Lloyd Neeley Beckstead

Other Events and Attributes:

• FamilySearch ID: KWCZ-FRJ
• Initiatory (LDS): 25 Sep 1918, SLAKE

Notes:

LLOYD NEELEY BECKSTEAD
Lloyd Neeley Beckstead was born at Preston, Idaho, September 16, 1897, t h e oldest child of Amasa Beckstead and Mary Myriam Neeley. He grew up o n h is father’s farm south of Preston. At a very young age, he drove a fo ur-h orse team to haul beets. His father owned one of the first automobil es i n Franklin County. Amasa had Lloyd learn how to drive it first and t hen t each him.
Amasa spent a good deal of time in church work and Lloyd learned respons i bility early.
Lloyd had three sisters, five brothers, and one half brother. One broth e r died at birth. Two sisters and his half brother preceded him in deat h . Lloyd graduated from the old Oneida Academy. He played basketball wi t h Harold B. Lee (later a prophet for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latt er -day Saints) while at the academy. He attended the University of Utah , H ennegars Business College, and Utah State Agricultural College (in Lo gan) . He enjoyed playing basketball in college.
He married Adrienne Woolley in the Salt Lake Temple on Sept. 25, 1918. T h ey started to farm on part of his father’s place. Lloyd loved the lan d an d tried to be a progressive farmer. He improved his land by puttin g in ti le drains, which were a new innovation at that time .
During the depression, he hired German immigrants to dig trenches u p t o 8 feet deep to put the tile in. Lloyd then saw his alkaline soil be com e productive. He had one of the first tractors in the valley, also on e o f the first beet toppers.
He built three nice homes on his farm during his married life. Five chil d ren were born to Lloyd and Adrienne—four boys and 1 girl.
Lloyd Jr. was a music teacher in the Granite School District in Salt La k e City. He played the violin and enjoyed playing with the orchestra i n Sa lt Lake. He and June had 6 children.
Shirley has been a secretary and a housewife. She and Raymond Nelson liv e d in Richmond, Utah, where her husband farmed. They had one child.
Spencer graduated in chemical engineering. He was a packaging and labeli n g engineer for Kerr-McGee Company in Oklahoma. He and Anne had four chi ld ren.
David became a Veterinarian. He and Pauline had 8 children and lived o n t he family farm.
Anthony became a civil engineer for the County of Los Angeles. He late r m oved to Bountiful. He and DeAnn had five children.
Lloyd helped all his children get an education. At one time he was suppo r ting two families in college—each with three children. Anytime his chil dr en or grandchildren needed financial help they didn’t hesitate to as k “Gr andpa.”
He loved to hear his grandchildren perform musical numbers for him. Al l o f his grandchildren have spent many hours in his home. He and Adrienn e ca red for Michael, Lloyd, Jr.’s son, for several years in their own ho me.
Lloyd has been active in the church. He has served as ward genealogy pre s ident, Superintendent of the Sunday School for 7 years, and group lead e r of the High Priest Quorum. He served a short-term mission with his wi f e in the Central States in 1962. He was President of his Sunday Schoo l Cl ass. For a number of years he was teacher of the High Priest class , the p osition he held at his death. He really enjoyed and appreciated t his wor k and he studied hard to prepare his lessons.
He loved the cattle roundup in the fall. He loved to fly in airplanes . H e thought that was the only way to travel .
Lloyd began each day with family prayer and realized the blessings of fa m ily home evenings. Each time in his family prayer he prayed for his gra nd children to study and do well in school.
Lloyd bought two wheel move sprinkler lines. He wanted to improve his ir r igating methods and felt this was the way to go. He was very proud of t h e beets and corn that were growing on his farm. His grandchildren kne w Gr andpa would like a basket of these crops by his casket. He always gr ew go od sugar beets. He never missed a year planting them.
Lloyd and his family knew of the seriousness of his heart condition, b u t it was hard for him to slow down. He was out supervising work and che ck ing on his sprinklers almost every day in the summer. He died quickl y a t home from a heart attack after a restful night of sleep on Aug. 2 , 1974 .
Written by Adrienne Woolley Beckstead
Comments – His son, David, said that he was a quiet, patient man. He w a s also very hard of hearing in his later years.

