William I. Beck, farmer and stock-raiser, Ben Lomond, Ark. Mr. Beck has had not a little to do toward developing the stock matters of Sevier County, as well as the agricultural affairs of the same, and for this account, if no other, he is accorded a worthy place in this volume. He was born in Itawamba County, Miss., in 1847, was reared on the farm and educated in the common schools. He served in Company F, Twenty-sixth Mississippi Cavalry during the last two years of the war, and operated principally in Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia. He was in many of the prominent engagements, and was captured at Selma, Ala., but was soon after paroled.
After the war he returned home, and in 1866 was wedded to Miss Nancy A. Lowery, a native of Mississippi and the daughter of John B. and Martha Lowery, natives, respectively, of Georgia and Alabama. Her parents were married in Mississippi, and there both received their final summons in 1879 and 1877, respectively. They were members of the Methodist Church. Mr. Beck lived in Mississippi until 1880, and then came to Sevier County, where he has since resided, near Ben Lomond, and for two years on his present farm of 231 acres, 120 acres under cultivation.
Aside from his farming interest he is quite extensively engaged in stock-raising, and since 1888 he has held the office of justice of the peace. In politics he is a Democrat, and his first presidential vote was for H. Seymour in 1868. He has been a member of the Masonic fraternity since his majority, and is a demitted member of the Ben Lomond Lodge No. 445, of which he was worshipful master. He has been a member of the Methodist Church since thirteen years of age. His wife is a member of the same church, and of the twelve children born to his union, nine of whom are living, all that are old enough are members of the same church.
--Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Southern Arkansas, The Goodspeed Publishing Co., Chicago, Nashville and St. Louis, 1890
Children: Allie, John, Belvie, Eula, Minnie, Claude, Cora, Luther, Wesley & Lowery