Cornelius C. Beekman

Beekman was born in 1828 in Dundee, New York, to parents Benjamin Beekman and Lydia Compton. The elder Beekman trained his son to be a carpenter.{{cite book | title =The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography | publisher =James Terry White | volume =XVII | date =1920 | location =New York | pages =192 | url =https://books.google.com/books?id=dPEpAQAAMAAJ&pg=RA5-PA192}} Beekman attended public school in Yates County and remained in the area until 1850. In that year, he sailed for San Francisco intent on becoming a gold prospector during the California Gold Rush. Believing that all of the good claims already had been filed, Beekman remained in San Francisco and worked briefly as a carpenter at the rate of one ounce of gold per day. In 1851, he traveled north and staked a claim in Yreka.{{cite news | last =Miller | first =Bill | title =The Cornelius Beekman you never knew | newspaper =Mail Tribune | location =Medford, Oregon | publisher =Grady Singletary | date =April 28, 2013 | url =http://www.mailtribune.com/article/20130428/News/304280340 | accessdate = January 18, 2015}}

In 1853, Beekman became a delivery rider for Cram, Rogers & Co.,Cram Rogers was an agent of what would become Adams Express Company, see White. For a brief discussion of express companies including Cram Rogers, see {{cite web | last =Frajola | first =Richard | title =Steve Whitington Collection of Western Express Covers | url =http://www.rfrajola.com/whitington/Whitingtonp3.htm | accessdate = January 18, 2015}} and he rode a trail through the Siskiyou Mountains two or three times a week carrying gold dust, letters, and parcels between Yreka, California, and Jacksonville, Oregon. He relocated to Jacksonville in that year, and when Cram Rogers failed in 1856, he opened the Beekman Express Company and continued along the same route.{{cite web | title =Beekman Bank | work =Properties | publisher =Jacksonville Heritage Society | url =https://sites.google.com/a/jvilleheritage.org/jacksonville-heritage-society/properties/beekman-bank | archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20150119033045/https://sites.google.com/a/jvilleheritage.org/jacksonville-heritage-society/properties/beekman-bank | archivedate=January 19, 2015}}

For a time, Beekman was paid five percent of the estimated value of the gold dust he transported, and the gold dust amounted to more than $15,000,000 over the duration of his service. Beekman also received one dollar for each letter and newspaper he transported. In 1857, he opened the Beekman Bank in Jacksonville. The bank became the first bank in Southern Oregon, and because depositors dealt in gold dust, Beekman charged a storage fee of one percent rather than pay interest on deposits. He continued in banking until shortly before his death in 1915.

In 1863, Beekman became the Jacksonville agent of the Wells Fargo Express Co., a post he held for forty years. During the time he worked for Wells Fargo, Beekman shipped millions of dollars in gold dust to be minted in San Francisco.

Beekman ran on the Republican ticket for governor of Oregon in 1878, losing to William Thayer by fewer than 70 votes.

Beekman was a 32nd degree Mason and a member of the Sons of the American Revolution.

In 2018, Wells Fargo Bank created a television ad which mentions Cornelius Beekman. It mentions a Wells Fargo stage coach being robbed and the thieves being deceived by Beekman into stealing rocks. There is an explanation for how this deception worked. The robbers expected the express agents to use the strong box for gold. Instead, Beekman repacked gold into the smaller wooden boxes that had held candles.{{cite web| url=https://jacksonvillereview.com/cornelius-c-beekman%E2%80%89-%E2%80%89part-2-beginnings-of-a-business-empire-by-carolyn-kingsnorth/|title=Cornelius C. Beekman, Part 2 – Beginnings of a Business Empire|first=Carolyn|last=Kingsnorth|date=July 2015|access-date=2019-08-09|website=Jacksonville Review}}

Beekman served as a regent of the University of Oregon, and with Henry Failing he established there the Failing-Beekman Prize in 1880 for best oration at the time of graduation.{{cite news | title =Prizes in Oratory Sought by five | newspaper =The Oregonian | location =Portland | pages =9 | date =June 15, 1913 | url =http://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn83045782/1913-06-15/ed-1/seq-9/ocr/ | accessdate = January 18, 2015}}

Beekman helped to found the First Presbyterian Church of Jacksonville. He helped to establish the community of Medford, Oregon as one of the four property owners of the original town site.

{{Reflist|30em}}

• [http://nwda.orbiscascade.org/ark:/80444/xv88079 Guide to the Beekman Family Papers 1859-1936]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20150119064250/http://blogs.wellsfargo.com/guidedbyhistory/2008/07/cornelius-beekman/ Cornelius Beekman at Guided by History]
• [https://archive.org/stream/CorneliusC.Beekman/BeekmanBiography#page/n0/mode/2up Engeman, Biography of Cornelius C. Beekman], a paper written by Richard H. Engeman in 1980 for HST407 at the University of Oregon
• [http://www.offbeatoregon.com/s1301w1-wpa-banister-beekman-jacksonville.html C.C. Beekman, Jacksonville banker]

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{{s-bef|before=J. C. Tolman}}

{{s-ttl|title=Republican nominee for Governor of Oregon|years=1878}}

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Category:1828 births

Category:1915 deaths

Category:19th-century American businesspeople

Category:People of the California Gold Rush

Category:People from Oregon Territory

Category:People from Yates County, New York

Category:Oregon pioneers

Category:Wells Fargo employees

Category:American bankers

Category:People from Jacksonville, Oregon

Category:Businesspeople from Oregon