Crabb, Martha, L. Over the Mountain, A Narrative History of the Bean,
Selman, and Germany Families, Gateway Press, Inc., Baltimore, 1990.
Page 85
Captain Robert Bean's family were first-wave-frontiers-men who are now famous in
the early history of the state of Tennessee. This Scotch-Irish family had been
living in Virginia since the beginning of the 1700's, or perhaps as early as the
mid-1600's. They had followed that colony's frontier west and south into
Augusta, Halifax and Pittsylvania counties. Records show that Isacc Bean, Jesse
Bean, Ellis Bean, William Bean, William Bean Jr., and John Bean were living in
Virginia by 1740.
Page 102
John Bean, a brother of Captain William Bean. This John is reported to have been
born in 1735 in Northumberland County, Virginia. In addition, John Bean of
Augusta County, Virginia was marked off the delinquent tax roll in that county
in 1786 with the notation "gone to the French Broad," a river in the
area of Tennessee where settlement first took place. John Bean later owned land
on the Nolichunky, a tributary of the French Broad.
Captain Robert Bean lived in Georgia from 1790 to about 1808, but the
birthplaces of several of his older children suggest he was living in Tennessee
or North Carolina (which then included all of Tennessee) from 1782 until about
1790.
Page 112
Documents show Robert and William Bean recorded deeds to their lands on German
Creek in Hawkins County in 1778 and 1779. Grainger County was formed from part
of Hawkins in 1796. John Bean also received Grant Number731 from North Carolina
for a thousand acres on "the north side of the Clinch Mountains, on the
south side of the Clinch," the same general location. Part of the land
owned near Bean's Station he "entered (preempted) in 1779, and part he
secured in trade for land rights on Little Sinking Creek of the Nolichuncky.
Colonel Isaac Shelby of the Watauga Militia gathered a couple hundred men,
including Robert Bean, and joined the Patriots operating in northwestern South
Carolina, where Cornwallis' Tories were doing the murdering, raping, and
pillaging.
Page 117
The Battle of Kings Mountain… The victorious army included men whose names are
familiar: George, Robert, William, and Captain Jesse Bean…
Page 119
John Bean, who may have been a son of William and Lydia or may have been
William's brother, moved to the French Broad from Augusta County, Virginia. John
Bean helped negotiate the lease and purchase of the Watauga land from the
Cherokee, fought with the Patriots during the Revolution, was known as John
Bean, Sr. by 1794, and was a captain in the Tennessee militia two years later.
During the extremely cold winter of 1796-7, John Bean moved down the Holston
River to Bean's Station, where he owned a thousand acres of land. In 1798
"John Bean, Senr." bought 329 acres on Indian Creek in Grainger County
and sold it nine years later for the fantastic sum of $6,000.
Beene-Over the Mountain A Narrative History of the Bean,
Selman and Germany Families by Martha L Crabb.pdf
