Paul M. Fink, the late Washington County Tennessee historian, writes in his article Russell Bean: Tennessee's First Native Son that
William Bean was of royal descent, his line being
traced back to Malcolm II, King of Scotland, 1004 to
1033 A.D., through his grandson Duncan I and his
great-grandson Donald Bain, both of whom appear as
characters in Shakespeare's Macbeth.
Over the years
the name has been changed from Bain to Baines, Beans,
and finally Bean. William himself seems to have been
born in Pennsylvania, moved first to Augusta County
Virginia, then about 1753 to Pittsylvania County. Here he
prospered, he and his son William became owners of over
a thousand acres of land.
Moving into the valley of the Watauga River about 1768-69, the Beans were soon followed by his wife Lydia's brothers, George and John Russell.
The Highland Barbs had learned from the Druids, who forbade written records, how to memorize genealogies. Shakespeare in his Macbeth changed facts a little bit. Duncan was killed in battle in 1040, not in bed by Macbeth, who was killed in turn by Duncan's son Malcolm in 1058. Duncan was Malcolm II's grandson, and in 1034 Duncan had become king of a geographically united Scotland. The Celts (Malcolm II was a Celtic king) had inherited the earth, but they did not really get to control it because grandson king Duncan got killed.
But all you people who love chromosomes, and the fact that Daisy the first cloned cow was cloned in Scotland, must remember that the Beans brought into the valley the DNA of Pics and Celts and Scots, all of whom believed in that great scone stone.
This may make it a little easier to understand why the Beans and the Russells felt so at home on what has been referred to as the Great War Path.
Do reread Macbeth. It is wonderful - witches and murder and death and sleep disorders. A forest, Birnam Wood, moving toward Dunsinane and the hero Macduff, who was ripped from his mother's womb.
I live in Jonesborough but I have been to Birnam Wood. History is so much fun. The Beans really did a lot of clear cutting with their new land. I bet it was because they wanted to see who was coming to visit.
If you come to Jonesborough someone, maybe me, will be glad to show you some of the Bean sprouts (where the Bean stories began).
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The former historian of Washington County would let me sit in his parlor on West Main Street, Jonesborough, and tell me stories of Nancy Ward, the Beloved Woman of the Cherokee.
Paul died in 1980 and is buried in Maplelawn, the cemetery that is between the Jail and the Dairy Queen north of Highway 11E. On a March day, as the old leaves dance among the stones, the air is filled with the odor of frying hamburgers and french fries.
Once Mrs. William Bean, either Russell's mother or the wife of his older brother, was on the way to Fort Caswell at Sycamore Shoals in Elizabethton. She was captured by the Indians and taken to their base camp on the Nolichucky river. She was first threatened with death but spared and on retreat taken with them to the Cherokee capital, Echota (or Chota), to teach the Indian women how to make cheese and butter.
Once again Mrs. Bean was condemned and even bound to a stake for burning. Nancy Ward rescued her, having the power of pardoning captives.
After some months she was returned home unharmed.
We sit in 2001 in Jonesborough celebrating in our dry pubs that Bush Hog is coming into our new industrial park. While we are waiting for new jobs to fall into our open hands, we could have fun in remembering the early survivors and why they survived.
Mrs. Bean was hot footing it to get to safety. Where was the rest of the family? Maybe she got a late start or maybe they beat her to Fort Caswell. But when she got captured she had some trade items. She knew how to make cheese and butter.
This also says that in the great valley there were cows. Does anyone know if there were goats? I think I could still make butter if someone else would milk the cow. Well maybe I could milk the cow, but I have never made cheese in my life. Jonesborough has White's and Food Lion and Engle's, and if I had to I expect I could walk to any of them to buy cheese.
Nancy Ward was a leader and she had the power to pardon. To pardon is such a hot topic today that I only mention that she was known as Beloved and the good old boys did what she asked.
Women sharing skills and surviving. Do you think the men will ever learn? Or must men always be stake drivers and fire eaters?
Cry our beloved mountains, look through the gaps of time.
