Hazzard BEEN ** Courtesy of Ruby Nell Been Davis
Hazzard BEEN and Martha OSBORN gravestone ** Photography by Ross Lober
Hazzard BEEN *
* Courtesy of Ruby Nell Been Davis
Hazzard BEEN and Martha OSBORN gravestone *
* Photography by Ross Lober
Hazzard BEAN/BEEN was born in Franklin County, Tennessee on 04 December
1815. His parents were John Hogan BEAN and Jane McFARLAND. At some point
before 1830, Hazzard moved away from Tennessee with his family-of-origin and
eventually arrived in Marion County, Alabama. Also, prior to 1830, Hazzard's
mother died. It is not clear whether the family had already settled in Marion County
by the time Jane died, or whether they might have still been living elsewhere. At any
rate, when Hazzard was fifteen years old or younger, his father remarried. By the
new marriage, his father and step-mother had at least two more sons. Family stories
suggest that when this marriage took place, the children from the first marriage--including Hazzard and his sister Jane--left home.
By 1839, Hazzard was living in Yalobusha County, Mississippi, where he married
Martha OSBORN on the 18th of December. Martha was born on 25 July 1823 in
either Tennessee or Alabama (the census records vary on her place of birth). To date,
it has not been proven who her parents were; but, it has been established that she was
a sister to Nathaniel D. OSBORN, who married Hazzard's sister, Jane BEAN.
Hazzard and Martha lived together in Yalobusha County until some time before
October 1844, when they moved to Tallahatchie County, Mississippi. It is assumed
that they lived in Tallahatchie County until 14 December 1852, at which time they
sold their land there. By 01 March 1853, they had moved to Sebastian County,
Arkansas, where they began to homestead forty acres of land. After proving this
homestead in 1857, they went on, over the next several years, to homestead and
prove 160 more adjoining acres--land for which they paid 75 cents per acre.
As tensions in the South grew, the Confederacy drafted Hazzard's son Rufus LeRoy.
Family stories handed down have told that Hazzard advised his son to resist. He was
steadfast in his belief that no one had the right to draft anybody into anything but the
United States Army. For their resistance, both Hazzard and his son were imprisoned
in the town jail, where Hazzard continued to proclaim proudly his views.
Fortunately, for these two gentlemen, the prison guard knew them both, and
respected them. Since he, himself, was sympathetic to their cause and did not wish
for them to be shot, the guard staged an escape for them. They were to hit him over
the head, run, and hide in a particular thicket in some woods. When the guard
would be sent to search for them, he would be certain to NOT look in those bushes.
The plan succeeded, and Hazzard and son won back their freedom. When the ordeal
ended (sometime before 01 October 1863), not only did Rufus enlist in the Union
Army, but the prison guard did as well.
Hazzard and Martha lived the rest of their lives in Sebastian County. He died on 14 April 1890; and she, on 13 October 1902--both in Greenwood, Sebastian County, Arkansas. Each of them has been buried there in Liberty Cemetery
