Memory Hill Cemetery

More Information

Samuel Beckcom

Nov 24, 1760 - Nov 2, 1825

East Side, Section I, Lot 32, Grave 1
-- See section's Lot Layout map
-- or see section's Grave Location map.

Latitude: 33.07470772, Longitude: -83.22845350 -- See location on Google map.

Inscription and Notes:

Erected by the State of GA
Grave relocated by the DAR from Beckham's Mount on the big gully
Military Service: American Revolution
Captain in Colonel William Thompson's Regiment of South Carolina Rangers

Shown here is a picture of Hugh Harrington (who was portraying Samuel Beckcom), and Mickey Beckham (a relative of Samuel Beckcom and also in period costume), who met at Samuel Beckcom's grave at a recent 1820's commemoration event held in the cemetery.


Samuel Beckcom (Beckham)

Samuel Beckcom served as a Lieutenant and later a Captain in Colonel William Thompson's Regiment of South Carolina Rangers.[1]  He was also described as Maj. Samuel Beckham, a revolutionary soldier, who was in charge of the militia, which garrisoned Ft. Wilkinson, after the removal of Ft. Wilkinson’s garrison to Ft. Hawkins near Macon, until all danger from Indian forays had ceased (p. 24).  Beckcom was appointed as Inferior Court justice of the county of Wilkinson in 1807 (p.19).[2]

Beckcom received a bounty of 287-1/2 acres based on the certificate of Col. G. Lee.[3] He appears to be the Captain Samuel Beckaem who wrote a deposition describing what went on in Georgia in the Revolutionary War. His statement begins with the capture of Savannah by British troops on Dec. 29, 1778, and continues until 1781. This deposition was written in approximately 1812 and can be found in the records of the Bevan Papers in the Georgia Historical Society Library in Savannah. The deposition was "correct to my own experemental knowledge and the best information that I can collect from old Revolutionarous characters" (sic) and a second part was "delivered to the subscriber by Coln Johnsons own mouth"(sic).

                                                                                        Saml. Beckaem

Samuel Beckcom married Elizabeth Haughton/Houghton on Feb. 18, 1790.[4] He died November 2, 1825. From The Georgia Journal (Milledgeville),  November  8, 1825, p. 3, 5th column:

On the second of November, at the residence of Albert G. Beckam, Samuel Beckam died, at the age of sixty-five years, wanting twenty-two days. He was a Revolutionary soldier who was in actual service during our struggle for liberty, until the close of the war, with the exception of a few months, when he was confined with a wound he received at the siege of Augusta.

He commanded a rifle company during the greater part of the war, under Gen. Elijah Clarke, where he was ready to serve his country in any shape that presented itself. His goodness of heart will long be remembered by the hundreds of his countrymen; but, alas! His goodness reduced him to poverty, and would have sent him to his grave unnoticed and unregretted, save by his relatives and neighbors, had it not been for the patriotic heart of Captain Lamar and his company, who generously turned out and accompanied his remains to the tomb and interred him with the usual honors of War.

Samuel Beckcom was originally interred at "Beckam's Mount" in Baldwin County. His remains were later transferred to Milledgeville's Memory Hill Cemetery. Anna Maria Green Cook's History of Baldwin County, includes the inscription from his tomb, on Beckam's Mount, which reads:

ERECTED BY THE

STATE OF GEORGIA

TO THE MEMORY OF SAMUEL BECKAM

ONE OF THE SONS AND SOLDIER OF THE

REVOLUTIONARY WAR

BORN 21st NOVEMBER 1760

DIED 2nd NOVEMBER 1825



[1]. Samuel Beckcom's name is seen with several variant spellings, including Beckaem, Beckham, Beckam. History of Baldwin County, by Anna Maria Green Cook.

[2]. History of Baldwin County, by Anna Maria Green Cook

[3]. Georgia'sRoster of the Revolution, p. 44.

[4]. DAR Patriot Index p. 208. Family Bible records.


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