The Genealogy of David L. Moody & Yvonne L. La Pointe. - Person Sheet
The Genealogy of David L. Moody & Yvonne L. La Pointe. - Person Sheet
NameMary Isabel/ “May Bel”/“Moonie” BECKWITH ®5, ®89, ®90, ®91, ®7, ®6, ®8, ®92
Birth21 Mar 1875, Macon, Bibb County, Georgia, USA ®5, ®6, ®89, ®90, ®93, ®94
Death13 Feb 1959, Ashland, Ashland County, Wisconsin, USA ®91
MemoTrinity Lutheran Hospital W. J. Smiles, MD
Burial18 Feb 1959, Park Rapids, Hubbard County, Minnesota, USA ®91, ®95
MemoGreenwood Cemetery Block 201, Lot 3, Grave 1
OccupationHousewife ®5
ReligionPresbyterian
FlagsAugusta, Georgia, Census, Check own records, Macon, Georgia, Park Rapids, Minnesota
Misc. Notes
Mary said she was born on 21 Mar 1874 in Savannah, Georgia, 7 years [sic] after the Civil War of 1861-1865. However, the birth certificate of her son Leonard, born 28 April 1905, says she was 30 years old on 28 April 1905 and had been born in Macon, Georgia. ®7 Her father and mother, T. Stanly Beckwith, M.D. lived at the corner of Bond and College Streets in Macon, Georgia from 1872 to 1875. The 23 June 1874 edition of the Macon, Georgia newspaper mentions that “Mrs. T. S. Beckwith won the prize for the best dozen hot rolls at the Bibb County Agricultural Fair.” The 17 August 1875 Macon, Georgia Weekly Telegraph refers to “Dr. Thomas Beckwith, the best optician of his day, and the father of T. Stanly Beckwith, of this city, and of Bishop J. W. Beckwith, of Savannah”. In the 28 December 1875 issue of the (Macon) Georgia Weekly Telegraph “Dr. T. Stanly Beckwith offers his professional services to the citizens of Macon. Between 1875 and 1880 T. Stanly Beckwith left Macon, Georgia as in the 1880 U. S. Census for Petersburg, Dinwiddie County, Virginia, T. Stanly Beckwith lives at 14 Long Market Street, is a widower and a physician, age 67, who was born in Virginia and whose parents were both born in Virginia. ®96 John Stanly Beckwith married C. E. Edwards in October 1871 in Augusta, Georgia. John and C. E. lived in Augusta until after their first child, Agnes R., died on 22 July 1873, and then moved back to Petersburg, Virginia between 1873 and 1875. On the census she lists herself as born in Georgia, her father in Virginia and her mother in Georgia. ®5 The family plantation in Marietta, Cobb County, Georgia, 20 miles from Atlanta, was one of the first bonfires made by General Sherman on his march to the sea in December 1864. Sherman destroyed Atlanta, but spared Savannah. With the destruction of Marietta, the family is thought to have moved to Savannah to live with "Uncle" John (possibly John Watrous Beckwith, Episcopal Bishop of Georgia who on the 18 July 1870 US Census of Macon, Georgia, was 40 years old and lived with his wife Ella, age 35, son Brockenbrough, age 11, daughter Daisy, age 8, daughter Bessie, age 7, and Etta Brockenbrough, age 13. ®97 He moved between 1870 and 1874 as he is not listed in the Macon city directory of 1872 and the 1874 Savannah city directory lists as residing at 132 Harris. She was nicknamed May Bel. ®90 She was the only child in a house containing five grown women; her mother (Sarah Laura Wright Beckwith), her grandmother (Mary Isabel Eve), two aunts and her great aunt Emma Henrietta Eve. The house was dominated and supported by her "Uncle" John, who as the only surviving male of the family, had the responsibility to care for all the female members. "Uncle" John owned a newspaper. (The Savannah City Directory of 1874 ®98lists the only Beckwith to be Rev. John W. Beckwith, Episcopal Bishop of Georgia, residing at 132 Harris). Though the plantation home in Marietta was gone they still cultivated part of the land, and kept enough people to work it. Family history says her father was a surgeon killed in a train accident when she was an infant. From 1870 to 1882 her grandfather John S. Wright lived in Augusta, Georgia, so Mary might have been born in Augusta. At the time of the 1 Jun 1880 census ®89 Mary is 6 years old and lives with her mother Sarah, her aunt Louisa, her great aunt Emma Henrietta Eve, and her grandparents John Stephen Wright and Mary Isabel (Eve) at 1024 Reynolds Street, Augusta, Georgia. Grandfather John S. Wright died in Augusta in 1882. By 1893 Miss Mary I. Beckwith, (stenographer for McAlpin & LaRoche), and Mrs. Mary J. Wright, widow