Robert Bean's trip West

[Pemmican1812]

        I was reading "The Life and Adventures of George Nidever," dictated by Nidever himself, who was a Rocky Mountain mountaineer and a member of Joe Walker's 1833 trip to California through Yosemite.
        Nidever came out in the spring of 1830 in a group that started from Arkansas under the leadership of Col. Robert Bean, who Nidever describes as : "..., a native of Tenn., I think, or at least a former resident of that state, although he had been living for some time in Ark., ...He was an elderly man and by occupation a gunsmith...."
        Most of party was made up of people from Tennessee by way of Arkansas, and Nidever bragged that while most of the party had grown up hunting small game, that he had already become an experienced deer and buffalo hunter before the party left Fort Smith.
        After Indian attacks and resulting casualties on the prairie, Col. Bean went back to Arkansas, leaving behind some of the original group of 48 who wanted to stay in the mountains.
        At the risk of getting into fantasy rifle country: If you wanted to build one based on educated guesses, what sort of rifle might a member of the Bean gunsmithing family carry on a trip into buffalo country?  Are there any known original Robert Bean rifles of any description out there?

[G-Man]

I believe there are some Robert Bean rifles known to exist, or at least pretty strongly suspected to be by a Robert Bean.  I will have to look through my files.  Anyway, if I recall correctly, they are pretty much quintessential upper east TN style guns as you would envision.  However if I am not mistaken there were several generations of Robert Beans in different branches of the family, so whether we are talking about the same Robert Bean here I do not know. 

Guy

[Pemmican1812]

While Nidever doesn't pin down Col. Robert Bean's age, he mentions that Col. Bean was accompanied by his son, William, who was about 24 years old at the time of the Bean trapping expedition (1830).  Nidever also mentions that at the start of the expedition, Robert Bean was elected leader because he was well known and well thought of, not because of any particular experience as a leader.  Also Nidever's comment that he was "elderly," in 1830 might have been relative:  Nidever makes a later comment that describes Robert Bean as simply, "older than most of us."  With a 24 year old son, this Robert Bean who went West could have easily been no older than his 40s or 50s.

[BobBean]

I had to visit this thread.  As Robert Bean, I am sort of fond of my family heritage.  I would imagine that given these points, the Col. Robert Bean spoken of would be the same Robert Bean that was Capt. Robert Bean from the Battle of Kings Mountain.  He was the son of William Bean who was also a Gunsmith from the area west of Bristol TN and over to south of Nashville.  There are at least 3 generations of gun makers that are known and several of the brothers and sons from those generations.  But, given the time and rank that would be my best guess as to who Col Bean was.  There is a good bit of information about Capt Robert Bean.  From what I remember I would think Capt Robt Bean would have been about 65 at that time.  I have not come across any other officers in that period that was a Robt.

[Habu]

I had to visit this thread.  As Robert Bean, I am sort of fond of my family heritage.  I would imagine that given these points, the Col. Robert Bean spoken of would be the same Robert Bean that was Capt. Robert Bean from the Battle of Kings Mountain.  

Probably not the same person.  The Battle of Kings Mountain was in 1780; Nidever wrote of traveling with Col. Bean in 1830--50 years later.  Not impossible, but very unlikely.

[BobBean]

I agree, He would have been old, 65 or so, for that day but from all the reading that I have done I have not come across any other military ranked officer in that era.  I have also not found anything to support a higher rank than Capt for Robert.  But as so much of history goes there is a great deal of lore.

[Habu]

When I read Nidever, I figured Bean was either a colonel of militia, a "Kentucky colonel", or the title was honorary for his role of leading the group from Arkansas.

[BobBean]

I went thru some files and found Col Bean.  He was the son of Jesse and had a fair bit of history as a pioneer and traveled the Arkansas and Texas area. 

[BobBean]

This is one of my favorite Bean stories.   It is about Russel who was Williams sona and Baxter and Charlie's father.  All of these men were gun makers of repute.  

Russell Bean was born 1769 in Washington County, Tennessee, and died 9 January 1826 in Washington County, Tennessee. He married Rosamond Robertson on 8 October 1789 in Washington County, Arkansas, daughter of Colonel Charles Robinson and Susannah Nichols. She was born 1775 in Virginia, and died about 1850 in Tennessee. Russell was the first white child born in what is now Tennessee. He was born shortly after his parents settled on Boone's Creek. Russell served as a 1st Lieutenant during the War of 1812 in Captian William McLin's Company of the East Tennessee Militia. He was detached to the armory where he presumably performed gunsmithing duties. His son Charles served in the same unit and was appointed armorer and his son Russell junior, who transferred to the West Tennessee troops.

According to Crab, Over the Mountain, he took a cargo of arms of his manufacture down to New Orleans where he remained for 2 years, engaged in foot races, horse racing, cock-fighting and other sports of the times. On returning to Jonesboro [sic], he found his wife nursing an infant. Her seducer, it was said, was a merchant named Allen. Russell left the house without a word, got drunk, came back, took the baby out of his cradle, and deliberately cut off both of his ears saying that he "had marked it so that it would not get mixed up with his children".

He was arrested, tried and convicted of this act of cruelty, and was sentenced, in addition to other punishment, to be branded in the palm of his hand. This was done; whereupon he immediately bit out of his hand the part containing the brand. He was also imprisoned, but soon escaped from jail and was allowed to remain at large for the officers were afraid of him. His wife soon divorced him, but he was determined to kill Allen. He assaulted Allen's brother and beat him unmercifully but, up to the time the court met with Andrew Jackson on the bench, they had not arrested him.

The local authorities reported to Jackson that they could not take Bean; that he was out at his cabin on the south side of town defying arrest and threatening to kill the first man who approached his house. Jackson immediately ordered "Summon every man in the court house to bring Bean in dead or alive." The sheriff responded "Then I summon your honor first!" "Jackson at once left the bench exclaiming, "By the Eternal, I'll bring him!' Jackson approached, pistol in hand and when he got within shooting distance, Russell arose, called out, "I surrender to you , Mr. Devil!" and laid down his arms. Jackson took him to the courtroom, where he was tried and fined heavily.

Rosamond married again and moved to Knoxville, where the "the unfortunate child died, as did her second husband.....Bean himself drifted down to Knoxville where Andrew Jackson met him and brought about a reconciliation between he and his former wife."

He and Rosamond had 8 children. He served as the sheriff in Memphis for a time and was killed when stabbed in the back. Russell is buried in Uriel Cemetery, Jonesborough, Washington County, Tennessee.

It is also lore that Andrew Jackson fought Russell all day to finally beat him.  This story is also referred to in some of Jackson's history.