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from Past and Present of Mahaska County, Iowa by Manoah Hedge The S. J. Clarke Publishing Co. 1906
Fred R. Beck, one of the young and active business men of Fremont, where for three years he has been engaged in the lumber and grain trade, was born near this town, in Wapello county, at Island Center, May 28, 1880. His father, George W. Beck, was a native of Ohio, and a son of David Beck, who removed 1 mm Ohio to Iowa in 1849, becoming one of the first settlers of Wapello county. There George W. Beck was reared to manhood and was married in this part of the state. He settled on a farm in Mahaska county, where he carried on general farming for several years but later sold the property and took up his abode in Wapello county, where he owned and operated a farm for some time. Afterward he settled in Fremont, where he turned his attention to the grain trade. He was an active business man for many years and carefully and successfully conducted his varied interests, but is now living retired. In his family were four children: Jesse, who is engaged in the newspaper business at Centerville; Burton, agent for the Oregon & Northern Railroad Company, at Tacoma, Washington; Fred R., of this review; and Arthur, at home. Fred R Beck was reared in Fremont and pursued his education in the public schools, followed by a three years' perparatory course in Penn College, at Oakaloosa, and a course in Wesleyan University, at Mt. Pleasant, where he entered the scientific department. He was graduated from that institution in this class of 1903. After completing his course in college, he returned home and took charge of the lumber business of the Rand Lumber Company and also the grain trade with his father. He is an active, enterprising and successful young business man, who has thowughly acquainted himself with the lines of commercial activity with which he is now connected. He handles a considerable volume of business annually and is wide awake, alert and enterprising. Mr. Beck is a member of the Masonic fraternity, belonging to Fremont lodge, in which he is now serving as junior warden, and he is also connected with the Eastern Star. He belongs to the Phi Delta Theta, a college fraternity, and also to the Knights of Pythias lodge, of Fremont, and the Modern Woodmen. His religious faith is indicated by his membership in the Methodist Episcopal church. He is a young man of examplary habits and good business ability, diligent and progressive, and is a public-spirited citizen.
Past and Present of Mahaska County, Iowa
Mahaska County, Iowa Genealogy