Beck was born on 26 April 1837. He was reared on a farm until he was thirteen when his father died. He was then bound out to a banker in Kittanning, and served as his bank clerk while also attending school. Other early jobs included store clerk, nailer in a rolling mill, and school teacher. He received an appointment to attend West Point, but only attended for about a year. That gave him enough military training to be sought after as a drilling instructor for various militias before he organized the Finlay Cadets. His marksmanship was so good that he won a gold medal just before the outbreak of the war in a contest between the rifle clubs of six counties of western Pennsylvania.

Bates indicates that he was captured at the Wilderness. The sketch provides additional details. "Beck was captured near Robinson's Tavern and taken as a prisoner to Macon, Georgia, where he was held until Atlanta fell; he was then kept at Savannah until the capture of that city, and was then moved to Charleston, where he and a large number of other officers who were prisoners were exposed to the fire of the Union army. Soon after, the yellow fever became epidemic at Charleston, and he was removed to Columbus, South Carolina, where, along with twelve hundred other officers, he received his welcome exchange. He had undergone the horrors of prison life for seven months, which was his most trying experience during the war. On December 19, 1864, he was mustered out at Washington, with a most creditable record as a gallant, fearless and efficient soldier."

After the war, Beck had quite a colorful and prosperous career. After initially returning to Kittanning to be a bookkeeper at his old bank, he was enticed by his brother, who had also been a captain in the war, to fight in Mexico against Maximilian. Somehow, however, before reaching Mexico, they decided to purchase cattle in Texas and start a cattle drive to Chicago. While in Kansas, in the midst of the cattle drive, they tried some land speculating and prospecting for coal. Somewhere on his exploits in Kansas, he met a 16 year old Hoosier, Sarah Houston, and married her. After reaching Chicago with his cattle (and new wife?), however, he returned to Pennsylvania. They remained in his home state for a dozen years and had one child before they returned to Kansas in 1883. He had purchased land in what became Pittsburg, Kansas, ten years before it was founded, and returning to the land as the new town was growing, he helped develop the community, prospered with it operating a grist mill, building a coal mining operation, and becoming a bank director. In the 1910 Census he listed his occupation as "Capitalist." According to pension index, Beck died in 1911 in Kansas. His widow was Sarah M. Beck.

William C Beck