The following information has just been posted on the Beckley family.

LEMUEL HOLMES BECKLEY

is a farmer and stock-raiser, of Union Township, Story county, Iowa, and
is a native of Ohio, his birth having occurred on February 15, 1834, he
being the fifth in a family of ten children born to George and Nancy
Beckley, both of whom were born in West Virginia on the 25th and 24th of
December, 1804 and 1803, respectively. He was of German lineage, his
parents having been born in Germany, and by occupation he was an
agriculturist, and prior to his death, which occurred in his seventy-
ninth year, could well remember the scenes of the War of 1812. His
widow survives him at the age of eighty-seven years, being a resident of
Mt. Vernon, Ohio. Their children's names are as follows: Marie M.
(Mrs. Morgan, resides in Ohio), Mary Jane (Mrs. Mills, died at the age
of forty-three years), Samuel (married Miss Castile, a native of Ohio,
and resides in Buchanan County, Iowa), Jacob (was married to S. McCray,
a native Ohioan, and died at the age of forty-eight years, having been a
school teacher and preacher, his education having been received in
Springfield, Ohio), Lemuel H. (next in order of birth), then came Josiah
(residing on the old home farm near Mt. Vernon, Ohio, his wife being a
Miss Beach, a native of that State), Henry (came to Iowa in 1864, but
now lives in Missouri, being engaged in farming; he first married a Miss
Parrott, and after her death a Miss Boyle, both natives of Ohio), Sarah
Ann (Mrs. Buchanan, resides in Ohio), Louisa (Mrs. Parrott, also lives
there) and Talitha (who is the wife of Taylor Eky, of Ohio, a
horticulturist and fruit-grower). Lemuel Holmes Beckley obtained his
education in the old subscription schools of Ohio, and acquired a
sufficient fund of useful information to fit him for the practical
duties of life. At the age of twenty he began the life of an
agriculturist on his own responsibility, his means that time being less
than a dollar, but on the 26th of March of the same year he was married
in Mr. Vernon, Ohio, to Miss Delilah Stecher, who was born in
Pennsylvania, May 26, 1835. In time a family of nine children were born
to them, their names being as follows: John (who married Frances
Crouse, is engaged in farming), Warner (is a city drayman in Aurora,
Hamilton County, Neb., and is married to Agnes Tipton, a native of
Ohio), David (is farming in Story County, and was married to a Miss
Jacobson), George (who is tilling the soil in Story County), Charles S.
(who married Fannie E. Cronk, June 25, and who is working on the
Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway), Allie, Bertha and Effie, the
latter of whom expects to become a school teacher. Minnie B., a bright
little girl, died at the age of nine years. Mr. Beckley has always been
a Republican, and his first presidential vote was cast for John C.
Fremont. He has been a director in his school district ever since he
has resided in Union Township, and is a stanch supporter of the public
school system - the bulwark of the State and nation. In 1867 they came
to Story County, Iowa, from Ohio, coming through with a four-horse team,
and they can tell with accuracy of the primitive condition of Story
County, even at that date. They came across country from Nevada to
Cambridge, as there were no highways at that time, and narrate with
interest their experience in crossing the numerous sloughs between those
places. Mr. Beckley has an excellent farm of 180 acres, and one of the
prettiest building sites west of Cambridge. He can farm every foot of
his land, although at one time a man on horseback could not pass over
the same ground. This desirable state of things is the result of a
thorough system of farming and draining, and their farm, which is one of
the finest for its size in this portion of the county, has been earned
by honest and faithful endeavor, frugality and economy. They now have
all necessary comforts, and here, surrounded by numerous friends,
acquaintances and their dutiful family of children, they expect to spend
the rest of their days. They have ever been noted in their neighborhood
as open-hearted and benevolent patrons of worthy enterprises, and as
friends and neighbors have not their superiors. While living in the
East, Mr. Beckley was a member of the Lutheran Church, but since his
residence in the West has not been connected with any religious
denomination. In conclusion, it might be added that Mrs. Beckley's
maternal grandfather was a soldier in the War of 1812, and that a
pension is lying at Washington, D. C., for his heirs.