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The Beckman family, with their roots in Prussia, established their home in the Lodi area in the mid-1850s. The large family regularly holds reunions, like this 1957 gathering at Micke Grove Park. (Photograph Courtesy of Ralph Lea)
Beckman family roots in Lodi
The Beckman family has been in the Lodi area for more than 154 years.
Last month, more than 70 family members attended the Beckman reunion held at the Woodbridge Masonic Lodge, a suitable location since many of the pioneer Beckman men belonged to that Augusta Street lodge and attended meetings there.
In the early 1800s, the Beckmans were living in a town called Strohen. Today that is in central Germany, but in the early 1800s the Beckmans' home was in Prussia and a part of Europe where Napoleon's dictatorial rule and his armies controlled the land. Many German families left their struggling country earlier and migrated to Russia, but the Beckmans stayed.
In the early 1800s, Napoleon drafted young men into his armies and forced them to serve. The oppressive times worsened for the Beckmans by the 1840s with a severe economic depression, large population growth and lack of available land to divide for their children.
In 1848, Wilheim Beckman's two youngest sons, 18-year-old Christopher and 15-year-old Henry, left their family and homeland and traveled to Bremen on the Baltic Sea coast. They boarded a ship, sailed for about 55 days and arrived in Baltimore, Maryland. The brothers spent some time in Pennsylvania and then settled in Wisconsin. Christopher Beckman worked on steamboats on the Mississippi River, among other things. Soon their father joined them in the United States, and they decided their futures were in the far west where thousands were flocking for the Gold Rush.
In the spring of 1853, the three Beckman men loaded their supplies in an ox-drawn wagon and joined a group for the journey across the plains to California. Their journey across country took six months. They arrived in Central California and settled first on land they rented on the Calaveras River.
The next year, they noticed that the oak trees were larger as they traveled north toward the settlement called Woods Ferry along the Mokelumne River. They knew that meant that the soil was deeper and more fertile. They decided to build their farms and their family's future in this region.
The Beckmans were able to buy 160 acres of land at a price of $1.25 per acre at the northwest corner of the section lines that are now marked by Harney Lane and West Lane.
Like all farmers of the time, they planted grain. Later as the market for grain dropped with the advent of vast grain fields in the prairie states, farmers in the Lodi area turned to watermelons in the latter part of the 1880s. The Beckman clan also switched crops and planted watermelons. By the turn of the century, the watermelon market faded away, and Lodi area farmers including the Beckmans switched to growing grapes.
Within a few years of starting up their farm, more Beckman family members left Germany and joined their pioneering relatives who assured them of the region's bounty. In 1864, Henry William Beckman settled in the area. In 1868, Henry Frank Beckman came over at the age of 13. Three years later, his father, Frederick Beckman, arrived. They bought land west of the newly established community of Mokelumne Station, which soon changed its name to Lodi.
The Beckman men married, bought more land for their growing families. Their children attended local schools. They became prominent community members, good citizens involved in governing their schools and in their churches.
Most of the family men were farmers. But some, like Frank Beckman, went to college. When his eyes failed him, Frank Beckman became a part-owner in Lodi's Beckman, Welch and Thompson general merchandise store on Sacramento Street.
Most of the Beckman family stayed in the Lodi area. Many years ago, the family started having large reunions once a year. William (Bill) R. Beckman, son of a Super Mold Corp. founder George O. Beckman, was in charge of the family's most recent reunion held last month.
Vintage Lodi is a local history column that appears the first and third Saturday of the month.
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