Lloyd married Adrienne Woolley on 25 Sep 1918 in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah, United States. Adrienne (daughter of Ezra Foss Woolley and Grace Ann Hemenway) was born on 6 Feb 1897 in Preston, Franklin, Idaho, United States; died on 18 Mar 1982 in Ogden, Weber, Utah, United States; was buried on 20 Mar 1982 in Whitney Cemetery, Franklin, Idaho, United States. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• FamilySearch ID: KWZZ-H2Q
• Initiatory (LDS): 23 Mar 1939, LOGAN

Other Events and Attributes:

• FamilySearch ID: KWCZ-FRX
• Initiatory (LDS): 14 Feb 1946, LOGAN

Lloyd married June Hanson on 14 Feb 1946 in Logan, Cache, Utah, United States. June was born on 25 Jun 1924 in Preston, Franklin, Idaho, United States; died on 14 Feb 2001; was buried in Whitney Cemetery, Franklin, Idaho, United States. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• FamilySearch ID: KW86-SG7
• Initiatory (LDS): 7 Oct 1998, ARIZO

Spencer married Anne Thomas on 8 Feb 1952 in Franklin, Franklin, Idaho, United States. Anne (daughter of Paul D Thomas and Fannie Ann McQueen) was born on 5 Nov 1929 in Preston, Franklin, Idaho, United States; died on 28 Dec 2016 in Florida, United States; was buried in Whitney Cemetery, Franklin, Idaho, United States. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• FamilySearch ID: LF4X-4J9
• Initiatory (LDS): 16 Jun 1952, LOGAN

Notes:

DAVID WOOLLEY BECKSTEAD
(1932-2018)

David Woolley Beckstead was the fourth of five children born to Lloyd Ne e ley Beckstead and Adrienne Woolley. He was born May 6, 1932 on the fami l y farm just south of Preston, Idaho. He had an older sister, Shirley; t w o older brothers, Lloyd Jr. and Spencer; and a younger brother, Tony .

His parents were solid members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-d a y Saints. They lived in hard times. Hard work was the name of the gam e i n building up the family farm during the depression. There were lot s of c hores to do. One of the main crops at that time was sugar beets. D avid le arned to hoe fields of sugar beets by hand, a very difficult task . His da d tried to get the latest improvements in farm machinery as the y were mad e available.

In his young years, rats were a very bad problem. They were very prolifi c . Lloyd paid his son, David, a nickel for each rat he trapped. It beca m e quite a project for David to rid the farm of the pestilence. Here a r e a few quotes from letters that David wrote about his youth himself:

“My letter tonight will be directed to grandchildren about the size of P r eston and Johnny (9 years). I am going to tell you about one of the exc it ing times I had as a boy with their great grandfather, Lloyd N. Beckst ead .

“On a fall day in November when I was 8 or 9 years old, Grandpa Lloyd de c ided to go up the canyon to get a hay derrick to use for putting up ha y t he next summer. A derrick required about four small pine trees and on e es pecially long red pine tree for the top pole which swings over the h ay st ack with the fork full of hay.

“We harnessed old Duke (a blue pigeon-toed horse) and Dick (a brown ol d h orse) and hooked them on the wagon which had the hay tack taken off t he d ay before. Our destination was a sawmill up Franklin Basin about 2 0 mile s up Cub River Canyon. We had some old quilts and our food that gr andma A drienne put in a big box which we sat on. Our supplies were to la st us ov ernight until we would get home the next day.

“The weather that day was cloudy, and at that time of the year most anyt h ing can happen. We had lots of clothes on so we would stay warm. The ov er cast sky seemed to be especially thick as we looked up towards the hil ls .

