Henry  W.  Beckner


          Henry W. Beckner, a promment farmer and stock-raiser of Posey Township; was born in that township, September 3, 1837, being the son of  Jacob and Polly M. (McDuffee) Beckner  who were among the early settlers of this county.  He spent his boyhood and youth upon hrs father's farm, and at the age of nineteen, or February 26, 1857, he was married to  Sarah J. Mahan, who was born in Westmoreland County, Pa., September 25, 1837, just twenty-two days after the birth of our subject.  She was the daughter of  James  and  Mary (Donald) Mahan, the former a native of Ireland, who came to America with his parents when he was two years old.  Soon afterward he was left an orphan child, his father and mother both having died the same night with an attack of yellow fever, in the city of Philadelphia.  James was married to  Mary Donald  in Westmoreland County, Pa., and in 1843, when Mrs. Beckner was but six years old they came to Rush County, and located upon the farm now owned and occupied by  O. C. Hackleman,  one mile west of Rushville, which place Mr. Mahan had entered from the government.  In 1853, they removed to the city of Indianapolis.  Two years later they located upon a farm four miles northeast of that city, where both spent the rest of their lives, there deaths occurring in the same year, namely 1871.  Mrs. Beckner was nineteen years of age at the time of her marriage.  She and her husband thus joined in the holy bonds of matrimony at about the same age; they settled upon the old Beckner homestead, in Posey Township.  In 1859, they removed to the city of Indianapolis. .  A year later they located upon a farm northeast of that city, about four miles, but in February, 1862, they returned to this county, and located in the village of Arlington, where Mr. Beckner engaged in mercantile pursuits.  In December, 1864, they settled upon the farm they now occupy, two miles west of that place.  Since then the entire attention of Mr. Beckner has been given to farming and the raising of stock, in which pursuits he has been fairly successful.  He and wife are the parents of four children, as follows:  John H.,  Nannie M.,  Mary E.  and  Wilna F., all of whom are living except Mary E., who died in the sixteenth year of her age.  Mr. and Mrs. Beckner and three children are members of the Christian Church.  In politics, the former is a staunch Democrat.  He owns a splendid farm of 140 acres, nearly all of which is in a high state of cultivation.  Besides this Mrs. Beckner owns fifty acres of splendid land in Marion County.
History of Rush County, Indiana, Brant & Fuller, 1888.
Contributed by Jill Knitl

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