Thelma Christena Beck was born on 25 November 1915 in Summerfield, Illinois, to Herbert Bartist Beck and Jane "Janie" Muir. Her father was a farmer. The family lived on a rented farm in Sugar Creek, Illinois, in 1920.
On 7 April 1923, they arrived in Roy, Montana, joining Thelma's aunt and uncle, John and Ethel Beck. They lived with their relatives until Thelma's father homesteaded land. Homesteading was difficult work -- a working farm had to be made from raw land but the land was free if a family could prove they had made improvements within a specific period of time. Thelma's father was successful and Thelma and her family lived on their homestead outside of Roy for many years.
Thelma married William "Bill" Eugene Erickson, son of Rev. John Erickson and Gunda Karoline Olsen, on 15 December 1934 in Lewiston, Montana. They had four children during the course of their marriage.
For the first seven years of their marriage they worked a ranch southeast of Malta, Montana. Then moved to Missoula, Montana, where Bill worked on the power line. He went to the west coast to work in the shipyards during World War II. Thelma joined him in May 1942 after she had their third child. They lived on Bainbridge Island in the Puget Sound near Seattle. In 1954 they bought a farm in Oakville, Washington. They retired from farming in 1969.
Bill died in 1984 and was interred at the Grand Mound Cemetery in Rochester, Washington. Thelma died on 28 August 2011 in Rochester. She was interred beside her husband.
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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: School District 207, Fergus, Montana; Roll: 1255; Page: 1B; Enumeration District: 128; Image: 1063.0; FHL microfilm: 2340990
1940 US Federal Census, Census Place: Harb, Phillips, Montana; Roll: T627_226; Page: 1B; Enumeration District: 36-43
Alice (Muir) Jennings Genealogy Notebook, page 25
Global, Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current, Memorial No. 36909512
Roy History Committee (editors and compilers). Homestead Shacks Over Buffalo Tracks: History of Northeastern Fergus County (Montana), (Bozeman, MT: Color World Printers, 1990), pages 1-533The Chronicle, 31 August 2011
US, Montana County Marriages, 1865-1950, 1934 Erickson, William Eugene - Beck, Thelma C.
US, Phone and Address Directories, 1993-2002, 1995 Erickson, Thelma C. (Rochester, WA)
US, Phone and Address Directories, 1993-2002, 1996-2002 Erickson, Thelma C. (Oakville, WA)
US, Public Records Index Volume 2, 1950-1993, Erickson, Thelma C. (Oakville, WA)
US, Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014, Issue State: Washington; Issue Date 1953-1954 (Erickson, Thelma C.)
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