Edson Thomas Beck
I was named after both of my grandfathers; Thomas after my grandfather Edson Thomas Beck and my middle name after my grandfather Raymond Miner. That’s no big deal. Many other people have been named after their grandparents. Both of my grandfathers were Christian men of integrity, but they were almost complete opposite poles otherwise.
My grandfather Ray Miner was short and stocky in build while my grandfather Beck was lean and tall. Grandfather Miner ran a small farm during the daylight hours while mining coal at night to support his wife Rebecca Rugg Miner and their eight kids. He was generous almost to a fault.
Grandfather Beck farmed as a lad, but was a lumberman in his early twenties. He sold insurance, did taxes, “kept the books” and payroll for several large companies. Although he was blind in one eye for over 21 years, he was considered a squire and wrote wills and deeds handling the legal affairs of the “country folk” of the area. He was a frugal man, keeping long ledgers of what he earned and spent. He even kept a log of dates, weather, and what he did that day. It was sort of a tell-all diary of facts. He was a lay speaker often filling in for pastors. He constructed a red Insulbrick church called Mount Hope near the summit on Route 31 from Jones Mills to Somerset, Pennsylvania. He would reuse a teabag until he decided to only drink hot water. He kept his memory and wits intact until he died.
My grandfather Miner shared the vegetables from his garden, crops from the field, and meat from his animals with his children and grandchildren. He was a gentle man. His farm animals followed him like pets. He chewed tobacco as a habit left over from working in the mines. That habit that kept miners from swallowing coal dust. He was an active man until “hardening of the arteries” stole his mind, but allowed him to live in the past. Grandma Becky had a difficult time keeping him from going outside to do barn chores long after he no longer had animals of a barn.
My grandfather Beck never used tobacco or drank alcohol.. He was a very strict Pentecostal member. Grandfather Miner didn’t drink alcohol, but was just as devout but quiet Christian and donated a piece of his farm to the Indian Head Church of God along Route 711. The brick structure now resides on that section. Both were good men, but very much the opposite.