Written by Leo Bessie (Spieth) Beamer [20 pages]
"I have been thinking for several months I should write a kind of history of my family - grandparents, parents, and myself and immediate family - for the sake of my children."
[Copy was mailed to my mother by Leo Bessie in the 1970s.]
Excerpts -
Page 10 - "On December 1, 1901, I had my first date. I was 16 and the young man was D. Ira Beamer. We didn't date as often as young people do now, usually Sunday night, once in awhile a E. L. party, or a picnic with a group. Your father drove a white mare he called Queen to a buggy. I had so many aunts, uncles, and cousins around, there was always somebody to say something about the white horse at our hitching post. There were times when I wished I didn't have so many relatives. . . A year or so after Ira and I starting dating, he decided to enter the ministry, and as he had not attended high school, he knew he would have to start in, as part of his ministerial preparation."
Page 12 - "The fall of that year came near being the end of our (would you call it) courtship? He was going away to college and I think he was frightened even of the thought of marriage, and the earning a living in the meantime, so he asked if I would wait for him until he finished. He was 26 then and we had dated, such as it was, 5 years, and it had been sort of rough for me. So I made up my mind it was time we should decide and know what we wanted, and if he didn't want me I was going to see what I could do about getting into a music school. I had always wanted a music education. So I told him I couldn't promise to wait. I fully expected him to leave and maybe not see him again. But he didn't. Poor Dad. When I think back I wonder how we ever bought the necessaries of this life. Anyway, we began our plans to be married the next August. He came home at Christmas and gave me the little ring with the garnets and opals in it for Christmas. Then in August (1907) we were married at my home on the farm. All our relatives and a few friends were present. The ceremony took place at 4 p.m. with Rev. A. D. Wood officiating and Rev. Hovgard assisting. We couldn't afford a wedding ring, or so we thought, and you girls know he gave me my wedding ring after we moved to Hartford, . . . We were to go to Baldwin two weeks after the wedding. Father and Mother Beamer had decided to have a sale and go to Baldwin also. . .
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| Rev. & Mrs. D. I. Beamer Linda Dee Sept. 1950 |
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