THE BECK BULLETIN



Number 17 October 1, 2001

REUNION PREPARATIONS UNDERWAY

Plans for the next Beck Reunion are taking shape. The planning committee met in Montague in late August and Eileen Tanner of Charlottetown was named chair of the committee. Once again the Northumberland Arena in Murray River has been selected as the meeting place with a yet to be determined three-day weekend in July, 2003, as the target date.
Eileen is promising the most ambitious program ever with activities scheduled from Friday through Sunday morning.
Jim Beck of Michigan, our chief genealogist, will host an open house on Friday to help people research their particular line. It will also be a chance for people to pass along changes in their family, such as births, marriages or deaths.
Eileen says that Friday evening a ceilidh will be held at the arena. It will be an informal event where people will be encouraged to participate and share their talents.
Saturday morning we would offer maps of Beck points of interest in the area so that people could make the rounds in a sort of car rally.
The formal program will take place Saturday afternoon with lots of genealogical material, family history and a speaker to be named later. Special activities will be available for the children. A lobster supper will be held that evening followed by a more formal concert. Activities will wrap up on Sunday morning with a church service.
Eileen has had a long association with the Beck reunions. She worked on the first one in 1963 helping to register people. She has attended many others since then and was in charge of registration for the last two. She was also treasurer of the last reunion committee.
Eileen is Manager of Human Resources for Murphy Pharmacies, a chain of drug stores in the Charlottetown area. The staff number about 100 and they are presenting a Variety Concert on Oct. 27 in support of their adopted charity, The Hospital Foundation.
Eileen says, "My hope for the next reunion is for family to be able to have fun together and feel a common bond. I would like to see an atmosphere that makes it easy for people to talk and share together in a variety of ways. That is why I am so pleased to see the various venues offered. Hopefully we'll have something for everyone."

Beck History Outlined

It was back to the beginning during the Founders' weekend in late August in Murray Harbour. The local history group held a conference to review the early days of the first settlers in the area. As part of the program, each of a dozen families had 30 minutes to deal with their beginnings on the Island. The Becks were represented by our chief genealogist, Jim Beck of Michigan. His topic was Vere Beck and he started back in England to show Vere's roots, his background and possible reasons for emigrating.
Using a series of transparencies to illustrate his talk, Jim explained that Vere was the son of John Beck and Martha Lucy Killick of Crayford, a town about 15 miles from London. It was an important industrial area including iron mills and other manufacturers. Vere was born August 19, 1783, and baptized later that year at St. Paulinus Anglican Church. It's believed that he was trained as an engraver. He married Elizabeth Sarah Marfleet, and they had two daughters before they emigrated to PEI.
Jim said there were at least two reasons why they may have left for the Island. The iron milling industry was in decline at a time when John Cambridge, the proprietor of Lot 64, was offering economic incentives to lure settlers. The Beck family sailed around March of 1813 and arrived in PEI around May. Their third daughter, Mary Ann, was born shortly after on July 7, 1813. They landed in Guernsey Cove and proceeded to carve a home out of the wilderness. Vere cleared and farmed the land and they had nine more children over the next 20 years. Both Vere and Elizabeth lived to old age and are buried in the Murray Harbour Cemetery.
Jim said that over the years the family prospered and multiplied and spread far afield through Canada and the United States. But efforts are made to maintain contact in various ways. Through the Internet,

Jim said he had wanted to cover a lot more of the family history but had to cut his talk short when he ran out of time.

GIFTED YOUNG ARTIST DIES IN ACCIDENT

Tyler Aspin, the creator of the Canada Tree, died at his cottage in Quebec on August 17, 2001. Tyler was the son of Linda Roberts (1.6A.4,6.2.2A,) and her first husband, Peter Stoshnof. He grew up at Pinette, P.E.I., and was adopted by John Aspin, Linda's second husband. Tyler was found dead at his cottage near Hull, Quebec, of accidental causes.
Tyler attended Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree. His paintings and drawings displayed an interest in storytelling and folklore early on. Eventually he concentrated on working with wood and people began to bring him pieces of wood to carve or to restore. He noticed that all of these pieces came with their own stories.
From this beginning grew the idea for the Canada Tree, a sculpture built from wooden artifacts supplied by Canadians from all walks of life. Prince Edward Island donated the roots of a giant Red Oak Tree that became the base of the sculture. Other donations came from all parts of the country and Tyler catalogued each one, and recorded the story that went with them.
Thousands of wooden artifacts donated by Canadians from coast to coast have been carefully fitted into the sculpture. It includes shingles from the Green Gables house, planks from Bluenose II, a pencil from author, Margaret Atwood, a toy mallet from broadcaster, Peter Gzowski, redwood from British Columbia, a piece of pirated bird's-eye Maple, and wood from a prairie grain elevator.
Tyler built the sculpture at the Confederation Centre of the Arts in Charlottetown as the public watched it take shape. The tree was ten metres tall and weighed more than two tonnes. It began a national tour at the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Hull, Quebec, on June 29, 1998. It travelled to major centres first and then smaller communities. The huge sculpture was assembled by Tyler and his helpers, in each city or town on the tour. Then The Canada Tree was carefully taken apart, only to be re-assembled all over again in a new town.
Tributes poured in from Canadians from all walks of life. Premier Pat Binns said it best, perhaps, in his formal statement.
"We have lost one of Prince Edward Island's most creative young minds. Tyler amply demonstrated both an artistic talent and appreciation for Canada's rich cultural fabric," said the Premier. "An excellent ambassador for Prince Edward Island and Canada, Tyler will be sadly missed," he added.

