My mother was born in Hopkins County, Kentucky. Her name was Melinda Stark. Her parents started from Kentucky to Illinois when she was a small child. They stopped to camp near Shawneetown, Illinois, at the home of a German, where they both mysteriously died. The German claimed that their death was caused by cholera, but it was believed that he poisoned them and destroyed all of their records, and confiscated most of their property. My father later obtained the family carriage, which was at that time nearly worn out, and made from it a cradle – in which all of his older children were rocked. I remember this cradle clearly. The children, James and Larkin Stark, together with my mother and four sisters, were found by friends and taken to Shelby County, Illinois, where they were placed under the guardian-ship of an old Revolutionary soldier by the name of Stewart, who raised part of the children, and put the others in homes. Her sisters married James Fruit, Edward Woolen, Jesse Walker, and James Ward. I do not recall whom her brothers married. My mother died when I was 8 years old.
(From A Brief Autobiography of Christopher Beck)
(From A Brief Autobiography of Christopher Beck)
My mother was born in Hopkins County, Kentucky. Her name was Melinda Stark. Her parents started from Kentucky to Illinois when she was a small child. They stopped to camp near Shawneetown, Illinois, at the home of a German, where they both mysteriously died. The German claimed that their death was caused by cholera, but it was believed that he poisoned them and destroyed all of their records, and confiscated most of their property. My father later obtained the family carriage, which was at that time nearly worn out, and made from it a cradle – in which all of his older children were rocked. I remember this cradle clearly. The children, James and Larkin Stark, together with my mother and four sisters, were found by friends and taken to Shelby County, Illinois, where they were placed under the guardian-ship of an old Revolutionary soldier by the name of Stewart, who raised part of the children, and put the others in homes. Her sisters married James Fruit, Edward Woolen, Jesse Walker, and James Ward. I do not recall whom her brothers married. My mother died when I was 8 years old.
(From A Brief Autobiography of Christopher Beck)
(From A Brief Autobiography of Christopher Beck)
Gravesite Details
Malinda was the wife of Larkin Beck
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