Busy as a Bee

I have been stealing two hours every evening to simply write.

 

 

 

What, you might ask, is causing me to spend two hours every evening typing away on my computer?

 

The Great American Novel!

 

Okay, okay, I figured you wouldn't fall for that! However, I am writing a novel that is the Great American Novel to me. It is a novel on my great-great-grandfather's life.

 

We haven't a lot to go on. His father as know it, is another of those whimsical McBean's named William. Family lore says he was a loyalist in the Revolution.  After the war, he received land grants at a place called Stoney Creek, which even today is a natural divider between Virginia and West Virginia.

 

We know that his property was sold off for back taxes because his widow could not afford the taxes in 1805.

 

We know that his eldest son, John, was placed as an indenture servant in February 1804. So we are "assuming" that he died before then. And in September his son William, my gr-gr-grandfather, was also placed for indenture. On his 12th birthday.

 

Family lore states that he had a younger brother, Roy, who was indentured with him at the same time. Roy either disappeared or ran away shortly thereafter. He was never heard from again. It is believed there may have been foul play and Roy was killed accidentally.

 

The novel is being written as fiction. The gaps being filled in by imagination.

 

I am in hope of finishing it about the first of the year. And so I am making good progress with it, and that my dear friends and family, is where I am hidden each evening. No phone calls will be answered during my writing time!

 

Do you have your Great American Novel yet inside of you! Explore with it. Perhaps you can write yours completely non-fiction! How great would that be? Unfortunately the family lore has been passed down and I am including that as part of the fiction, since I am unable to prove, or disprove it.

 

Give it try. I've spent years researching my family. And this is just one of many more books to come.

SNGF ... Come Sunday Morning

I am always late with these prompts! [Once in a while I manage to actually get to a Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge that Randy Seaver readies for us on GeneaMusings]

Last night's challenge?

"Awake and arise, you wonderful Genea-Musings blog-readers, and know that it is Saturday Night - time again for more Genealogy Fun!




We all have "brick wall ancestors" - those for whom we cannot find a complete name, or identify a set of parents. By posting information about a "brick wall ancestor," someone mght find your post and be able to contribute to your knowledge about that ancestor.



Your mission, should you decide to accept it (and I sincerely hope that you do) - is to check your files and sources, advance to your keyboard, and:



1) Identify one of your "brick wall ancestors," and tell us about him or her. What do you know? What would you like to know?



2) Tell us about this person in a blog post of your own, a comment on this blog post, or a Facebook comment or note. Be sure to leave a way for readers to contact you."

I have one main person in my brickwall "list", that I revisit over and over. That is my paternal great-great-great grandfather. William McBean.

We do not know where William came from [although we suspect he was Irish, DNA leads us to those craggy shores]. William is first found in this country in 1780 in Augusta County, Virginia, where he married the lovely Sarah Bane. [A descendant of one of the Bean brothers who first graced the shores of this country in the late 1600's, and from whose ancestry William may have also descended.

William is purported to have been a Loyalist during the Revolution, as told in family lore. However, there are several William McBean/ MacBean/ McBane/ MacBane's who are found on Loyalist and Tory lists. We are told in family legend that he served "under Cornwallis". Unfortunately, that is tantamount to someone saying their great-grandfgather served under Lee or Grant during the Civil War! Or grandpa under Patton during WWII!!!

After his marriage to Sarah, William moved into western Virginia, into what is now bordering West Virginia, along an area called Stoney Creek. Today, Stoney Creek is a deep ravine that runs straight up and down. At that time, it was useless except for trappers, and was little more than a passage through the break in the mountains between the tiny hamlet of Waiteville, WV and Pembroke, VA.

In 1790 the couple had a son named John, and in 1792 a son named William.

In February 1804, John is placed for indenture in Monroe County. His parents are not named, he is listed as an orphan. He is thirteen years of age. In September of 1804 his brother William is being placed for indenture as well. He was 12.  John was to be taught to be a weaver, and William a blacksmith.

We know that the boy's father must be dead at this point, for them to be named as orphans. However, their mother is found in 1805 on the Monroe County Tax Rolls as "Sarah Bean - Widow" her taxes listed as "Owing nothing atall - owning only her clothes and spinning wheel".

The property on Stoney Creek was sold in 1805 for back taxes.

John is not heard from again until his death certificate in 1872, when he is reported as single, being born in Greenbrier County, and nothing regarding his family. He died of reasons "Unknown". [His death is indexed as "Beard" but on examination of the handwritten text it is clearly Bean.

Of William, we know quite a lot. And William Bean is in fact, my great-great-grandfather. [His history is quite full, and a rich and colorful story!]

After 1805, Sarah Bean disappears from history, and we do not find her again.

It is Sarah's husband, WIlliam, that we would like to learn more about. Where he came from. When and how he died. His military service for the Crown [if that is true]. And his parentage.

And now you know... my brick wall!

