Sentimental Sunday - January 17, 2010

This is a series of photographs of the old William Bean homeplace, located near Waiteville, Monroe County, West Virginia taken by Roger Davis [Roger is my third-cousin, once removed - or at least I think, I have such a terrible time computing familial relationships and rely on my genealogy program to do that for me!]. Roger visited the old homeplace in September of 1999 with my Dad [that's him with Roger in the bottom photo].

This is the house that William Bean built for his wife, Rachel Wiseman Bean in the 1840's. The sturcture itself is made of log. It has been covered with wood-siding since about 1910. However, the interior remains log [in another post I will show you some of the interior shots of the place taken in 2009].

On either end of the home, you can see where there were once big, rock fireplaces. These have been replaced [since the 1970's] with windows.

The house sits adjacent to the little road that splits the property in half. Across the road, through a field, and onto a hillock in the forest lies the Bean cemetery, where there are approximately 30 graves. The cemetery had been overgrown with trees. [I'll feature this cemetery at another time as well.]

William and Rachel were the parents of thirteen children. Every two years the descendants of this couple gather at Waiteville ina celebration of the lives of our ancestors. Roger, Walter and I are a part of those descendants. [That's a small glimpse at Roger's family tree on the lower right of this page.]