The First White Settlers in Tennessee

It is not often we have an ancestor who has been thoroughly and historically documented. I am fortunate to have 6^th great-grandparents (and their immediate descendants) – William Bean (1721-1782) and Lydia Russell Bean (1726-1788) – whose frontier life in Tennessee has been thoroughly examined.

William and Lydia are known as the first permanent European-American settlers in what is today Tennessee.  William was of Scottish descent, and Lydia was of English descent. They were both born in Virginia, a crown colony, and married in 1741.

Daniel Boone was no stranger to the Bean Family, having hunted before with members of William Bean’s family. Both were frontiersmen and longhunters.

Longhunter - Google image

William Bean was a known associate of Daniel Boone and a fellow longhunter. A longhunter was an 18th-century explorer and hunter who made expeditions into the American frontier wilderness for as much as six months at a time, collecting animal skins and drying meat to sell in the colonies. Most “long hunts” started near Chilhowie, Virginia (found in the southwest corner of the state). The hunters were, for the most part, land owners. They would be gone for as much as six months at a time, usually over winter. The information gathered by the longhunters were critical in the early settlement of Tennessee and Kentucky.  Many times, the long- hunters would be employed by land surveyors and to guide settlers into the new lands. [1]

Grainger County Tennessee Historic Society

The picture to the right shows two hunters standing together looking over a valley below Clinch Mountain. The men depicted are supposed to be William Bean and Daniel Boone. The hunters were looking for fresh water and a place to camp for the night. Both men liked the valley because of its wildlife, fertile soil, and tall timber. 

In 1769, William built a cabin close to the junction of Boone's Creek and the Watauga River, near what is today Johnson City, Tennessee. Bean had visited the site with Boone when they were exploring as agents for Richard Henderson, a land speculator who later played an important role in the early settlement of Tennessee. [2] Later that year, Russell Bean, the first child of permanent European-American settlers was born in Tennessee, was born there. [3] The location of the Bean cabin became important in the development of the area. Major roads (highways 25E and 11W) came through the location that became known as Bean Station.

Google image

William was considered one of the best gun makers of his time. His sons inherited his talent. Together they founded a dynasty of gunsmiths, horseshoes, wedding rings, well pumps, and many other items that were all done in the Bean’s blacksmith shop in Bean Station.

As we can imagine, frontier life was not easy – it was dangerous. One of William’s daughters, Judy Bean, was killed by Cherokee Indians; and his wife, Lydia, was captured by Indians. She was later released. However, those are stories for another time.

Today's view from the top of Clinch Mountain - Google Image

[The Bean family is my biological family.]

[1] - Hamilton, Emory L. Historical Sketches of Southwest Virginia 5: The Long Hunters. Historical Society of Southwest Virginia, 1970.

[2] Grady, J.A. William Bean, Pioneer of Tennessee, and Hist Descendants. Grady, 1973. 

[3] William Bean's Cabin - 1A5 | Tennessee Historical sign. www.waymarking.com. Retrieved 28 November 2017.

Share a Family Story at Thanksgiving

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Thursday is Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is, of course, a time where we take the time to express gratitude for the blessings in our lives. Thanksgiving is the holiday where families gather to celebrate family. Thanksgiving is a time where family stories need to be told. 

Author and minister Todd Stocker says, “Stories give color to black and white information.” Another author, Studs Terkel, is quoted as saying, “Storytelling is a form of history, of immortality too. It goes from one generation to another.”   

My mother, Florence Swinburne Newhouse, used to tell us stories of her parents; of her father, Richard Swinburne,  learning to drive his first car; and of the family traveling the length of Minnesota in that car, only to get stuck in the mud toward the end of the trip. Everyone had to get out, except her father, to push the car out of the mud.

My father, Frank Newhouse, told stories of his professional ice-skating career and when he and his brother, Fred Newhouse, made root beer in the basement of their house – only to have it explode: His mother, Camilla Elizabeth Swarthout Newhouse, was not happy. 

My brother Douglas Newhouse was a wonderful letter writer; when he wrote a letter, it was like he was sitting in the same room with you.  My son Patrick Oliver is a wonderful story teller – he has made us laugh on more than one occasion about his exploits (which were not funny at the time).