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The great valley of Tennessee has been a home for many travelers, passing through on their way to what they hoped would be a promised land, dropping bits of blue broken dishes along the bloody trail.
The valley is eighty to a hundred miles wide and is bordered on the north and the east and the south by mountains eroded by time. If you had asked a year ago who came first, I might have answered the great buffalo moving toward the sea now known as the Atlantic.
The Indians were not overjoyed, they were downright hostile when the Beans came in as Long Hunters. Kin to royal families in Scotland, they plopped their houses down on cliffs overlooking the waters and made their long guns and waited.
Russell, their son, is given credit for being the first born white child in the valley. We don't often talk about the fact that he was also arrested for child abuse and breaking jail after he moved to the new town of Jonesborough. Oh yes, and his wife divorced him. That was in the good old days when family virtue was in these hills.
Today the great valley is weeping with pain of the death of Dale Earnhardt: The Total Champion who drove into a wall on the last lap of the 2001 Daytona 500. NASCAR Bristol track is only a few miles away.
Dale, The Intimidator, kissed his wife and spoke to his son, got into his car and drove to his death. He was giving his son a chance or so they say. If one could do it over again, I bet the son would rather have a dad. But then, in 1973 Dale's dad had died while working on his car. Legends are not old stories, they happen every day.
East Tennessee is indebted to another driver, Larry Bolt, whose eyes first saw what is now known as the Gray Fossil site. Last year he was moving dirt, building a road.
Because he had once worked in the American West he saw the soil of the road bed change and knew that fossils were there.
Thanks to Mr. Bolt, diggers will be digging for the next 150 years. Do not hurry. The surface is 600 x 700 feet wide and goes 140 feet down. The state has already spent $800,000 to reroute the road, and the local universities all want their own museums.
The site is closed now because of the weather, but the sheriff has a police guard there. Larry N. Bristol of the Department of Geology at ETSU knows as much as anyone about it. It seems that it was a low oxygen environment and things were deposited slowly -- things being animals who came down to the water, perhaps with a fever, perhaps with old age, and just lay down and died.
I am charmed that once our great valley was the home of rhinoceros. These bones had to be identified by Dr. Michael R. Voorhies of the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, and it is probable that he and his students will camp and dig at the site that is close by the Gray Library.
If you are flying in, come to the Tri-Cities Airport. It is still cheaper to fly to Knoxville and drive the four-lane back east.
Tennesseans are long hunters with big guns from the Beans until today.
You can even drive by Aerojet Ordnance Tennessee, manufacturer of depleted uranium armor piercing rounds used in the Gulf War, Iraq, Bosnia and Kosovo. Uranium contains traces of plutonium. Depending on which member of the Chamber of Commerce you are chatting with, you will quickly discover that it is a hot subject. So hot in fact that there was a fire at the facility a few months ago. David Crockett High School is a little over a mile down-wind from the facility.
Gosh, I almost forgot. Mrs. Crockett birthed Davy down close to the Nolichucky riverside. You can visit, camp or swim at the state park there.
It is 2001. In parts of Gray Tennessee one is in the Miocene Epoch. The Bristol Speedway is close by. Tennessee Eastman is having cell division. Jonesborough is telling the old old stories and listening to the sound of spring frogs as they wake up from winter's sleep.
Going to lay down my sword and shield -- down by the river side -- ain't going to study war no more.
Shall we gather at the river, the beautiful beautiful river. Listen. This land is our land, your land. It is time to let the drumming begin.
The morning of Monday March 5, 2001 the Johnson City Press has an ad on page 10. Spring Clearance Sale... 1,000 Long Guns sale!!! $30 over cost. All must go!!! You can buy H&K (whatever they are) for $599.95 and Beretta 92 FS 9mm for $479.95 (I know what they are).
This shop also sells vacuum cleaners and they are real nice about replacing broken belts.
From my window I can see the snow. I can also see the Court House located where Andrew Jackson was admitted to the bar back in 1788. I love the young red headed Jackson of Jonesborough. His heart had not yet been broken by insults to his beloved Rachel. He had not even met her yet.
I wonder what he would do? I doubt if a duel or a horse race would be enough.
But for sure he would do something.