Beckman taught school in Western New York until they came to Wisconsin Territory in 1845, initially settling in Emmet, in Dodge County near Watertown.
Beckman was a Democratic Party member, serving on the resolutions committee of the 1861 Dodge County Democratic convention which denounced secession and sectionalism, and denounced the Radical Republicans as sectionalists, calling instead for "a union of all conservative men" to fight alike the secessionists and the Republicans.
[4] He was elected to the assembly's 1st Jefferson County district (which included the Towns of Ixonia and Watertown as well as the entire City of Watertown, including those two wards which actually were in Dodge County) as an independent candidate, receiving 834 votes to 753 for Democratic incumbent Patrick Devy.
[5] He was not a candidate for re-election in 1874, and was succeeded by fellow Reformer Christian Mayer, also a former mayor of Watertown.
When in 1875 a Watertown Encampment of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows was organized, Beckman was elected to be its "High Priest", a position apparently second only to the "Grand Patriarch" of that body.