of J. S., arrive in Savannah, Georgia, ®98 and board with Mrs. Sarah L. Beckwith with E. B. Whitehurst at 94 York (since 1896 the 100 Block East). In 1894 ®98 all 3 live at the residence of Mrs. S. L. Beckwith at 84 East State (corner of Abercorn, since 1896 the 200 Block East), Miss Mary I. is now a stenographer for the Bradstreet Company. In 1895 ®98 Miss Mary I. Beckwith and Mrs. Sarah Beckwith still reside at 84 East State (now listed as the residence of Mrs. L. Habersham, W. H. Coburn). Mrs. Mary J. Wright is not listed in the 1895, 1896, or 1897 City Directories. ®98 In 1896 ®98 Mary I Beckwith (now a stenographer for Garrard, Meldrim & Newman, lawyers at 15 West Bay) and Mrs. Sarah L. Beckwith board with Mrs. C. W. Curtis at 57 Whitaker. In 1897 ®98 they both board with W. B. Harley at 213 West Liberty. In 1898 ®98 Mary I. Beckwith (now a teacher of elocution at 140 Bull) and Mrs. Sarah L. Beckwith (now a stenographer for the Central of Georgia Railway Company) board with Mrs. M. R. Wright, widow of J. S. Wright, at 703 Barnard. In 1899 ®98 Mary I. Beckwith, and M. R. Wright board with Mrs. Sarah Beckwith (now steno G. T. & J. F. Cann, lawyers at 20 Bryan), at 703 Barnard. In 1899 her mother went to Santiago, Cuba, and later Havana, to be secretary to General Leonard Wood, M.D., military governor commanding the American occupation forces after the Spanish American War. Mary had met Arnold E. Moody in Savannah while he was with the YMCA serving the troops. Her family was concerned because he was a Yankee (only 25 years after the Civil War when their plantations were destroyed by Yankees). Mary gave readings to the troops. Mary’s uncle had a newspaper in Savannah, so she followed Arnold to Havana as a "reporter”, and worked as a clerk in the Auditors Department. ®99 They were married 28 Jul 1900 in Havana, Cuba and their first son, Alexander, was born there. Their first residence after their marriage was 67 Prado, Havana, Cuba. They lived at the barracks nine miles from the city and her mother Sarah Laura also had quarters there which she visited from Havana on Sundays and holidays. The camp was right on the ocean with lovely views and plenty of social life among the officers and their families. ®99 After being widowed in 1928 she and her daughter Elizabeth and son Arnold spent the 1929-30 and 1930-31 years with her daughter Mary who was attending a two year girls school, Cottey College, a P. E. O. Sisterhood (philanthropic education organization) school, 1000 West Austin, Nevada, Missouri 64772. She was still in Nevada, Missouri on June 1, 1931. Mary Isabel was a representative of the P. E. O. During the depression Al was in law school & forgot to or couldn't pay storage fees for furnishings of their last parsonage. Consequently a beautiful set of Canton China, which may have come from your Eve ancestors, was lost. Al's good points included delicious underground cooking of pork & beans in the old garden, according to report. Mary Isabel and her adult children Mary, Arnold and Elizabeth then lived year around in the cottage at Camp, spending 3 winters ( ?1931-2, 1932-3, 1933-4) on an income of $50-60 a month from insurance. It was during the Depression. They had a garden and ate fish and ducks but could not buy new clothes. They had no car so they traveled around by boat. Her daughter Mary had finished the two years of Cottey College but could not teach the 1932-3 school year because there was no job in the local school in Park Rapids. Leonard stopped medical school twice to teach school to help them financially. After her husbands death she had no home, except Camp in Dorset, Minnesota, where she spent summers, but it was isolated and not suitable for winter, so each winter she would spend a few months with the Alexander Moody family, the Arnold Moody family and the Leonard Moody family. She helped support herself by knitting angora mittens for Dayton’s department store in Minneapolis, Minnesota and baby clothes for the Marshall Field department store in Chicago, Illinois. She died while visiting her son Leonard’s family in Bayfield, Wisconsin. She is buried in Lot 238, Greenwood Cemetery, Park Rapids, Minnesota. The GPS coordinates of her grave site are Map datum NAD 27 UTM Zone Conus 15 T 0345668 Easting 5197997 Northing.
