HERBERT M BECK 1870-1949 Historical Review of Arkansas: Its Commerce, Industry and Modern ..., Volume 2 By Fay Hempstead Among the prominent and decidedly public-spirited citizens of Fort Smith, Sebastian county, Arkansas, is Herbert M. Beck, who formerly held distinctive prestige as an able and well fortified attorney in this city and who is now devoting his entire time and attention to his work as a Christian Science practitioner and teacher. Mr. Beck is a man of broad mind and unusual executive ability and his co-operation in the great work begun by the late Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy has been prolific of considerable good to his fellow citizens at Fort Smith and to the cause of Christian Science A native son of the state of Illinois, Mr. Beck was born on a farm in Putnam county, that state, the date of his nativity being June 27, 1870. He is a son of Harrison W. and Emma (Merritt) Beck, both of whom were likewise born in Illinois, whence they removed to Butler county, Kansas, in the year 1871, becoming pioneer settlers in the central part of the fine old Sunflower state. The father entered a quarter section of fine government land in Kansas and in time became a prosperous and substantial citizen of Butler county, where he figured prominently in public affairs. At one time he served with honor and distinction as a member of the Kansas state legislature and he was ever on the qui vive to do all in his power to advance the general welfare of the community in which he resided. He was summoned to the life eternal at his home in Butler county, in the year 1886, and his cherished and devoted wife passed away at Fort Smith, in 1906. Mr. and Mrs. Harrison W. Beck were the parents of four children, two of whom are living at the present time, in 1911. Herbert M. Beck was a child less than two years of age at the time of his parents' removal from Illinois to Kansas and he completed his preliminary educational training by a course in the high school of El Dorado, the judicial center of Butler county, Kansas. Subsequently he attended the law department of Northwestern University, at Evanston, Illinois, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1896, but he was admitted to practice at the Arkansas bar in 1892. He had established his home in the city of Fort Smith, Sebastian county, Arkansas, in 1890, and after returning from college he opened offices and began the practice of his profession in this place. He rapidly built up a large and representative clientage and controlled the same until 1908, in which year he gave up the practice of law in order to direct all his energies to Christian Science healing and teaching. In 1905 he was honored by his fellow citizens with election to membership in the Arkansas legislature to represent Sebastian county in the sessions of 1905-7. During his incumbency of the latter position he devoted considerable time to the measures permitting old-line life insurance companies to do business in the state. His most efficient and beneficent work, however, was that connected with measures promoting the building of good roads, a pioneer movement at that time, but one which has since resulted in a wave of good-road building throughout the entire state. In his home county of Sebastian he was especially influential in the building of good roads; he organized the road committee in the Trusty School district, which built its part of the Van Buren road, one of the best in the state, this work having been done under the administration of County Judge W. A. Falconer. For a number of years prior to his retiring from the legal profession Mr. Beck had been a prominent figure in local Christian Science circles, having been instrumental in the organization of the Fort Smith Church of Christ Scientist, in 1898, in which he served with efficiency for some years as a reader. With the passage of time he became more and more impressed with the doctrines and teachings promulgated by Christian Science and eventually he decided to devote all his attention to its study and practice. He completed his preparation as a Christian Science practitioner and teacher in Boston, where he received the degree of C. S. B. from the board of education established by The First Church of Christ Scientist, the Mother Church. He has been eminently successful in his work as a Christian Science practitioner, having driven out disease in many persistent cases, and in connection with his vocation he is on the Christian Science committee on publication for the state of Arkansas. In the year 1900 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Beck to Miss Sarah F. Woodrow, who was born in Tazewell county, Illinois, a niece of Mr. and Mrs. J. W. Robison, of that county, who were likewise pioneer settlers in Butler county, Kansas, where Mr. and Mrs. Beck's marriage ceremony was performed. To this union has been born two children - Dorothy Woodrow and Virginia Merritt, both of whom will be sent to school at Fort Smith. In his political convictions Mr. Beck is aligned as a stalwart in the ranks of the Democratic party and he has ever done all in his power to advance the general welfare of his home county and of the state at large. Besides two years as justice of the peace, the only public office of which he was ever incumbent was that of representative in the state legislature, and that he acquitted himself most creditably in that connection has already been seen in a preceding paragraph. He is a man of unusual intelligence and in all the walks of life his conduct is characterized by that broad human sympathy, which begets friendship and which is prolific of so much good in this world. He is held in high esteem by his fellow citizens and he and his wife are prominent and popular factors in connection with the best social activities in Fort Smith.