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Show was one of the r ichest men in Wyoming. When he was a young man, A. C. Beckwith and his friend, Anthony Quinn, had almost literally stumbled across a fortune when they found a small steamboat filled with guns, ammunition, bar rels of whiskey, and knives abandoned in the mud of the Platte River. A. C. Beckwith and Quinn appropriated the deserted supplies, as law and custom stated such discarded goods were “the property of anyone who could retr ieve it,” and sold them to Union Pacific Railroad workers in Wyoming and Utah.8 According to Frank Beckwith’s friend Charles Kelly, “by the time construction was completed the boys [A.C. Beckwith and Quinn] were comparatively rich.”9 A. C. Beckwith invested his profits in var ious enterprises, opened a bank, and started the “BQ” Ranch (Beckwith, Quinn, and Company Ranch), Frank Beckwith as a young boy. which included fifteen thousand acres and the largest cattle herd in Wyoming.10 He also built the Beckwith Race Tracks in Evanston, co-operated the Rock Springs coal mines, was the senior member of the mercantile firm of Beckwith & Lauder, served as a World’s Fair commissioner for the state of Wyoming, and held several other prestigious positions within the state.11 His wealth and position allowed A. C. Beckwith to provide a comfortable life for his family, including a beautiful red brick home in Evanston and the services of a maid and a houseboy.12 In spite of such material luxuries, Frank did not have an easy childhood—his father “ruled with a fist of iron, 8 Charles Kelly, “Steamboat in the Desert, the Story of Asa [sic] C. Beckwith, Father of Frank Beckwith, Resident of Evanston, Wyoming.” Charles Kelly Papers, Special Collections, Marriot Library, University of Utah, MS 100, Box 11, Folder 21. 9 Ibid., 4. 10 Ibid.; Errol Jack Lloyd, “History of Cokeville, Wyoming” (master’s thesis, Utah State University, 1970), 103. 11 David Dean, “The Uinta Stock Farm—1884,” 3, typed unpublished manuscript in the possession of Jane Beckwith; “Asahel C. Beckwith,” manuscript dated 1897 in the Wyoming Historical Society, Cheyenne, Wyoming, 332. 12 Jane Beckwith, interview by author, January 10, 2012. 171 BECKWITH PHOTOGRAPH COLLECTION, DELTA CITY LIBRARY FRANK ASAHEL BECKWITH |