There are times I wished I had recorded the story of a family member. I did not get this done with my grandparents or parents. However, as I became interested in genealogy, I did get stories about my dad’s family from his sister, Elizabeth Newhouse Harman, before she died. Her stories about people I never met made me wish I had started collecting stories sooner.

When I do genealogy, I uncover mostly facts, but it is always fun to come across a story. For example, I recently found, as part of a biographical account, a story of a relative who said he cured his sciatica by rubbing bear grease daily onto his groin area.

So, this Thanksgiving, share a family story with your children, your spouse, your relatives, your friends.  Family stories casually shared across the dinner table are those we remember in the years to come. They become our best memories of people we know and of people we have never met. We need to share family stories

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Remembering Two Veterans

This Saturday, November 11, is Veterans Day. Veterans Day originated as "Armistice Day" on November 11, 1919, the first anniversary of the end of World War I. Congress passed a resolution in 1926 for an annual observance, and November 11 became a national holiday beginning in 1938. Unlike Memorial Day, Veterans Day pays tribute to all American veterans--living or dead--but especially gives thanks to living veterans who served their country honorably during war or peacetime.

Practically every family has one or more veterans in its family tree: living and dead. My assorted families are no exception; and, I have written about a few of them. In honor of Veterans Day, I decided to highlight two World War II veterans for whom I have pictures and some details about their service: One survived the war; one did not.

R.W. Harriman

Robert W. Harriman, 1921-1944, was from Wisconsin. He served

Henri-Capelle American Cemetery - Google image

with the U.S. Army Air Force, 836th Bomber Squadron and the 487th Heavy Bomber Group as a pilot. He was killed over Germany on December 24, 1944. He is buried in the Henri-Capelle American Cemetery in Liege, Belgium. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal with two Oak Leaf Clusters, and a Purple Heart.  The Henri-Capelle Cemetery possesses military historic significance as it only holds fallen Americans of two major offensives: first, the U.S. First Army's drive in September 1944 through northern France, Belgium, Holland, and Luxembourg into Germany; and second, the Battle of the Bulge occurring December 1944-January 1945 in Belgium and Luxembourg. Robert is my husband's 3rd cousin 1x removed.

G.S. Oliver

Glenn Stuart Oliver, 1919-2012, was a member of the Minnesota National Guard that was ordered to Federal duty in 1941 as a member of A Company, 194th Tank Battalion. He was stationed in the Philippine Islands when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. Ten hours later, he lived through the bombing of Clark Air Base on Luzon Island, Philippines. For fourth months he fought with other soldiers to slow Japan's conquest of the Philippines. On April 9, 1942, he became a POW when Bataan was surrendered to the Japanese. He was part of the infamous Bataan Death March. As a POW, he was held at Camp O'Donnell in the Philippines. He, along with other POWs, was selected for transport to Japan in early October 1944. His POW detachment was sent to the Port Area of Manila. [1]

Arisan Maru - Google image

One thousand eight hundred three POWs were boarded onto the Arisan Maru on October 11, 1944. On October 24, 1944, late in the day, the ship was in the Bashi Channel of the South China Sea. The POWs, on deck preparing dinner, watched the Japanese run to the bow of the ship and then to the stern. The ship had been hit by two torpedoes. The POWs were forced back into the holds, and the Japanese covered the hatch openings with their covers: They then abandoned ship. After the Japanese were gone, the POWs climbed onto the deck. Most had survived the attack. For two hours, the ship got lower and lower in the water. Those POWs who could not swim raided the food lockers, as they wanted to die with full stomachs. At some point in time, the ship broke in two. POWs took to the water on anything that floated. Some swam to nearby Japanese ships, but they were pushed away by Japanese sailors with poles. Five men found an abandoned lifeboat with no oars. During the night, they heard the cries for help which faded way until there was silence. Glenn was one of nine men who survived the sinking. Glenn Oliver is the 2nd cousin 2x removed of my children.

As we pause on November 11 to honor all our military veterans, living and dead, it is good to remember the words of Patrick Henry, one of our country's found fathers: "The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave."

[1] The Battle of Bataan and the 194th Tank Battalion. Minnesota National Guard, www.minnesotanationalguard.org/bataan/The_Battle_of_Bataan_and_the_194th_Tank_Battalion.pdf