Today’s post is an updated, corrected and expanded version a post I wrote in July, 2020, outlining what we knew (at the time), about the life of Fred Beckmann, Sr., the man that occupied and farmed the Jonathan Clark farm between 1868 and 1872. Then, in early 2023, I was asked to talk about the Clark House and its Cedarburg connections at the Cedarburg History Museum. I chose to center my talk on Fred Beckmann and his extended German-American immigrant family, as I believe they exemplify a number of important themes in the transformation of Ozaukee county from the initial Anglo-American dominated first wave of local settlement in the 1830s and early ’40s, into the subsequent decades of primarily German-American settlement and development.

Anyway, I had a lot of fun, and learned a lot, in preparing that 2023 talk. And one of the things I learned is that there was some doubt about the year and date of Fred Beckmann’s death. So I recently investigated the issues and have updated images, text, and information for you about the life—and death—of Fred Beckmann, and I managed to solve at least one mystery in the process…

Farming the Clark place, 1868-1873

In an earlier post we learned that sometime around 1861/62, Mary Clark and her children decided to move to Milwaukee. By the time the Milwaukee City Directory for 1862 was published, Mary—and, we presume, her children—were living together with Mary’s father Peter Turck, at 474 Jefferson in the city.

We also know that Mary and her daughters did not sell the Mequon farm—to Catherine Doyle—until April, 1872. So, for over a decade, someone besides the Clark family was living and working on the Clark property. Most likely, Mary made some kind of tenant-farmer arrangement where someone grew crops on the Clark land and paid rent to Mary from the proceeds. This could have been a very useful source of income for Widow Clark and her seven children during the 1860s. Unfortunately, we don’t have much documentation of who the tenants may have been and what sort of arrangement Mary may have made with them.

The Doyle Family

In the same post, I also erred in assuming that the John and Catherine Doyle family probably farmed the Clark land throughout the 1860s. Since writing that post, Clark House museum director Nina Look called my attention to information about the Doyles and their neighbors in various maps and census schedules created around 1870 that shows that the Doyles were living and farming elsewhere in Mequon through most of the 1860-1870 decade. In future posts I will look at those maps and census schedules and try and make more sense of where the Doyles lived and what land they may have farmed prior to purchasing the Clark farm in April, 1872.

Nina also reminded me that I forgot one important person that we know did farm the Clark farm: Fred Beckmann

Friedrich “Fred” Beckmann, Sr.

Who was Fred Beckmann? Much of what we know comes from this obituary¹, published in the Cedarburg News (just a few miles north of the Clark farm and Mequon) on Wednesday, May 10, 1911:

Died–At his home in this city at an early hour this morning, Fred Beckmann, Sr., after an illness of about nine months, aged 66 years. Deceased was born in Mecklenburg Strelitz, Germany on July 30th, 1845, and came to America with his step­-parents, brother and sister on Oct. 2, 1860, settling at Hamilton in this town. He found employment in the grist mill, owned then by the late Andrew Bodendoerfer, where he worked as teamster for nearly eight years. In 1868 he was united in wedlock to Lena Hackfeldt², and shortly after their marriage removed on³ the Clark farm, two miles south of this city, now owned by the Doyle brothers. They remained on the farm until 1873 when they purchased and took possession of the Wisconsin House in this city. He continued the business successfully until 1909, when he was obliged to retire on account of failing health, and sold the same [to] Jos. Herz, the present owner. 

D[ecea]sed was highly esteemed by all who knew him, because he was a man who was honest in all his dealings with all his fellow men, generous to a fault and never hesitated to put a stamp of  disapproval on anything that was wrong. Although never seeking public office, he was among the first on the board of aldermen selected when this city was incorporated. He was an active member of the Cedarburg Fire department for the past thirty years, of the Herman[n] Sons and I. O. O. F. He is survived by his widow, two sons Otto of this city and Fred of Mattoon, Ill., and two daughters, Mrs. Max Fischer and Mrs. Jules Breuer of this city. The funeral will take place from his residence on Friday afternoon at 3 o’clock.⁴

For those interested in the Jonathan Clark House, the most important part of this obituary is that it documents who lived and farmed at the Clark house from about 1868 to 1872/73. There is also quite a bit of interesting historical detail packed into this one obituary. Rather than add lots of explanatory paragraphs or footnotes, I’ve embedded in the obituary links to various online sites and articles that help unravel some references that may be obscure to modern readers; click each link for details. But there remained one confusing question…

When did Fred Beckmann die?

The photocopy of the clipped obituary that I received back in 2012 or so was labeled, in manuscript, in the margins of the photocopy, “March 13, 1912,” and the obituary stated that he died earlier that day. However, Fred Beckmann’s large gravestone at Cedarburg’s Zur Ruhe cemetery (photo below) is clearly carved with a death date of 9, Mai 1911, German for May 9, 1911. Between these sources, we seem to have differing days, months, and years for Fred Beckmann’s death. Which is correct?