An Indentured Servant

William Bean was born 18 September 1792, we believe in Baltimore, Maryland. [Family lore leaves us to believe that, and a search through Baltimore Church records indicate a male child was baptized who was born on 18 September 1792, whose name was William Bean.]

At some point, William McBean [William's father], brought his wife, Sarah, and his oldest son, John, into the the Potts Valley area of Monroe County, Virginia [now West Virginia].

What happens next is unknown. William McBean disappears from history sometime before February 1804. It was then that Sarah places John Bean, her eldest son, into an indenture contract. [through the overseers for the county poor] where he was to be taught to be a weaver. [We'll discource on John another time.]

Just a few months later, on his 12th birthday, young William was also placed through the county poor for indenture. A copy of the contract is above.

A transcription of the document reads:

Dated 18 Sept. 1804

"This indenture made this 18th of Sept 1804 one thousand eight hundred and four between Jas. Christy owen Neal Robt Johnston and henry McDaniel of the one part overseers of the poor for monroe County and henry Smith of the other part witnesseth that the so overssers doth bind an orphan boy named William Bean aged twelfth years to the said henry Smith of the county aforesaid and State of virginia to Serve the said henry Smith until he arrives at the age of twenty one years, during all which time the Said William Bean Shall faithfully Serve his Master and all his lawful Commands obay he Sall not suffer any Damage to be done to his Said Masters goods without giving him notice thereof he Shall not frequent Still houses or taverns he shall not play at Cards dice or any unlawful game or at any time abscond himself from his masters business without his Masters leave he Shall not commit fornication nor Contract matrimony during said term but as a true and faithful servant shall truely and diligently Serve his Said Master until he arrives at the age aforesaid and the henry Smith in Consideration thereof doth Covenant and agree to have the so William Bean taught the art trade or Mastery of a Black Smith and provide for him a sufficiency of everyt thing thats requiset for an aprentice during the term of his aprenticeship likewise he is to have him taught to read the holy Scriptures planely to write a plane hand and arithmatic through te rule of three which Education he is to be thoroughly acquainted with at the Expiration of his time and also to give him Such freedom dues as the law direct taking Care to have Said aprentice instructed in the Principals and duties of the Christian religion as far as Said Master is Capable In writing whereof the partys have interchangeably set their hands inscribed this day and year above writen Signed Sealed ad delivered in the presents of - John Hinchman - Owen Neal - Henry Smith - Jas. Christy" [sic]

I have left the grammar exactly as the original was written. There are no paragraphical or line delineations. You will also note that punctuation is sporadic at best.

Young William was taught to be a blacksmith. It was a trade he did not use.

Instead,  9 years later on 20 Nov. 1813, he married the daughter of one of the county's most influential residents, Joseph Wiseman.He married Rachel, who was born in 1790.

By 1820 William had begun to have a collective amount of land that would net him a fortune [worth a couple of million dollars today]. He brought a suit against a Mr. Ballard in Monroe County [to whom he had been indentured], and won a large sum of money which enabled him to begin his climb to fortune. While the suit is named in Monroe County, records, no one, to date, has located the details of this suit. I have searched through the County Clerk's records for the time, and if the suit actually went to court, the records are not there to support it, although the date for hearing was set and is noted on the court calendar.

William led a full life. He and Rachel were married just 13 days shy of their 43rd wedding anniversary, when she succombed to a fever. [Their daughter Nancy had fallen from the same fever just 27 days earlier.] Rachel was buried in the family cemetery on Potts Creek, near present day Waiteville, WV.

William was 72 years old when he lead a posse of "home guard" to arrest some renegade's from the Civil War who had stolen items from various homes in the area [the latest being clothing from a washline]. As he was approaching a cabin in Wiseman's Hollow, one of the renegade's shot from the loft of the cabin. The bullet hitting William in the top of his head.

He was carried back to the Bean home on Potts Creek, and "layed out" in the parlor. He was buried the next day in the family cemetery beside his love, Rachel.

From the county poor, to one of the most wealthiest men in the county at the time, William Bean overcame and prospered.

When I hear individuals say that they are victims of their circumstance, I am compelled to them that we are all victims. But we must rise above that victim mentality to become victors.

What an example I have had to come before me.

William is but one of the examples from which I have shaped my life. The poor little boy, who was placed up for indenture on his 12th birthday. He was my great-great-grandfather.

Ode To The Family McBean

The following is my submission to the current Carnival of Genealogy blogging event, which is an "Ode to my Family" event, in which a poem, rhyming or not, or a statement, regarding your family; something appropriate to introduce a book or a video about your family, is to be written for submission.

My biggest brick wall is old William McBean, whose two sons were surnamed simply Bean. To date, we still do not know for certain where old McBean came from, or his past. His son, William, left a wonderful trail of paperwork to get to know something of himself. But the father? Well, it's all a mystery.

And so, I give you,

Ode to the Family McBean

There once was a family McBean
Whose history just cannot be seen

We’ve looked far and wide

‘No access’, ‘Denied’

Their records, it seems, are wiped clean!