A VERY EXPERIENCED JUDGE

The flower show is a regular part of the annual Northumberland Fisheries Festival in Murray River and so is Keith Brehaut (1.10B.7.5A,4.) who does the judging. The Festival has been running for 22 years and Keith has been judging the entries every year since it started.
This year Mary MacKay of The Guardian watched him do his job and wrote a feature article about him.
Keith is retired now and lives in Stratford, near Charlottetown. He's been involved with plants and flowers all his working life. He joined the Bunbury Nursery, a government organization, in the late 1940s and became superintendent of the operation in 1964. He retired in 1993 but has remained active in the field of judging across the province. For instance he has been judging the annual Rose Show in Charlottetown for more than 40 years, and recently received the Dr. R.G.Lea Award for Excellence in Rose Culture. He has also been involved with the P.E.I. Rural Beautification Society for more than 30 years.
"I used to do 10 to 12 shows a year across the province, but ... my age is catching up with me so I may have to slow down," he said. He expressed the hope that new people will soon be getting involved to help with the judging.
Keith explained that many factors go into a decision on final results. Presentation is important. For instance if the plant is too high for the size of the basket that takes points away. Freshness of blooms also counts as does the size. Keith added that timing is extremely important in judging floral shows. Pointing to a plant in the Murray River arena, he said, "An hour from now this rose will probably start showing a split bud, but it doesn't show it (now). So (it's based upon) what we see at the time of judging, not an hour later or two hours later."
Despite more than 40 years of judging, Keith keeps coming back for more. The reason, he says, is simple. "I enjoy it."

ISLAND MOUSE ON THE WEB

Eckhart, the little mouse from rural PEI, has gone high tech. He now has his own site on the Internet at www.eckhartonline.com and is available to all his little friends at the click of a mouse. The creation of David Weale, (1.6A.4,6.2.1,)Eckhart appeared first in book form, then as a TV program and now on the Internet. Kids can interact with the characters on what is largely a storytelling site while creating their own stories, adventures and even puppet shows. Games featured encourage childhood development through on- and off-line activities, such as the Barnyard Blowout Party Planner, ABCs and 123s as well as digital postcards, a colouring book and downloads. The producers say the site will be updated regularly with new activities that encourage return visits.

Biography

Ada Margaret (Beck) Jordan (1.4.9,) was born Aug. 19, 1864, at White Sands, PEI. She was the ninth and youngest child of John and Elizabeth (Sencabaugh) Beck. She grew up in that community and married Luther Jordan of High Bank on Oct. 15, 1884, when she was 20. They were second cousins on the Sencabaugh side. They lived at High Bank during the first 14 years of their marriage until 1898 when Luther got the job of lighthouse keeper at Cape Bear. They had 10 children and six of them were born at High Bank, and the last four, including twins, were born at Cape Bear.
In many ways, Ada and Luther were direct opposites. Luther was an outgoing man, active in politics and the Baptist church. Ada stayed home and devoted herself to her children. Two of their grandchildren, Sylvia (MacNeill) VanIderstine, and her brother, Gerald (Bub) MacNeill, remarked on the contrast. While Luther was religious and strait-laced, Sylvia described Ada as a “saint!” who spent all her time looking after her family.
“She did nothing but work,” added Bub. “She never got away from the house at all. She was just a hard-working woman.” They said they never knew of her to leave home at all, and Bub, who was 13 when his grandmother died, said he was sure that she never visited their home in Beach Point even though it was only a couple of miles away.
Charlie Beck of Murray Harbour agreed. “She never left home that I know of. The only time you’d see her is if you went to the house.”
Ada was a good cook and she did a lot of it with 12 people in the immediate family. Some of them were big eaters too. Bub said his Uncle George had a fantastic appetite. “He was a terrible eater, something terrible. He had to have a full meal before he went out to fish. At 2 o’clock in the morning he had to have his breakfast of potatoes and meat and that woman would get up and get that ready for him,” Bub said, shaking his head in amazement.
There is a recipe in the family for the “Jordan fruitcake.” It was handed down from Ada and Sylvia believes that it originated with her.
Ada always seemed to have some children around the house. In addition to her own ten, she also raised some of her grand children. She also took care of her son, Wilfred, who was an invalid all his life. He came down with a fever when he was about 14, and never recovered. He was bedfast until his death in 1946. He also suffered from asthma. Ada looked after him until her own death in 1935.
She was having health problems of her own in the last few years of her life. She used to take an egg to bed with her in a cup, and if she awoke in the night feeling weak, she’d break it into the cup and swallow it. As she was preparing for bed on the night of July 2, 1935, she collapsed and died of an apparent heart attack. Sylvia said the egg she took to her room that night was kept for a number of years. Small holes were poked in either end of the shell and the contents were “blown” out, and the shell was kept as a sort of memento.
Her funeral was held from the home at Cape Bear as was the custom at that time. Charlie Beck said a window was removed to get the casket out, as it wouldn’t go out through the porch. Sylvia and Bub said wagons lined the road as far as the eye could see. Sylvia added that “they stretched for over a mile along the road.” Bub said when the first horse reached the graveyard, if you looked back the end of the procession “was right out of sight.”
Ada is buried in the “Jordan” cemetery at Beach Point in land that was donated for a burial ground by her father-in-law, Edward Jorden.

