| Jeptha Beebe |
| Jeptha Beebe, post
office, Waukon; farmer, section 8; son of Hezekiah and
Sarah Beebe; born in Chemung County, New York. His
parents moved to La Grange County, Indiana, in 1837. In
1850 he emigrated to Crawford County, Wisconsin, where he
engaged in lumbering till in 1853, he came to Allamakee
County, Iowa, locating at Waterville, and purchased the
corn cracker mill of Riley Ellis, to which he added a saw
mill the same year. His brother, N. A. Beebe, built a
gristmill in 1854. Soon after it was completed, he became
a partner in the gristmill with his brother, but soon
sold his interest to Mr. J. Spooner, continuing the
sawmill till the fall of 1857, when he sold out his
brother, N. A. Beebe, and purchased a farm two miles and
a half west of Rossville. Soon after he engaged as
contractor of a stage line, from Prairie du Chien,
Wisconisn, to Chatfield, Minnesota. The route being
discontinued in 1858 by order of James Buchanan, through
the Postmaster General, which left him with a large
amount of stage property on his hands which he then took
to Kansas, and securing another stage line soon after
traded his interest for a steam saw mill, some fifteen
miles south from the Topeka, which took fire and was
burned in 1860 with quite an amount of lumber and logs,
all being a total loss. He re-built the mill and sold to
other parties, and came back to Allamakee County and
rented the saw mill at Waterville one year; then rented a
farm near Rossville for one year, and then bought a saw
mill on the Yellow River, which he ran till 1867, then
sold out and turned his attention to farming. In the
spring of 1869 he purchased his present farm. Mr. B.,
upon his return from Kansas to this county, found himself
$3,700 in debt, all of which he has paid. He was married
to Miss Mary A. Coffman, in 1854. She was also a native
of Pennsylvania. They have six children: William E.,
Henry H., Leon E., Laura M., Edith A. and Edna E., and
have lost two-Lottie S. and Alden S. Mr. Beebe has served
as Justice of the Peace in his township and is a
Greenbacker in politics. pg 475-476 |