Michael and Margaritha Beck (Bieck), immigrant farmers from Germany, established this farm in 1865. At the time, most farms in Jefferson County raised grain cash crops and maintained a few dairy cows to provide milk that could be made into cheese and butter for their own personal consumption. But by the 1870s, farmers sought the next stable cash crop after the demise of the wheat and hops era of the mid-nineteenth century. Dairy farming proved to be it, as farmers realized that the sale of milk to cheese and butter factories could provide a steady income and would not require the making of these products on the farm themselves. Farmers, especially those in Jefferson County, embraced dairying and converted many existing barns into dairy barns. New dairy barns were constructed on almost every farmstead, along with structures related to dairy farming such as silos and corn cribs. The Beck Farmstead followed this trend and was transitioned to dairying, which continued through multiple subsequent owners of the farm. The farm, including a farmhouse, bank barn, machine shed, granary, milk house, corn crib, privy, and flagpole maintains remarkable integrity and quality in its organization, materials, and appearance. The farm today is architecturally intact and an excellent example of a late nineteenth-early twentieth century dairy farm in rural Jefferson County.

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