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Grandus Becker
Grandus Becker, son of Storm A. L. Becker
and Elisabeth Clute, was born
on December 2, 1798 in Waterford, Saratoga County, New York and died on
June 20, 1878 in Pleasant Prairie, Kenosha County, Wisconsin. He was
apparently married three times, but little is known about his first two
wives. According to the gravestones of several of their children in
the Old Presbyterian Cemetery in Stillwater, Grandus' first wife was named
Esther S
. His third wife was Elizabeth Clute,
whom he married on September 5,
1848 in Greenfield, Saratoga County, NY. Elizabeth was born on March 18,
1815 in Waterford, NY and died on August 19, 1888 in Pleasant Prairie.
Grandus had a son Elishama in 1827 by his first wife, Esther.
He and Esther also had at least two daughters, Edith and
Elizabeth, born in 1834 and 1837, respectively.
Sometime later, in 1842, he had a daughter Esther Alida, presumably by another wife.
Although Elishama and Esther's birth and death data are recorded in
the Becker family Bible, only Elizabeth Clute among the wives is mentioned
by name. A potential candidate for Grandus's second wife is a
certain Elizabeth Becker
, "wife of Graudus",
listed among the interrees at the long ago abandoned Rogers Cemetery
in Saratoga. She was born August 7, 1808,
and died November 17, 1844. Thanks to the folks at Saratoga County
Rootsweb for providing this info (based on Durkee's 1877 listing of Saratoga
cemeteries).
A farmer by trade, Grandus moved
several times while still in New York. He and his brothers inherited
3 separate parcels of land - 40 acres in Halfmoon along the Hudson
River that partly straddled the Waterford town line, 50 acres just north
of Mudder Kill (near the Van Schoonhoven
cemetery
), and 40 acres directly across the
Hudson in Lansingburgh. In 1826, about the time
Grandus must have married his first wife, Esther, he sold his share of
these lands to his brother John. Then in a series of transactions culminating
on May 1, 1832, Grandus and his brother Nicholas
purchased all 3 tracts from their brothers John and Albertus, with
Grandus taking the Lansingburgh parcel and Nicholas the Waterford and Halfmoon
sites. One document in this series unambiguously states the relationship
between Albert, John and Nicholas to their mother Elizabeth
and assigns her a portion of Becker Island in the Hudson River
between the Halfmoon and Lansingburgh tracts 'in dower'. This
document is the only primary source known to us that documents this
relationship, as birth records for all but Albert still elude our attempts to find them.
In 1835, Grandus sold the Lansingburgh
farm and purchased 87 acres in Stillwater, NY, near the farm his brother John had bought several years
earlier. Sometime between 1837 and 1842, Esther passed away and was buried in
a location unknown to us. Grandus married another woman probably named
Elizabeth, who bore a daughter Esther Alida in 1842, but
who apparently died in 1864. Then in September, 1848, Grandus married
Elizabeth Clute in Greenfield, NY. Elizabeth bore Grandus 3 children - Storm
in 1849, George in 1851 and Kate in 1856.
Kate alone among all of Grandus' children was fated to live beyond her
30th birthday.
It is hard to say exactly what caused Grandus, then nearing 50 years old, to decide to
undertake the somewhat dangerous and arduous task of moving to Wisconsin. His
farm in Stillwater was intersected by the Champlain Canal and the presence
of a lock there presented the opportunity to have a grocery store,
where his son Elishama apparently manned the counter, having been listed
as grocery merchant in the 1850 Census. In 1854, the State
of New York awarded Grandus damages of $162.68 for crop damage resulting from the
removal of the canal locks to another location. But in that same year, Elishama also met
an untimely death, which is perhaps why Grandus took
on a farm hand, a fellow named Supply F. Wilson in December, 1854. Considering
also that two different rail lines now bisected Grandus' farm,
perhaps these 'improvements' had made the land less attractive for
farming. In any case, Grandus ended up selling this land on May
1, 1857, after which he presumably headed immediately for Wisconsin.
As one of the pictures in the family Bible was taken in
Lyons, NY (halfway between Stillwater and Buffalo), it is quite likely that they took an
Erie Canal boat to Lake Erie, then passed through Detroit to Lake Huron,
then past Mackinac Island to Lake Michigan on their way westward.
Accompanying Grandus on the trip were his wife, his teenage daughter Esther, the
8-year-old son Storm Clute , the baby Kate and perhaps an Irish servant girl (the
1850 census lists a 22-year-old Bridget O'Neil and the 1860 one a 45-year-old
Mary Solomon as being part of the household). Upon their arrival, Grandus built
up a rather large dairy farm in Pleasant Prairie.
Grandus, his 3rd wife Elizabeth, daughters Kate and Esther,
son Storm, Storm's wife Cassie and their son Roy are all buried under a
single stone in Green Ridge Cemetery, Kenosha, Wisconsin.
He is a great-grandfather of Raymond Merton Becker, whose family
tree is also available on this site.
Children by Esther S.:
Elishama , born June 30, 1827, died October 27,
1854, buried in Stillwater, NY.
Edith, born April 20, 1834, died November
09, 1836, buried in Stillwater, NY.
Elizabeth, born
January 19, 1837 in New York, died November 07, 1837, buried in
Stillwater, NY.
Child by Elizabeth (?):
Esther Alida, born September
30, 1842 in New York, died May 25, 1864 in Pleasant Prairie, buried
in Kenosha.
Children by Elizabeth
Clute:
Storm Clute, born July 17, 1849 in Stillwater, NY, died December 12, 1878 in Pleasant
Prairie, buried in Kenosha.
George Wilson, born
January 15, 1851, died February 2, 1852, buried
in Stillwater, NY. Kate Elizabeth , born December 2, 1856 in NY, died May 22, 1926 in
Illinois, buried in Kenosha.
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