10 Facts About Edward Bech

Edward Bech was a Danish diplomat and businessman who lived in the United States.

Edward Bech studied in Berlin and attended the University of Copenhagen before going to Lubeck for a commercial education.

Edward Bech immigrated to New York in 1838 becoming the Danish Consul in New York.

Edward Bech remained in that position for the next twenty years and was knighted by King Frederick VII on October 5,1854.

In 1842, after working for others, Edward Bech formed his own firm which traded in wine and iron.

On September 11,1846, Edward Bech was married to Canadian born Charlotte Elizabeth McCarty Braem, the widow of Rudolph Gothard Sighart Braem.

Edward Bech died from tuberculosis on July 9,1873, in Stuttgart, Baden-Wurttemberg.

Edward Bech's body was returned to the United States and he was buried at Poughkeepsie Rural Cemetery in a mausoleum was designed by Detlef Lienau in 1862 for Bech's eldest son Edward who died young.

In 1851, Edward Bech moved his family to Poughkeepsie where they lived at 57 Market Street, across from the Court House, for nearly ten years.

Edward Bech hired Danish architect Detlef Lienau, the younger brother of his wine trading partner, Michael Lienau, who designed a gatehouse, gardener's cottage, carriage house, and a main house in the Gothic Revival style, but died before the main house was built.