Collection #
SC 1750

MATHEW BECKS
EMANCIPATION RECORD, 1851

Collection Information

Historical Sketch

Scope and Content Note

Cataloging Information

Processed by:
Wilma L. Gibbs
8 June 1994
Updated 2 December 2004

Manuscript and Visual Collections Department
William Henry Smith Memorial Library
Indiana Historical Society
450 West Ohio Street
Indianapolis, IN 46202-3269

www.indianahistory.org

collection INFORMATION

VOLUME OF COLLECTION: 1 item

COLLECTION DATES: 18 February 1851

PROVENANCE: Opha D.Betts, Marion, Indiana, November 1980.

RESTRICTIONS: None

REPRODUCTION RIGHTS: Permission to reproduce or publish material in this collection must be obtained in writing from the Indiana Historical Society.

ALTERNATE FORMATS: None

RELATED HOLDINGS: None

ACCESSION NUMBER: 1980.1113

NOTES:

HISTORICAL SKETCH

Prior to the Civil War numerous African-American settlements dotted the Hoosier landscape. Several of the communities were an outgrowth of earlier settlements. Some of the families who first lived in Wayne and Randolph counties later migrated to Grant County and founded Weaver Settlement during the 1840s. Early migrants included the families of Billy Clark, Robert Smith, and John Wright. By 1860 family names within the settlement were Becks, Brown, Burden, Hill, Jones, Pettiford, Ward, White, etc.

Source: Cord, Xenia, "Black Rural Settlements in Indiana before 1860," Indiana's African-American Heritage: Essays from Black History News & Notes. Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society, 1993.

SCOPE AND CONTENT

The one-item collection contains the emancipation record of Mathew Becks who was freed from slavery in Rockingham County, Virginia on 18 February 1851. He later migrated to Weaver Settlement in Grant County, Indiana. The emancipation record provides a physical description of Becks and states that he was freed by the last will and testament of St. Clair Kirtley.

CATALOGING INFORMATION

For additional information on this collection, including a list of subject headings that may lead you to related materials:

1. Go to the Indiana Historical Society's online catalog: http://opac.indianahistory.org/

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4. Search for the collection by its basic call number (in this case, SC 1750).

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