Rufus Beck of Rathdrum

Coeur d' Alene Press 14 Oct 1937 Thursday

RATHDRUM PIONEER IS TAKEN BY DEATH

Rufus Beck, 64 pioneer resident of Rathdrum died last evening at a local hospital. The body is at the Cassedy Funeral Home and funeral arrangements are pending the arrival of a sister, Mrs. O. H. Fuller of Fort Blakely, Wash.

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Rufus was born 18 Jun 1879 to Simon and Mary Beck in Michigan. the family moved to Rathdrum, Idaho sometime before 1900.

His only known sibling was a young sister Lola (I'm not sure is this is the same O.H. Fuller named in the obituary or is that is a different sister. This sister was the only sibling found with the family in the census records from 1900-1930). She was born in Wisconsin in 1886, so the family must have lived in Wisconsin for a while before moving to Idaho.

From at least as early as 1910 until his death Rufus was a Blacksmith for Rathdrum. Rufus lost his mother Mary in 1919. By 1920 he and his father were partners in a Blacksmith shop until Simon's death in 1929.

Rufus finally married later in life some time before 1920 to Myrtle. I believe the son living with them in 1920, Thomas, was hers from a former marriage, even though he is listed as Rufus' son in the 1920 census.

I wondered how a man who was a big part of the Rathdrum community, a booming logging community at the time, ends up poor with the county burying him. But if you think about his profession as a blacksmith, he died at a time when the blacksmith was becoming extinct. People were starting to buy cars, not to mention the Great Depression which had been going on for nearly a decade at the time of this death.