“Old Duke and Dick jogged along on a trot and in about an hour and a ha l f we were down the Power House hill where Longs live. By the time we pa ss ed Community Camp ground, it was raining a fine drizzle. Grandpa too k a b lanket out of the big wooden box and put it over our heads so we wo uldn’ t get soaked. The next stop was at Willow Flat. The fall leaves ha d falle n and the road was muddy. A combination of leaves and mud made th e wheel s gum up and the horses could hardly pull the wagon. At Willow Fl at we we re three fourths of the way to the sawmill, and we cleaned the w heels of f so we could keep going up Hillyard Canyon. It was about four o ’clock i n the afternoon and it would be dark by 5:30 p.m., and we had fi ve mile s to go up this steep winding canyon. By now we were very wet an d cold; s o when two deer jumped across the road, the horses hardly notic ed it. W e just watched them bound through the cold looking aspen trees . Where th e road was especially steep, grandpa would slap old Duke wit h the lines s o he would walk a little faster.

“We finally reached the top of Hillyard and were at the north end of t h e basin. It was about a mile to the sawmill and darkness was setting i n o n some wet, cold, weary travelers. A light from the old bunkhouse soo n ap peared through the trees and our spirits were really cheered.

“Grandpa took me to the little bunkhouse where the sawmill man had a ni c e big warm fire and told us we could stay there all night. It sure fel t g ood in that little one room building, and I got warm while grandpa un harn essed the tired horses. After supper, which I remember was a quart o f pea ches and homemade butter and bread, we were glad to bed down on a n ice wa rm floor.

“That night we were warmed up good, but by morning the wood fire burne d o ut and it got quite cold. When we looked out in the morning there wa s abo ut two to three inches of snow and the sky was clear.

“We hooked up the team and drove the wagon over to the mill yard where t h e sawmill man helped load the logs up a ramp, with his team, onto our w ag on. After the logs were chained on we said goodbye and headed out of t h e basin. We put the brakes on the wagon as we headed back down Hillyar d a nd the horses seemed happy to move along at a brisk pace down the roa d. T he day was beautiful and we had a fun time eating some of grandma’ s hone y candy we had saved for the trip home. (Such a trip now would onl y tak e a couple of hours.)

“Maybe next summer I will take you on that trip with my new shire tea m . I know Preston can tell us the difference between Shires, Clydes, Bel gi ans, and Percherons.”

“Now I will tell you about my first horse. This story goes back to the y e ar we built our house in 1939. I had this old brown skinny horse sever a l years before this time. She first belonged to my father’s brother, Un cl e Oral. When Uncle Oral came home from his South African mission wit h a n Aristocratic young English bride by the name of Norah, my grandfath er A masa practically disinherited him. Uncle Oral owned this old horse , and h e loved her very much. At this time he left the farm and went t o New Yor k to work on a dairy. He left the old mare named Fox for me t o care for.

“When I was five I learned to get on her when she would put her head do w n to eat. Then I would jump on her neck and wait for her to raise her h ea d and then slide back on her skinny back.

“Getting back to the year 1939 which I remember because we were buildi n g the house and my job was to herd the cows on the Bamburger Railroad r ig ht-of-way. The trains came on schedule at 7 a.m., 1 p.m., and 6:30 p.m . T hese were the regular, fast passenger schedules which traveled at abo ut 2 5 miles per hour enroute to Logan. There were also a couple of slo w freig ht schedules.

“This job of herding cows took place between schedules, and it kept me p r etty busy keeping the cows off at the time the electric, one-passenge r un it came up or down the track. You could look down the track approxim atel y ten miles and see the sparks above the car when it was coming.

“Sometimes my cows would get out and be along the railroad at the time t h e train came rattling up or down the track. It would have to slow dow n t o avoid hitting them and this made the old conductor pretty mad. It u se d to really scare me when I was hurrying to get the cows off, and I wo ul d look up and it was too late to be off in time. Then old Mr. Fryar, w h o was the conductor, would stop the train and tell me he was going to c ho p off my ears if those cows got in his way anymore. This used to reall y f righten me, and I was glad when our pasture at home got good enough t o fu rnish feed for our few cows by the first of June. Then the cow herdi ng go t better until next spring rolled around. At this time, I vowed t o mysel f that I would buy enough pasture so that Old Fox and I wouldn’ t have t o herd cows anymore. Fox was my favorite skinny brown horse.”

