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ton and became connected with the National Museum. While clerk to the [[strikethrough]] Judicial[[/strikethrough]][[handwritten edit]] ^[[Judiciary]] Committee of the House of Representatives he studied law, attending for a portion of the term the Columbia Law School in Washington. About two years before his death he was induced to turn his attention to the practice of law, as a patent solicitor, and entered the office of Mr. Pollock, where he was engaged with great promise of success when his fatal disease began to develop itself.

      Mr. Beckham's talent for mathematical and physical science, united with other qualities, formed a rare combination from which his friends agreed that he would win success. But Providence decreed otherwise. It was in the effort to throw off disease that he spent a winter in Texas, employing his time in making a collection of birds, a fine series of which he presented to the National Museum. Returning from Texas for a few months [[strikethrough]] . [[/strikethrough]] he resumed his labors at Washington, but again attacked by illness he went to Louisiana and spent the winter with his uncle, Gov. R. C. Wickliffe, near St. Francisville.