Last of a Generation

Jamestown Press
Jamestown, [Boone County] Indiana
Friday, 15 September 1905 page 1

Last of a Generation
Mrs. George Sanford Honored at Beck Family Reunion

Martha Beck Sanford, daughter of Solomon and Elizabeth Beck, was born near Old Town, North Carolina, 12 November 1823. When she was five years old her parents moved with their family to near what is Beckville, Montgomery County. They settled in an almost unbroken forest and for quite a while had no neighbors nearer than four miles. They lived on an Indian trail that lead from Thorntown to Cornstalk Creek. The Indians came frequently by her home to trade beads, silver plates, blankets, soap and eatables. These Indians had in their possession two white women whom they had doubtless stolen. They gave their names as Nancy and Sallie Batiste. Little Martha's home for the first summer was a small three-sided tent made with poles and covered with bark. Before winter came, however, her parents had erected a small, low log hut, with a string door latch and a stick and mud flue. The floor of the cabin was made of puncheons and it's roof of clapboards. The loft was reached by means of a peg ladder stairway. She had as her neighbors the turkey, black bear, deer, wild hogs, pheasants, wolves, wildcats and rattlesnakes.

Her bread for the first year was made of Indian meal ground by a water mill, more than a score of miles from their home. Her parents made their own hominy in a mortar. Their turkey and venison were cooked in the broad fire place on a spit. Later they made their bread from wheat they grew on their place, which they cut with a sickle and threshed with a flail.

Her education was received from subscription school, which lasted only three months in the year. In accordance with the times, her master had a very limited education. She studied the testament, the spelling book and wrote a little. The schoolhouse where she first attended was a low building made of logs. It had a puncheon floor, a broad board door, a fireplace, nearly across the end of the room, benches supported by round sticks, and a writing desk made of hewn log, which extended along the sides of the room. The windows consisted of greased paper. She wrote with a goose quill pen, made and kept in order by the master. She learned to scutch, hackle and spin flax, which she wove into towels, tablecloths, sheets etc. Remnants of her work are kept in the family, which have been in use over sixty years. While her opportunities for an early education were poor, she afterward acquired a fairly good, practical education.

One of her superior accomplishments is that of cooking. She has earned many prizes at the county fairs on her most excellent bread. Her immediate relatives belong largely to the Peredestinarian [sic?] Baptist church. Her father's house served as a Baptist tavern and people rode for many miles on horseback to attend church. She has been a faithful member of the Disciples church for about a quarter of a century.

She is a great lover of flowers and adorns her home with most beautiful ones. She is of a kind cheerful disposition and has not an enemy on earth.

She was married to George Sanford in 1847, with whom she has lived happily ever since. She has seven children. They are Mary E. Stancel, of Advance; Sarah J. Stephens, R. W. Sanford of Lebanon, and Eliza M. Evans of Indianapolis. Her daughter Ella died in 1879.

She has moved only twice in her married life of 58 years. She has had a good comfortable home all these years. She and her good husband are living at present at New Ross, Montgomery County.

Mrs. Sanford is in her 82 year. Being the only one living of the old generation of Beck's, she was chosen to allow her picture to be placed on badges worn by the Beck people at their reunion, Sept. 7, 1905 - Lebanon Pioneer.

Trancribed by: Janet ISLEY Price, 20 Jun 2001. "This newspaper story was posted in the "Jamestown Press" 15 September 1905 and was a reprint of a story in the "Lebanon Pioneer." I have no clue what some of the words mean. Scrutch is not in my vocabulary. The only mention I have been able to find on the Internet is it is a tool like a hammer to make bricks. I am not related to this woman or the Beck family. I am just posting it for others."