Scattered on her grave are the ashes of her daughter & granddaughter:
Mary Moody Anderson 1911-1987, wife of Sophys Marcus Anderson 1907-2003.
& Mary Anderson Wilson  1946-1992, wife of Peter Wilson 1942-
Research
Born 1874 or 1875? Georgia birth certificates start in 1919.
No baptismal record is present at Christ Church, Macon, Georgia. Baptismal records for St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Macon are missing from 17 November 1871 to 12 August 1877. Julie Croce is checking with the Diocese office in Savannah to see if they have the missing records. Dr. (?) John Beckwith and Mrs. John S. Beckwith are communicants on 7 May 1871. T. Stanley is not found as a communicant.
Napkin ring says March 21, 1875. ®90
Check death certificate for cause of death. Check the 1870 Savannah census for John Beckwith.
The 23 June 1874 edition of the Macon, Georgia newspaper mentions that “Mrs. T. S. Beckwith won the prize for the best dozen hot rolls at the Bibb County Agricultural Fair.”
Spouses
Birth16 Jun 1874, Elmira, Chemung County, New York, USA ®77, ®1, ®5, ®78, ®8
Death3 Aug 1928, Emporia, Lyon County, Kansas, USA ®79, ®80
Memo6:30 P.M. Newman Memorial County Hospital
Burial7 Aug 1928, Gardner, Johnson County, Kansas, USA ®79
MemoGardner Cemetery Section 4, Row 27 Roberts-Blue Undertaking Co., Emporia, Kansas
OccupationPresbyterian Minister
EducationMoody Bible Institute, Harvard, U Of Kansas
ReligionMethodist Episcopal ®77
Cause of deathMitral stenosis, Bright’s Disease and Atherosclerosis
FlagsCensus, Check own records, Elmira, New York, Harvard, Princeton University, U of Kansas
FatherWarren Lyman MOODY (1838-1896)
Misc. Notes
He was born in Elmira, New York. In 1880, at age 6, he was living with his parents at 423 Franklin Street, Elmira, New York. ®76 He attended Grammar School #3 in Elmira for 8 years and the next 4 years he spent at his uncle Dwight L. Moody's school, Mt. Hermon in Northfield, Massachusetts, from which he graduated 13 June 1892. He was a member of Centenary Methodist Episcopal Church in Elmira. In 1888, when he went to Mt. Hermon, his parents and family moved from Elmira to Gardner, Kansas. He attended Princeton College (Harvard?), but he was living in Gardner, Kansas by 11 April 1893. He left Gardner, Kansas on 4 May 1893 to go to the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. He spent the summer of 1893 at the Moody Bible Institute; then attended the University of Kansas. He played varsity football at the University of Kansas in 1894. ®81 He left the University of Kansas in the middle of his junior year to become Assistant State Secretary of the YMCA of Kansas, in Topeka, on 3 May 1895. In 1898 the International Committee of the YMCA made him General Secretary in charge of YMCA work for the Spanish American War occupation forces of the U.S. Army in Cuba. (In 1898 Spain ruled Cuba and its' rebels. 15 February 1898, the battleship USS Maine, stationed in Havana’s harbor to help protect United State's interests, was blown up. War was declared, and led by Teddy Roosevelt, was won by the United States, with a truce with Spain being signed by August 1898). He married Mary Beckwith on 28 Jul 1900 in Havana, Cuba and they lived at 67 Prado, Havana after 1 Sep 1900. Their first son, Alexander Dwight was born in Havana on 30 May 1901. In May 1901 he left Cuba when the American forces were withdrawn. By Sep 1902 he was working in Chicago, Illinois for the Moody Bible Institute in charge of the new Evening Bible School. On 11 April 1903 their daughter Elizabeth Beckwith was born in Chicago. In November 1903 he applied for appointment as a missionary to one of the Spanish-American fields of the Methodist Episcopal Church. From 1 Jan 1904 until 1 May 1905 he was in Waterloo, Iowa, as Assistant Pastor to Dr. Samuel Callen, First Presbyterian Church at 505 Franklin Street (their combined salaries were $2800). The family lived at 414 Allen Street, Waterloo where their son Leonard was born on 28 April 1905. He left Waterloo after 16 months because the Church could not support the salaries of two ministers. ®82, ®83 In April 1905 he became Minister of his own church, ®84 the First United Presbyterian Church, 100 East Charles Street ®85, Oelwein, Iowa. He commuted from