Biographical Sketch of Captain Benjamin Franklin BEAN (1893); Chester County, PA

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Source: "Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Chester County, Pennsyl-
vania, comprising a historical sketch of the county," by Samuel T. Wiley
and edited by Winfield Scott Garner, Gresham Publishing Company, Phila-
delphia, PA, 1893, pp. 420-2.

"CAPTAIN BENJAMIN FRANKLIN BEAN, one of the energetic, progressive and
prosperous business men of Chester county, who is a large stockholder and
manager of the Bean Fire Sand Company, of Valley Forge and Pawling, and
who served with distinction in the Union army during the civil war, is a
son of Nicholas and Mary Ann (Vanderslice) Bean.  He was born near Pawling,
Schuylkill township, Chester county, Pennsylvania, January 18, 1835, and
received his education principally in the public schools and at Norristown
boarding school, and in the seminary at Wyoming, Luzerne county.  Leaving
school in 1856 he joined a party, consisting of his brother Henry and two
other young men, and together they made a tour, with ox teams, of the
western country, visiting Pike's Peak and other places, then attracting
attention in Colorado and Kansas.  After satisfying their curiosity in
that direction they returned to Pennsylvania, and Mr. Bean engaged in
stock dealing, shipping cattle and sheep from Iowa to the markets of
Chicago and Philadelphia.  He had been in this business only two years,
when he abandoned it to take charge, with his brother Henry, of his
father's lumber and coal business at Pawling.  There had always been a
military side to his nature, and when the civil war broke out, prompted by
the spirit of patriotism which vibrated in every breeze that swept his
native hills, young Bean repaired to Harrisburg, and early in 1862 en-
listed in Co. I, 129th Pennsylvania infantry, of which company he soon
became second lieutenant, and subsequently was promoted to be captain.
After serving out his term of enlistment - ten months - he re-enlisted as
captain of Co. B, 34th regiment of emergency men, for three months.
During his service in the army he participated in the battles of second
Bull Run, Chintilla, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and a
number of less important contests and skirmishes.  In 1868 he was made
quarter-master of the tenth division, National guards of Pennsylvania,
with the rank of major, and continued to occupy that position until 1876,
when the division was disbanded.  He then became a member of the Washing-
ton troop of Chester county, with headquarters at Paoli, enlisting as a
private.  In a short time he was promoted to be quartermaster's sergeant,
and after holding that rank two years, was made captain of the troop, and
as such is still serving.  While yet a student at Wyoming, Captain Bean
was a member of the Wyoming artillery, and the knowledge obtained in prac-
tice there did much toward fitting him for the military positions he
afterward occupied, and for active duty in the field.

"After the war closed Captain Bean returned to Chester county, and again
engaged in the coal and lumber trade with his brother Henry, under the
firm name of H. & B. F. Bean, which business they continued successfully
until 1880.  In 1880 they embarked in the stone and sand crushing business,
under the same firm name, and that firm continued operations until 1887,
when the concern was resolved into a joint stock company for a period of
five years with Henry Bean as manager.  At the death of Henry Bean, Sep-
tember, 1890, B. F. Bean became manager.  Their principal business is the
manufacture of furnace and fire-brick sand, in which they have an immense
and constantly increasing trade.

"Captain Bean was united in marriage in 1865 to Martha J. Beckley, a
daughter of Jacob and Hannah Beckley, of Lower Providence township, Mont-
gomery county, this State.  They have two children, both sons: Francis M.
and Benjamin Franklin, Jr.  In politics Captain Bean is a stanch republi-
can, and never voted the democratic ticket outside of his township, and
while cherishing no political ambitions of his own, is always loyal in
the support of the principles that underlie the organization of the great
party to which he adheres and in the glory of whose record he shares.  He
is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, Post No. 45, of which he is
now commander, and is also a member of Phoenix Lodge, No. 75, Free and
Accepted Masons.

"Henry Bean, paternal grandfather of Capt. Benjamin Franklin Bean, was a
native of eastern Pennsylvania and lived during the greater part of his
life near Pawling, this county, where he died in 1820, at the age of sixty
years.  He owned a small farm and his principal occupation was the culti-
vation of the soil.  To him and his wife, Susannah, were born eight chil-
dren, two sons and six daughters, all of whom are now deceased.  The
daughters were: Sarah A., married Jacob Rasor; Catharine, wedded Jno. R.
Dean; Rebecca became the wife of Joshua Zimmerman; Susan, married Marks
Morris.  The sons were: Nicholas Bean (father), who was born January 17,
1801, and Henry, who died at the age of nineteen.  Nicholas Bean was born
on the old Bean homestead near Pawling, where he was reared and educated,
and where he passed a long, active and useful life, dying there in April,
1878, in the seventy-eighth year of his age.  In early manhood he learned
the trades of carpenter and cabinet-maker, and followed that combined
occupation for a number of years.  He subsequently began dealing in lumber
and coal, which became his chief business during the remainder of his life.
In connection with this, however, he owned and operated a farm, and became
very successful and prosperous.  He was a man of great energy and good
business judgment, and at the time of his death had an extensive trade,
which was thereafter conducted by his sons, Henry and Benjamin Franklin.
In politics he was originally a whig, and when that party went to pieces
about 1856, he attached himself to the Republican party, and gave the
latter an active and influential support so long as he lived.  He married
Mary A. Vanderslice, of Schuylkill township, this county, and to them was
born a family of ten children, five sons and five daughters: Anna, who
married Jesse Jarrett; Sarah, wedded William Govett, and is now deceased;
Susannah, became the wife of Abin Evenson, and is also dead; Harriet R.,
married Joseph Culp; Mary F., wedded John T. Cox; Henry B., deceased;
Benjamin F., the subject of this sketch; Jones B., George W., and Lewis U.
The mother, Mrs. Mary A. Bean, died in 1885, in the seventy-eighth year of
her age."