As you can see, David was a great story teller. He had a story about eve r yone, and he knew just about everyone in the county.

David was a bright boy and skipped a grade in school making him a year y o unger than everyone else who graduated from high school. He went to th e U niversity of Idaho in Moscow, Idaho. He married Pauline Westerberg wh o al so went to college in Moscow. He knew her in high school in Preston . Fo r their honeymoon, they took a drive to the Utah National Parks—Bryc e, Zi ons, etc. David went through Veterinarian school at the Universit y of Was hington, and then worked as a vet in Malad, Idaho for a year o r two befor e moving into his parent’s home (1498 S 800 E) to farm. He bo ught some la nd from his father and worked hard. As the uncles got older , David bough t their land. Over time he accumulated all the land along B eckstead Lan e that belonged to his ancestors, the pastures, he vowed h e would try t o get for his cattle and much more. He eventually had abou t 6,000 acres a nd 300 cattle.

David and Pauline had eight children, four boys and four girls—Kristy, K a thy, David (Brad), Kaye (Pud), Jed, Shirley, John, and Alan (Fred). Th e y taught their kids how to work hard and that stayed with them througho u t their lives making them very prosperous, industrious people. Paulin e ma tched her husband as a hard worker and was an incredibly giving an d sacri ficing person. She had a bright, cheery, talkative personality an d she su pported David in all his farming efforts.

David had constant goals for improvements to the ranch. He obtained th e l atest farm machinery, increased his sprinkler wheel lines, improved h is i rrigation, put in steel gates, nicer fences, etc. It was a family af fair . A love of the farm stayed with his kids. Some of his grandchildre n work ed on the farm in the summers (Kathy and Brad’s sons). Their paren ts kne w the value it would be to them.

David encouraged and helped pay for his children to go to college. Sev e n of his children had bachelor degrees. David B. became a family docto r i n Preston and Jed received an MBA. David and Pauline encouraged growi ng e xperiences; for instance, David B. went to Europe with the BYU Ballr oom D ance Team; they sent Pud on a BYU tour of Europe; they helped Fre d go t o Jerusalem with a study group. They wanted their kids to broade n their h orizons. All there children also took piano lessons.

However, for himself, David never wanted to leave the farm. It was foo d a nd drink to him. Hard work was his entertainment. He did go to othe r stat es to see his children graduate from college and get graduate degr ees, o r see his posterity marry. He also went to California to visit Kat hy. Bu t his favorite place was the farm. He was very proud to be the fou rth gen eration living on his road, Beckstead Lane, 800 East, Preston, Id aho.

David had many, many friends. He would help them dehorn cattle or tend e d to their sick cattle. His friends in turn helped him when he needed i t . He enjoyed stopping to visit his pals as he went about his everyday w or k.

As the kids grew up and moved away, he had a lot more work without all t h e help. For years he hired two or three Mexicans to come for six month s o ut of the year to help him farm—Robbie, Pedro, and Juan .

David told of a special spiritual experience that happened to him when h i s son, Fred (Alan), was in a coma in Ogden hospital after a severe ca r ac cident. On a trip through Sardine Canyon to visit Fred at the hospit al, D avid saw an angel surrounded by light, standing in the air near th e top o f a hill. The angel spoke words of comfort to David explaining th at Fre d would recover. And Fred did get well, went on a mission, and wa s seale d in the temple to a lovely girl. Every time David drove throug h that sam e canyon, he recalled the incident.

David had a strong testimony of the gospel, and a firm devotion to his a n cestors that crossed the plains as pioneers and settled the land tha t h e loved so much. He and Pauline established a strong family who did m uc h to help build up the kingdom of God in the latter days. David and Pa uli ne gave future generations an invaluable foundation.


By Alexis Champneys Beckstead, David's daughter-in-law.

Family/Spouse: Unknown. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• FamilySearch ID: KWZK-WTX
• Initiatory (LDS): 9 Jan 1958, SLAKE

Other Events and Attributes:

• FamilySearch ID: KWCT-HS5
• Initiatory (LDS): 11 Mar 2004, LOGAN