Waterloo to Oelwein for two months, finally moving his family on 1 Jul 1905 to Oelwein when Leonard was two months old. Their son Arnold Beecher was born 29 May 1907 in Oelwein. In Dec 1908 he performed at Union Meetings in Crawfordsville, Iowa with singer Miss McSparran. ®86 He left Oelwein in late March 1909 to become the Minister of the First Presbyterian Church, 501 South College Avenue, Aledo, Illinois, where he remained until 1 Sep 1919. (The Church he served burned and was rebuilt after they moved to Galesburg in 1919). His mother visited them in Aledo at 528 North Sixth Street about 1909. They lived free in the manse at 602 South College Avenue, Aledo, Illinois from at least 18 April 1910 ®5to 1919, and received a salary of $1800 per year and one months vacation. Their daughter Mary Isabel was born 2 February 1911 in Aledo. A 67 year old female widowed childless friend born in Vermont named "Aunt” Mary Davis lived with them in Aledo. She was a spinster who thought Mary Izabell needed help before Leonard was born in Waterloo in 1905 and moved with them to Aledo and stayed until after Mary was born in 1911. Then "Rosie”, a 14-15 year old country girl, came to be live in household help. Rosie left the family when they moved to Galesburg. She opened a cafe in Aledo and ran it until she retired. After A. E. received an inheritance of $500-$800 he started looking for a safe place for his wife and 5 children to spend the summers. After looking at a lot of lakeshore, on 4 November 1912 he purchased 9.5 acres with a house (built about 1863) at Big Sand Lake, Lot 5 Section 27 Township141 Range 34, Lake Emma Township, Dorset, Minnesota, from Charles Kubesch for $500. ®87 A. E. had the screened sleeping porches added to three sides of the one room house (which was always called Camp). Beginning in 1921 they drove from Muskogee to Dorset in 4 days over the unpaved Jefferson Highway (JH marked on barns, etc.) A. E. did not like to drive so Leonard or someone else drove the 7 passenger Mitchell automobile. There were no motels so they stayed in tourist parks where they would put up their tent and cook dinner. Breakfast was usually in a restaurant. Aunt Laura or Rosie often came along to help. Later they traveled by train to Dorset. The train would leave Minneapolis at 8 AM and arrive at Dorset at 5 PM. Mr. Thomas, the owner of Pine Cone Camp on Big Sand Lake, would meet them with a wagon and take them to Pine Cone, where they would spend the night. The next day they would go the mile to Camp. A. E. would come to Camp for the month of August, then take the family home on the train. In September 1919 they moved to Galesburg, Illinois, and A. E. took charge of New Era work of the United Churches of Wisconsin and Illinois, with offices in Chicago. He spent several years traveling to give lectures. On 1 January 1920 they lived at 506 Greenleaf Street, Galesburg, Illinois. On 30 November 1920 they lived at 1092 North Broad Street, Galesburg, Illinois. Reverend Moody moved to 217 North First Street, Muskogee, Oklahoma on 1 January 1921. The family stayed behind in Galesburg until June, 1921 to finish the school year (Leonard finished the 8th grade). Alexander graduated from Galesburg High School in June 1921, and went to Maryville College, Maryville, Tennessee the next fall. The family then followed to Oklahoma where their address from 3 Sep 1921 to 16 March 1923 was 528 North 6th Street in Muskogee. ®10 On 6 Sep 1923 they lived at 2805 West Okmulgee Avenue in Muskogee. ®10In 1926 his mother , Sarah Laura Beckwith, moved from Washington to live with them. She died in the music room of the parsonage at 515 North Thirteenth Street on Friday, 5 August 1927. ®88 By June 1928 they lived at 437 North Fourteenth Street, Muskogee, Oklahoma. He was Minister of the First Presbyterian Church, Fifth and West Broadway, Muskogee, Oklahoma from 1 January 1921 until 1928. He resigned because of poor health just before his death in 1928. Muskogee friends were Bob, Betty and Bobby Eyster with whom they liked to picnic on Fern Mountain with the Arkansas River below them. He died at age 54 of Bright’s disease (kidney failure), mitral valvular stenosis and arteriosclerosis on 3 Aug 1928 after several months of illness while visiting