I. Earl Beekman is a well known and successful contractor and builder of Utica, where he has thus been active in business since 1915 and where many attractive and substantial structures stand as monuments to his enterprise and ability. He is a representative of the prominent old Beekman family that was established in the Mohawk valley as early as 1645 and in whose honor Beekman street in New York city was named. His birth occurred in Sherburne, Chenango county, New York, on the 17th of April, 1880, his parents being Isaac and Aurelia Beekman, who now reside at Sangerfield, Oneida county, this state, where they enjoy an extensive and favorable acquaintance.
I. Earl Beekman obtained a district school education at the place of his nativity and subsequently pursued a high school course at Waterville, Oneida county. He worked at different occupations between the ages of fifteen and twenty-two years and then served an apprenticeship at the carpenter's trade, in which he became very proficient. He was a young man of twenty-five years when in 1905 he took up his abode in Utica and entered the planing mill of the Charles C. Kellogg & Sons Company, by which he was employed through the succeeding decade. It was in 1915 that he embarked in business on his own account as a contractor and builder, in which field of activity he has met with a gratifying and well deserved measure of success. Among the many handsome residences which he has erected are those of Richard U. Sherman, Frank P. Rodgers and B. T. Gilbert.
In 1903 Mr. Beekman was united in marriage to Miss Anna M. Hayes of New Haven, Connecticut, and to them have been born six children, namely: Hazel D., Leon G., Stanley E., Allen E., Dorris A. and Irene A. Mr. and Mrs. Beekman have an extensive circle of friends throughout Utica and are everywhere spoken of in terms of the highest regard.