Beckmann, Lena and Fred, shared gravestone, Zur ruhe cemetery, Cedarburg, Ozaukee county, Wisconsin. Photo from the findagrave.com memorial for Friedrich Beckmann, used by permission of photographer, and findagrave contributor, Cheryl.

Checking the source

On February 9, 2025, I decided to re-check the date of photocopied “March 13, 1912,” obituary by locating the same obituary via the online Newspapers.com collection titled Ozaukee County News-Graphic, which includes that paper—and its predecessor titles—issued between 1883 and 2011. And what do you know? I found the original obituary.

Beckmann’s obituary was actually published on page 3 of the Cedarburg News, vol. 29, no. 19, Wednesday, May 10, 1911 (see the image of the masthead of that issue of the Cedarburg News at the top of this post). So that establishes the correct year and month (and possibly date) of death for Fred Beckmann.

And one might think that this obituary, published on the 10th, stating that Beckmann’s death occurred “At his home in this city at an early hour this morning,” establishes his date of death as May 10, 1911. However, his large gravestone at Cedarburg’s Zur Ruhe cemetery is clearly carved with a death date of 9, Mai 1911, German for May 9, 1911. Close, but not quite the same.

My theory? Fred’s obituary, apparently written, typeset and published the same day as his passing says “at an early hour this morning,” implying the 10th, or perhaps the obituary was written as he began to slip away on the 9th and “at an early hour this morning,” suggests he died very late on the 9th. His gravestone, presumably ordered by the family after Fred Beckmann’s death in 1911 (or after Lena’s death, in 1918?), says May 9th, which is presumably the correct date, as specified by the family who were presumably there in 1911. As for the photocopy of the obituary that I received circa 2012 that was labeled, years after the fact, “March 13, 1912,” I believe that clipping is simply mis-dated.

In sum, I think it’s safe to conclude that Fred Beckmann died, in Cedarburg, sometime overnight May 9/10, 1911.

Postscript

This obituary is only an introduction to the story of Frederich “Fred” Beckmann, Sr., his wife Lena Hackfeldt, their extended family, and their lives in Ozaukee county. I have since learned much more about Fred, his immigrant kinfolk, and their activities in the county during the Civil War and the decades that followed.

In 2023 and 2024 I delivered lavishly-illustrated presentations at the Cedarburg History Museum on two Beckmann-related topics:
• “Fred. Beckman: from the Clark House to the Wisconsin House,” and
• “From the ‘Burg to the Battlefield…and Back: Cedarburg’s Beckmann Family and the Civil War”

In addition to Beckmann family genealogy and local history circa 1845-1918, these presentations include a good deal of information on the German immigrant experience in Washington/Ozaukee counties in the 1840s and ‘50s, some of the unexpected multi-cultural aspects of Wisconsin’s German-American participation in the Civil War in the 1860s, and details of the local hospitality industry from about 1870-1900. If you would like to have me come and present one of these talks to your group or museum, please let me know via this blog’s CONTACT page.

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NOTES:

1. There is an interesting story of how Jonathan Clark House executive director Nina Look came to find this obituary. A few years ago, folks from the Cedarburg Cultural Center came to the Ozaukee County Historical Society archives to see if they had old photos of the front of their building.   They planned to remodel the front and wanted to get it closer to the original design.
   
   Nina and company discovered that the building had been the Beckmann Hotel and Tavern [usually known as the Wisconsin House hotel] in the late 1800s and was owned by Fred Beckmann.  They went looking for his obit and found a copy, which they copied and entered at Beckmann’s findagrave.com memorial. Nina tells me she has more information on this family in a Beckmann file.
   
   
2. UPDATE, 24 May 2025, to correct the date of this obit:
   Lena Hackfeldt Beckmann’s FindAGrave memorial is here. Her obituary (source unnamed on FindAGrave, is the Cedarburg News, Wednesday, April 3, 1918, page 1) is quoted on the site:
   
   DEATH OF MRS. FRED BECKMANN
   Bronchial Pneumonia Fatal to Well Known Resident of This City.
   Mrs. Fred Beckmann died at her home on Tuesday, April 2nd, at 12:30 a.m. after an illness of bronchial pneumonia, aged 71 years. Deceased was born in this city on May 2, 1847. She was married to Fred Beckmann at Milwaukee on October 2, 1868. They resided in Cedarburg where Mr. Beckmann for years conducted the Wisconsin House. He died several years ago.
   Mrs. Beckmann was a pleasant, kind and venerable lady and her death was a sad blow to all her relatives and friends. The children who survive are Otto, Mrs. M. Fischer and Mrs. Jul. Breuer of this city, and Fred of Chicago. The funeral will take place on Friday afternoon at 2:00 o’clock from the residence.
   
   
3. Historical vocabulary note: the verb here, “removed,” meaning to relocate one’s place of residence or work, is often encountered in 19th-century writing. These days, most Americans would say “moved.” Both verbs are usually combined with “to,” as in “he removed to Mequon.” The words used here “removed on the Clark farm” are unusual; I’ve not seen this before.

UPDATED, 11:30 am on February 10, 2025, to tidy up a few bits of unclear writing and/or information.