Abijah Beckwith

Abijah Beckwith (December 2, 1784 Chatham, Columbia County, New York — August 8, 1874 Cedarville, Herkimer County, New York) was an American politician from New York.

Life

He was the son of Dan Beckwith and Ann (Hough) Beckwith. In 1805, he married Lurena Chadwick (1785–1857), and they had 9 children. About 1806, the family removed to a place in Herkimer County which in 1812 became part of the Town of Columbia.

Beckwith was a member of the New York State Assembly (Herkimer Co.) in 1816–17 and 1823. He was Clerk of Herkimer County from 1826 to 1831.

He was a Democratic member of the New York State Senate (5th D.) from 1835 to 1838, sitting in the 58th, 59th, 60th and 61st New York State Legislatures.

He was again a member of the State Assembly (Herkimer Co.) in 1847. In 1848, he became a Free Soiler and later a Republican.

He was buried at the Cemetery in Cedarville.

Sources

• The New York Civil List compiled by Franklin Benjamin Hough (pages 130ff, 138, 192, 199, 233, 258 and 389; Weed, Parsons and Co., 1858)
• Portrait in Jacksonian Antislavery and the Politics of Free Soil, 1824 to 1854 by Jonathan H. Earle (University of North Carolina Press, 2004; pg. 11)
• http://www.newhorizonsgenealogicalservices.com/ny-cemeteries/herkimer-litchfield-cedarville-cemetery.htm.htm Cedarville Cemetery Records] at New Horizons Genealogy
• Beckwith genealogy at Geo Cities