Born about 1802. Married William FORREST (1798-1837) in 1820 at Gallatin, Sumner, Tennessee. Married Joseph LUXTON 28 December 1841 in Marshall County, Mississippi.

Mother of Nathan Bedford FORREST, Confederate general.

* "Miriam Beck Forrest Luxton, mother of Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest. In 1863, during the peak of the Civil War, General Forrest had his mother and her two younger children escorted from Tennessee to the safety of their long time friends' Ira and Eliza Camp Inn, where Sam Houston often was a guest.

Miriam Beck was born about 1800 in South Carolina to strict Presbyterian Scots with her parents moving to Caney Springs, Tennessee around 1810 settling on Duck River. She married William Forrest about 1820 with a set of twins as their first born children on July 13, 1821 – son Nathan and daughter Fanny. Several subsequent children were born and in 1834 the Forrests moved from Tennessee to Tippah County, Mississippi. Three years later William Forrest died and Miriam also lost two sons and all three of her daughters to ‘pestilent fevers.' With her son, Nathan, and five other surviving sons, the family cleared and drained swampland for farming. In late December 1841, Miriam married Joseph M. Luxton. Three more sons were born as well as a daughter. By the time of the beginning of the Civil War Miriam's 2nd husband was dead and she owned and operated a successful plantation near Memphis, Tennessee. During the Civil War, family history claims that all but one son fought for the Confederacy, with Nathan becoming a somewhat controversial but heralded General.
Miriam's safe haven was the Camp family's inn. Following the Civil War, a son of her 2nd marriage, James Madison Luxton, sought refuge in Grimes County for an ‘undescribed' crime he committed in Tennessee. He reportedly became a deputy sheriff under a sheriff by the name of Charles Gibbs. In the fall of 1867 James fell seriously ill and Miriam rushed by carriage to his aid. As she stepped off the carriage in Navasota a nail penetrated her foot. She subsequently suffered blood poisoning and died at Camp Inn on November 15, 1867. Her son, James, survived and later raised a family in Uvalde County, Texas."
* From the Texas Center for Regional Studies, Betty Dunn.