his sister Laura and her husband, Erwin G. Lundy, DDS, in Emporia, Kansas. He and the family were on their way to Camp when he became ill. He sent them on to Camp while he stayed in Emporia. He died at 6:30 PM at the Newman Memorial County Hospital in Emporia (Lyon County). The funeral was held in Emporia and he was buried in nearby Gardner, Kansas, with his parents. The Gardner Cemetery is at latitude 384817N longitude 0945612W. He was President of the Muskogee Rotary Club and the Ministerial Alliance of Muskogee, Chairman of the Muskogee Presbytery and a Trustee of Tulsa University at his death. He was a tall and heavy man (called Dr. Moody by his children) who liked classical and ragtime music. He knew Latin, Greek and Hebrew, was very organized, liked picnics, and though he never spanked his children, maintained discipline. After A. E. died in 1928, the family furnishings were put in storage (and never redeemed unless their son Alexander did it) at Cottey College in Nevada, Missouri where widowed Mary Izabell and daughter Elizabeth and son Arnold went to live while daughter Mary went to school for the 1929-30 and 1930-31 school years. Camp at Dorset, Minnesota burned to the ground in 1984.

“Rev. Arnold Edwin Moody, Presbyterian Minister
by Peter Wilson, Park Rapids, Minnesota
After buying nearly a mile of shoreline on the south shore of Big Sand Lake, Rev. Arnold Edwin Moody summered in Park Rapids, Minnesota from 1911-1928. I suspect he was invited to preach at least one or more local
congregations, since he had a broad view of Christianity. Rev. Moody was active in the early Boy Scout movement and many humanitarian religious activities. When he died his wife, Mary Isobel, and mother-inlaw, Sarah Laura Wright Beckwith, wintered at Camp on Big Sand during the depression, and knitted baby booties, sweaters and bonnets for Marshall Field’s department store in Chicago. There were no church pensions for widows of many ministers then, nor Social Security, and their savings were lost during the Depression. Yet their son Alexander Moody finished a law degree, Leonard Moody finished a medical degree, and Mary Moody Anderson finished college at a woman's college in Nevada Missouri and in Bemidji, Minnesota. Their son Arnold Moody learned the Tool and die trade, but loved working as a fishing and hunting guide in the area when he was young and later retired
with his wife Frances to Loon Lake across the road from Big Sand Lake. All the family visited the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago at one time or another because Dwight Lyman Moody was a great uncle, I believe, of Rev. Arnold Edwin Moody. Frank Moody is the only member to live in Hubbard County today, but his cousin Dwight Moody keeps an uninsulated summer cottage almost across the road in the easternmost part of the original 1911 purchase. Both are pretty well secluded from the road. Frank and Rosemary Moody are active in the Hubbard County Historical Society and court house art museum, I believe. Dwight and Mary just come up for 2 weeks in the summer from Aledo IL, usually in the August. Frank and his cousin Dr. David Moody in Florida have pretty extensive documentation of the Moody family in Hubbard County and in colonial America. They can correct and elaborate on what I am only writing from memory. I spent many happy days at old cottage on Big Sand before it burned to the ground about 1984. There was a good photo in the Enterprise. By that time Sophus Marcus Anderson and Mary Moody Anderson, a retired elementary teacher in PR, were living on the lake. Their 2 children, Stephen Anderson and Mary Anderson Wilson were living in the Seattle area and Minneapolis, respectively.”
Research
Princeton or Harvard? ..letterman on football team? Elmira-christening? Need address in Oelwein. Ask Frank and Dwight for father's birth certificates. Was he a Trustee of Princeton University? Check 1910 Aledo Census for 528 North Sixth.
Family ID23
Marriage28 Jul 1900, Havana, Ciego de Avila, Cuba ®100, ®1, ®8
ChildrenAlexander Dwight (1901-1980)
 Arnold Beecher (1907-1979)
Last Modified 19 Dec 2017Created 9 Mar 2018 using Reunion v12.0 for Macintosh
Created 1 April 2018 by David L. Moody

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