Carsten (Charles) Beckmann - 4th son of Barthold & Christina Margaret (Reese) of Lamstedt, Niedersachsen, Germany

Carsten (Charles) Beckmann (1899-1977) during WWI, Carsten, Harry and Willie were the sons still at home. Georg was away at war, Bartle and Henry were in America. The younger brothers had to do the chores around the farm that needed to be done. Milking, feeding pigs, cows, driving cattle to the railroad station. Vater Barthold had the job of choosing which cattle would go to the government , from the neighbors around Lamstedt, for use in the war effort. My father Harry said, that his fathers task of selecting animals going to the government, was made easier by the fact that the senior Barthold was given a rubber tired bike to ride.
In the last year of the war (1918), Carsten was taken into the Army for training at Cuxhaven. Harry said he had to accompany Carsten to the train at Basbeck with his little wagon, which contained Carsten's worldly goods. He said they were both crying, because Carsten was leaving home and were going to miss each other. Upon completion of Carsten's basic training, the war ended, so Carsten came home again. Lucky Carsten! That war cost millions of lives.
In the early 1920's Carsten married Anna Meyer from Cadenbergh, we have a picture somewhere of that event. Their son Henry was born in 1922, at about the same time as Georg's son Barthold was born, those two boys must have shared their early lives together, since they both lived in the same house.
Leaving their young son Henry behind, in the care of Johanna and Georg. Carsten and Anna immigrated to America, about 1928. They would send for Henry later, when they were better established. I believe when they arrived in America, they lived at my parents home at 216-72nd street, Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. My parents took in, immigrant boarders, to help pay the mortgage and to survive the bad economic times.
Yound Henry arrived in Brooklyn, in 1934 along with Opa Barthold Beckmann, who wanted to visit his 5 sons in America. Daughter Dorothy, sister to Henry, had just been born in 1933. Times were tough, it was the depths of the Depression, it wasn't easy for Carsten to find work. He even had to travel to Speculator in the Adirondack mountains of NY, to support his family, working in a boxers training camp.
Eventually, things got better, America's economy was regaining strength, Carsten and Anna moved to Springfield, New Jersey where they started a Butcher shop, Delicatessen business. About this time, son Henry entered the US Army, WWII was starting. Carsten and Anna kept their business going and raised Dorothy in Springfield.
Son Henry completed his Army basic training and found himslef in Oxford, England in 1943, preparing for the invasion of Europe. At about the same time his cousin Barthold, who he had been raised with , for 12 years, was killed fighting for the Wehrmacht in Russia, somewhere between Moscow and Leningrad.
Henry returned to Springfield, New Jersey after the war, with his bride Ilse Kopinski a girl born and raised in Berlin. In 1948 their son Bruce was born and life began for them running Carsten's Deli.
After a short illness, Carsten's wife Anna died in January 1950. Carsten continued living in Springfield, daugher Dorothy married Bill Onksen in the early 1950's.
Carsten married Marie Jenses in May 1952. Dorothy married William (Bill) Onksen September 19, 1954. Carsten sold the butcher shop in 1955, and moved to Hobe Sound, Florida and had Tourist Court, Carsten and his 2nd wife later sold that property and moved to Stuart, Florida, where they lived till he died May 17, 1976 in Florida. he was 76 years old. Marie Beckmann, his second wife died many years later and did not contact Henry or Dorothy after Carsten's death.
She died many years later (about 1955). Bruce, Henry's son married Margie and they had 2 children. They got divorced and Bruce married Denise.
Dorothy and Bill Onksen had 3 childen, two girls and one boy.
Carsten met his second wife Marie Jenses in the early 50's and they moved to Hobe Sound, Florida, where they bought a Motel. It was a good move, as Florida experienced a post war boom, the value of their property increased. Some of Marie's relatives lived nearby.



(courtesy of George Beckmann, The Villages, Florida)