Letters and Notes on Beckwith Genealogy

The first document is a letter written in 1891 by Georgia Beckwith Perkins, (Mrs. Noah C. Perkins), to Mrs. Beckwith. Notes on the letter were signed RBB. That must be Rebecca Bunting Beckwith, (Mrs. Harvey Beckwith Jr). She was a daughter of Prof. J. U. Bunting, twenty years younger than Harvey and as his second wife had only been married to him since 1887. She was also only one year older than Georgia. Harvey was Charlton Henry Beckwith's brother and Georgia's uncle. It's interesting that Georgia began the letter, 'Mrs. Beckwith.' That seems a rather formal greeting for an aunt, but perhaps they weren't that close.

When Charlton Henry Beckwith died in 1892, a resolution honoring him was sent from the Masonic Lodge in Kingman, AZ to his brother in Philadelphia, PA. That would have been Harvey Beckwith, Jr., Charlton’s only brother. Because the letter below was written from Philadelphia in the same time period, I assume it was written by Harvey Beckwith. I thought at first it was written by Rebecca, but the handwriting is different. Dudley B. Smith is Dudley Beckwith Smith, the grandson of Lueretia Beckwith and Christopher Smith through their son, Alven Smith. Dudley would have been the second cousin to both Harvey, Jr. and Charlton, Lucretia having been their grandfather Seth’s sister. Harvey Jr may have been gathering information on his family for his personal interest or with plans to help update the book, The Beckwiths by Paul Beckwith that was published in 1891.