah Morris, who were prosperous as agriculturists, and distinguished for piety, both earnest members of the Baptist Church; his mother was a daughter of Isaac Morris, of Virginia, and a brother of Senator Morris, of Ohio, distinguished as an early and fearless advocate of human freedom, and for his opposition to the monstrous anomaly of a slave-holding republic; the Morris branch of the family were of Welch extraction, and the Beck of English; his education was accomplished by his own exertion; teaching school, with other employments of an honorable nature, gave him the means of securing a thorough education at Hanover College, which institution he left in 1843, and began teaching as Principal of the seminary at Vernon, Ind.; remained for one academical year, then removed to Kentucky, where he taught two years; read law in Madison, Ind., in the office of Miles C. Egglestone, distinguished, at that time, as an eminent jurist, and, in 1846, was admitted to the bar; after teaching school six months in Kentucky, he came to Lee County, Iowa, settled in Montrose and practiced for two years; in 1850, he came to Fort Madison; in 1852, was elected Prosecuting Attorney and also Mayor of Fort Madison; in 1867, was elected Judge of the Supreme Court; served six years; in 1873, having received the nomination of the convention without a dissenting voice, he was reelected; he is now Chief Justice of the Supreme Bench. In 1854, he was united in marriage to Clara C. Rinehart, daughter of Dr. William Rinehart, of Fort Madison; they had three children, two still living — William J. R. Beck, who is reading law with his father, and Vallie E., now attending Glendale College, near Cincinnati; will graduate in June, 1879; in politics, the Judge is a strong Republican, but his first vote was for Henry Clay; he has always been Antislavery, and when young, engaged in teaching school in a slave-holding State at a time when the advocacy of the rights of the black man was perilous; was distinguished for his manly and fearless attacks on the evil of human servitude; the Judge possesses a powerful mathematical mind; when pursuing his collegiate education, he was remarkable for his proficiency in mathematics; it will be only justice to remark that he was prominent as a scholar in all his classes. He is a member of the Baptist Church, which he joined when quite young; was Superintendent of a Sabbath school in his youth, while pursuing his first legal studies; from that time forward, he has taken a great interest in the Sunday-school cause; he is distinguished for his interest in education and our common schools, as one of the great institutions of the land; he has always led a temperate life; temperance in language, action and intercourse, is, with him, a natural characteristic; his life has been one of ceaseless activity and industry; and his assiduous attention to the legal interests of the commonwealth, within the province of the Supreme Court, is a matter of admiration to his intimate legal acquaintances; in society, the Judge is earnest; the educational discipline imparted to his mind by studies of a mathematical and abstract nature, have given it a permanent bias; it may be said with truth that on “his features sits deliberation and public care.” His constitution is yet robust, and his labors appear to have left unimpaired a body of more than natural vigor.