Simpson Levi Beckley was born in Kentucky on April 11, 1813 to Levi Beckley (1775 – 1848) and Keziah Boswell Beckley (1776 – 1852). Simpson’s parents had moved to the new state of Kentucky from Virginia. Simpson Levi was the youngest of three sons.
Simpson Levi married Ruth Mathews on January 8, 1835. He was trained as a cabinet maker and, as was listed in the 1850 census, also served as a minister. His daughter Mrs. W. L. Williams’ comments in her book “Golden Years: An Autobiography” noted that his health made him susceptible to pneumonia, so the family began to move further west. The young family lived for a few years in Indiana. Simpson desired to move to Texas, but Ruth had heard of the Indian presence, so instead they moved to Missouri in 1841. Mrs. Williams wrote that the houses were crude and also scarce but there was ample game, spring water and timber. They remained in Dade County, Missouri for about twenty years where Simpson farmed and also served as an unpaid Baptist lay preacher.
In the 1860 census the family consisted of Simpson, Ruth and eight children: Keziah, John, Milton, Lucinda, Elkanah, Jerome, Eliza and Levi. At least one of their adult children had moved out of family home. The profession of Simpson was listed as farmer. Lucinda was sixteen years old when the census was taken and was the first child to have been born in Missouri. The rest of their children were born in Missouri, as well. Simpson continued to have bouts of poor health. During the Civil War, Dade County and that part of Missouri was a buffer area overrun at various times by both irregular Union and Confederate troops. In her book, Lucinda tells of an incident when Union soldiers came to the farm house looking for guns and money that they had been told the Beckleys were hoarding for the Confederate cause. They threatened to kill Simpson and “send his soul to Hell” after he denied the allegations. Simpson was sick but Lucinda quoted him as having replied “You are able to take my life, but, thank the Lord, you can’t send my soul to Hell!” Simpson’s life was spared after a free African American woman living on the farm told them that he could not and would not lie. The soldiers ransacked the farm but did not harm the Beckleys.
On September 18, 1863, Lucinda wrote, the family was ordered by Union forces to leave their home within the next thirty days. They defied the order and weathered the winter, but Simpson and the sons slipped away to serve in the regular Confederate Army until the surrender at Appomattox. Members of the family found their way to Texas at various times after the war ended. Lucinda came with friends in early 1866. She had become acquainted with W. L. Williams during the war and had agreed to marry him. She rode with friends of the family to Waco where they were reunited and then married by Dr. Rufus Columbus Burleson.
By the spring of 1868, she wrote, the entire Beckley family had moved to Texas except for one daughter who had married and remained in Missouri. In the 1870 census, Simpson, Ruth and six of the children were living in the Lancaster area of Dallas County. Simpson was still operating his own farm with three of the adult sons.
Simpson died in 1883 and Ruth survived him another 11 years until she passed in 1894. Both are buried in Edgewood Cemetery in Lancaster.
By Mike Magers
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