John R. Beeching is a lawyer and since 1910 had been accumulating a large general practice and a rising reputation at the bar of Hutchinson.
Mr. Beeching is a native Kansan, and represents a pioneer family in Rush County, where he was born February 19, 1884. His grandfather, Charles Beeching, was an Englishman, born in 1830, was a mechanic by trade, and on coming to America first settled in Connecticut and afterwards moved to Huntington, Indiana, where he died in 1898.
Perry Beeching, father of the Hutchinson lawyer, was born in Connecticut in 1858. He was reared at Huntington, Indiana, and in 1880 joined the early settlers of Rush County, Kansas. The old homestead of 160 acres which he took up on going there was developed as a fine farm home and he continued his residence on it until his death in 1915. The homestead was only the nucleus which represented his successful efforts as a farmer, and at the time of his death he owned 1,120 acres. He was a democrat in politics. Perry Beeching married Lizzie Van Gorder. She was born at Ellenville, New York, in 1858, and is now living at Hutchinson. Her children are: Charles Lee, a graduate of the University Medical College of Kansas City and of the Navy Medical College at Washington, D. C., and now connected in a professional capacity with the United States Navy; John R.; Ella Mabel, who graduated A. B. from the Emporia State Normal School and is now living at Manhattan, a teacher in the Manhattan High School; and Gertie L., wife of A. D. Shaw, foreman of a planing mill at San Antonio, Texas.
John R. Beeching grew up on his father’s farm in Rush County, remaining there until he was twenty-two. He received his early education in the rural schools, attending in the winter and helping his father on the farm in the summer seasons. Mr. Beeching spent four years in Cooper College at Sterling, and in 1907 received his law degree from the Kansas City Law School. He was admitted to the bar in 1907, both in Kansas and Missouri, and was connected with a law office in Kansas City, Missouri, until 1910. He then removed to Hutchinson and established an independent practice and had handled a large volume of civil and criminal cases in the local courts. His offices are in the Rorabaugh-Wiley Building.
Mr. Beeching is a democrat, is affiliated with Reno Lodge No. 140, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, Hutchinson Lodge No. 453, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, Hutchinson Camp No. 566, Modern Woodmen of America, and is a member of the Commerce Club, Gridiron Club, County Bar Association and State Bar Association.
Mr. Beeching owned his residence at 203 East 17th Avenue. He married in October, 1910, at Sterling, Kansas, Miss Bertha Crego, daughter of C. H. and V. (Smith) Crego, still living at Sterling. Her father is now retired.