2.12.11. Jane Muir (1894-1990)

Jane Muir was born on 29 November 1894 in Reading, Illinois, to James Muir and Margaret Semple. She was their tenth child though only five lived to adulthood. Jane's mother also had a daughter two years before her marriage to James, who grew up in the family home. James Muir left the family the year after Jane was born and appeared to have disappeared from their lives until they reached adulthood. Jane went by Janie her entire life.

In 1910 Janie and her mother lived in O'Fallon, Illinois, next door to Janie's older brother, who had been widowed the previous year, and his two young children. He married again in 1911 and his children by his first wife moved in with Janie and her mother.

Janie married Herbert Bartist Beck, son of John B. Beck and Christina Beyerle on 20 June 1912. The couple had two children. By 1920 they lived on a farm in Sugar Creek, Illinois.

In 1923 they followed Herbert's brother to Montana by taking a train to Roy and then traveling by car and wagon to Herbert's brother's farm. Herbert homesteaded several partial sections of land, totaling 320 acres, and the family remained in Fergus County for many years.

What a different life Jane (Muir) Beck had from her siblings!

Roy, Montana, 1916; courtesy of the Bureau of Land Management

When Herbert retired from farming, he and Janie moved to Centralia, Washington. Herbert died in 1981 and Janie died on 23 January 1990, living to 95 years old. She was interred at Grand Mound Cemetery in Rochester, Washington, with her husband.

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'Roy, Montana, 1916,' Bureau of Land Management
1900 US Federal Census, Census Place: Reading, Livingston, Illinois; Roll: 318; Page: 6A; Enumeration District: 0014; FHL microfilm: 1240318
1910 US Federal Census, Census Place: O Fallon, Saint Clair, Illinois; Roll: T624_323; Page: 4A; Enumeration District: 0155; FHL microfilm: 1374336
1920 US Federal Census, Census Place: Sugar Creek, Clinton, Illinois; Roll: T625_304; Page: 10B; Enumeration District: 20; Image: 971
1930 US Federal Census, Census Place: Fergus, Montana; Roll: 1255; Page: 1B; Enumeration District: 128; Image: 1063.0; FHL microfilm: 2340990
1940 US Federal Census, Census Place: Roy, Fergus, Montana; Roll: T627_2218; Page: 1A; Enumeration District: 14-117
Alice (Muir) Jennings Genealogy Notebook, pages 4 and 25
Exploring Central Montana's Past: Missouri Breaks Historical Homestead Tour, (Lewiston, MT: Bureau of Land Management), pages 1-32
Global, Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current, Memorial No. 36909317
Roy History Committee (editors and compilers). Homestead Shacks Over Buffalo Tracks: History of Northeastern Fergus County (Montana), (Bozeman, MT: Color World Printers, 1990), pages 1-533
US, Illinois, Birth Certificate, 1942, Certificate No. 20122
US, Montana County Marriages, 1865-1950, 1934 Erickson, William Eugene - Beck, Thelma C.
US, Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014, Number: 533-24-0981; Issue State: Washington; Issue Date: Before 1951
US, Washington Death Index, 1940-1996, 1990 Beck, Jane
US, Washington Find A Grave Index, 1821-2012, Memorial No. 36909317