OFF THE BEATEN PATH

A home in Guernsey Cove will be featured in a tourism commercial next spring. The house is owned by Sandra Strain (1.4.6.5,1.2B,5,) and her husband, Lorin Brehaut (1.4.4,7,3,2.1.) and two other couples. It once belonged to Perley Harris and is rented out in the summer. It was selected by an Ontario production company brought in by Tourism PEI to film scenes for a commercial. After getting the go-ahead for the filming, 40 to 50 people were swarming over the place gathering interior and exterior shots. Sandra told the Eastern Graphic that, "They had cameras on cranes in fields taking panaramas of the grain and house and it created a stir in the community. Lots of people were looking on and it was quite a scene."

ISLAND YACHT DOES WELL IN NOVA SCOTIA REGATTA

Danny Jenkins of Charlottetown (1.4.3B.7.6,4) placed fifth at the
Merrill Lynch J29 regatta at Lunenburg in early August. Danny tied with a boat from the Chester Yacht Club in total points,
but the fourth place honours went to the Nova Scotia crew who scored one first place finish. Danny finished second in one race, fourth in three others and sixth in another. Danny in his yacht, J2K, (Sail number 148) had a seven-man crew from the Charlottetown Yacht Club. They were the only Island entry among the 12 competitors in the regatta. From there it was on to Race Week at nearby Chester, N.S., where Danny claimed sixth place in the 14-boat J-29 class. This included one first-place finish.

   

MONTAGUE STUDENT WINS SCHOLARSHIP

Rachel Beck (1.4.3B.7.2.2.3) is the winner of this year's Orin Carver Scholarship. The scholarship is awarded annually to a graduate of an Island high school who places in the top 25 per cent of the class and intends to go to Holland College or the University of Prince Edward Island on a full-time basis. The winner must exhibit a level of excellence and leadership in either athletics or arts, and in community service, or a combination of the two. Rachel is the daughter of Gwen and Jock Beck and plans to major in sciences at UPEI. The scholarships are valued at up to $3,000. each.

HOME RESTORED

One of the grand old homes of Charlottetown has been completely renovated and is now open to the public again. Beaconsfield Historic House has undergone a $250,000. transformation.
The house was built in 1877 and over the years many interior changes were made. There were no plans available to go by and the restoration committee did a lot of careful research before the work began. The committee chair, Nonie Fraser, said that prior to the renovation the kitchen had been used as a gift shop and office. Now it's been restored to kitchen, skullery and butler's pantry.
Other interior work includes new electrical wiring, sprinkler system improvements, wood graining, papering, painting, some new gas fixtures, lace curtains and blinds and floor refinishing.
Constructed for James Peake Jr., a shipbuilder, merchant and one of Charlottetown's leading businessmen, Beaconsfield was a visible expression of his social and economic standing.
"The Peakes and the house do stand for the Island's golden age of prosperity in the 1870s," Boyde Beck, (1.4.3A.3.6.4.) a committee member, told Sally Cole of The Guardian.
"When this house was built, P.E.I. was on top of the world. It really was. Economically, our economy was really booming but it was more a sense of confidence that we had. He was a shipbuilder, and a ship operator," Boyde added.
Beaconsfield will be open daily until the end of October.

The Vere Beck Family Home Page

The Marfleet Home Page

Ivan Munn's Home Page

We're always looking for news of Beck family members. If you know of any significant events drop me a line with the information.

imunn@accesswave.ca

That's it for this edition .. please share it with relatives who aren't on line. The next edition will be out on December 1st.