They crossed river and mountain

Past springs that flowed like a fountain

To a valley most green

Settled family Bean

At the base of the place - Peter’s mountain.

For the son of William McBean

Who on no father could lean

Became quite known and quite wealthy

His own sons strong and healthy

But old McBean’s records were wiped clean.

Where oh where was his past?

McBean came from what caste?

For his children-poor-worked for others

They became indentured brothers

McBean disappeared really fast.

So where to look for McBean?

Perhaps in a DNA gene?

With test then layed

No matches were made
There’s still no word on McBean.

Madness Monday - November 30, 2009

I've written many posts on the elusive father of William Bean [1792-1864], whom we believe to have been one William McBean, most probably of Ireland, but may have been of Scotland who knows...

We have provided proof of the existence of said William McBean, and his marriage to one Sarah Bane [whose own father was actually born with the surname Bean, and had changed his spelling to that of Bane], thus merging two lines of "Bean's" into one.

This couple did in fact reside in the area known as Stoney Creek, that little vale between steep mountain walls leading from Waiteville in what is present day West Virginia to Pembroke in Giles County, Virginia. [That passage is the only way out of Waiteville without crossing a steep mountain.]

From whence came old William McBean?

We know where he was when he married Miss Sarah Bane. But before that....from whence cameth he?

Family legend states that he served with Lord Cornwallis during the American Revolution. Alas, that is equivalent to my saying that my grandfather served under General Patton in World War II! It is a very broad statement that means very little except that the man was either a Loyalist or a soldier brought from the Continent to serve.

However, DNA testing may have reduced the questioning a bit. [Just a bit mind you!] DNA tests have linked us to a village in Ireland, along with about 20 other Irish descendants, whose DNA matches 12 markers of our own exactly. Of these 20 other individuals, their ancestors were conscripted during the American Revolution, and brought to the country [I say conscripted, however the Irish were more or less shanghaied!]

While we cannot find where our genealogy merges with these other individuals, they all have the Ireland's tiny hamlet in common. My theory is that our William was one of the men who was conscripted, brought to this country to serve with British during the War, and remained afterward.

Alas, yon William's trail is cold, and he did not leave much of a paper trail for our seaarch!

We know of at least 2 sons, although family legend names another: William, John and Roy [Roy being part of the family legend]. We know the following facts: in February of 1804, John, the eldest, was placed for indenture in the county, being 14. In September of the same year, William was also placed. [There is no paper trail for Roy, however, family legend states he went with William - did not like where he was and ran away, and William never heard of him again.]

In 1805, the property on Stoney Creek was sold for back taxes. And Sarah is found in Monroe County, owing "Nothing atall." Her only possessions her clothing and spinning wheel.

And from there, the trail runs cold for both.

Where oh where did you come from, William McBean? And where, oh where, did you go??? We know that you died, as Sarah is listed as a Widow in the 1805 tax rolls.

William, are you buried on the steep mountain sides of Stoney Creek? Were you lost forever to us?

These matters weigh upon my mind and I go mad wondering where the trail is for poor William McBean!

Alas, for my descendants, I hope to leave a paper trail that tells them all about me. [For starters, I've kept a diary since I was a teenager!] Then again, perhaps I'd best read over those diaries! Hmmm....

Perhaps sometimes we are not meant to know it all.

And that is so.........

MADDENING!!!!

Saturday Night Challenge

Randy Seaver is at it again! Giving us yet, again, a wonderful challenge for blogging! This time, Randy has challenged us with the idea: "Decide what year and what place you would love to visit as a time traveller. Who would you like to see in their environment? If you could ask them one question, what would it be?"

I don't have to think very hard for this one!

If I could go back in time to any time, I would go back to 1800 in Monroe County, Virginia [now West Virginia]. And I would have a little visit with William and Sarah McBean, and their sons, John and William [and maybe Roy?].

William and Sarah McBean are my gr-gr-gr-grandparents [my Dad's side]. I'd ask William who his parents were, and where he came from! This is my biggest brick wall.

Sometime between 1803 and 1804 William dies and his widowed wife puts their sons up for indenture. Son, William, is my gr-gr-grandfather. He is indentured to be a blacksmith apprentice on his 12th birthday. As an adult he became a gentleman farmer, and quite the wealthy gentleman for the times. He went on to marry Rachel Wiseman, and one of their many children was also named William. That William is my gr-grandfather.

William marries Margaret Perkins. And among their many children is born John Monroe Bean, my grandfather, in 1866.

John is in his 30's before he marries the first time. He goes on to marry 3 times, his first two wives dying tragically [one from tuberculosis and one from complications of child birth]. He fathered a total of 15 children, the last 3 being born after he was in his late 70's. It is from this last marriage that my Dad was born.

Needless to say I never knew my grand father. He passed away in 1954, just a few years before I was born.

But it is my gr-gr-gr-grandfather that stumps me, and has stumped the past 3 generations as well!