Lydia Bean

"Mrs. William Bean was before her marriage Lydia Russell, daughter of James Russell, of Virginia, and a member of that pioneer family of the name who furnished so many well-known frontier soldiers and statesmen. When Mrs. Bean accompanied her husband to Watauga she was the mother of' five children, William, Robert, George, Sarah and Jane. It is possible that there were other children whose names are not known." [1] [2]

Children of WILLIAM BEAN and LYDIA RUSSELL are:

1. Mordecai Bean, b. march 1743/1744, Virginia; 28 November 1814, Virginia. (Note: this child in not listed in the Clan MacBean resource)
2. Captain WILLIAM R. BEAN, born between 1745, in Augusta County, Virginia; d. about 1825, Jonesborough, Washington County, Tennessee, married 1) Rachel Ball and 2) Elizabeth (Blair) Shaw (DAR Ancestor A008044)
3. John Bean, born before 1749 in Luneburg county Virginia; died shortly after 1815, possibly Franklin County, Tennessee, married 1) unknown 2) Rachel Griffith and 3) Reuben B. Woodall
4. Robert Bean, born before 1750, in Lunenburg County, Virginia, died about 1793, Hawkins County, Tennessee, married Rhoda Lane. (DAR Ancestor #: A119579)
5. George Bean, born 1754, in Halifax county, Virginia, died between 1816 and 1820, Franklin County, Tennessee, married 1) Jane Hazard and 2) Prudence (Windham) Cope
6. Captain Jesse Bean, born about 1756, in Halifax County, Virginia; d. 10 Sep 1829, Independence County, Arkansas, married Elizabeth Mitchell (DAR Ancestor #: A008006 )
7. Edmund Bean, born 1763, Halifax County, Virginia; died December 3, 1807, Washington County, Tennessee.
8. Jane Bean, born 1766, Halifax County, Virginia; Killed by Indians on November 24, 1798, near Bean's Station, in Grainger County, Tennessee.
9. Sarah Bean, born 1768, in newly formed Pittsylvania County, Virginia; died 1861, Fair Play, Oceolo County, Missouri, buried at Bolivar, Missouri, married John Bowen
10. Russell Bean, born May, 1769, First White child born in Tennessee, (Watauga Settlement) died January 9, 1826, Washington County, Tennessee; married at the age of twenty to Rosamond Robertson, on October 8, 1789, by the Reverend Jonathan Mulkey, Baptist minister. Rosamond was born circa 1775 to Charles Robertson and Susannah (Nichols) Robertson. It was the first marriage for both of them

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BEAN, LYDIA RUSSELL Ancestor #: A132561
Service: NORTH CAROLINA Rank(s): PATRIOTIC SERVICE
Birth: CIRCA 1726
Death: CIRCA 1788 WASHINGTON CO NORTH CAROLINA
Service Source: RAMSEY, ANNALS OF TN, PP 157-158; ALDERMAN, OVERMOUNTAIN MEN: EARLY TN HIST 1760-1795, P 34; DIXON, THE WATAUGANS, P 46
Service Description: 1) CAPTURED BY INDIANS, WATAUGA SETTLEMENT, 1776

RESIDENCE
Created: 2002-03-27 23:23:55.3, Updated: 2015-02-10 07:38:55.0, By: 1) City: WATAUGA SETTLEMENT - District: WASHINGTON DIST - State: NORTH CAROLINA

SPOUSE
Number Name
Created: 2002-03-27 23:17:13.16, Updated: 2002-03-27 23:17:13.16, By: Conversion 1) WILLIAM BEAN

Child [Spouse #] Spouse
GEORGE [2] PRUDENCE WINDHAM COPE
JOHN [1] SARAH JORDAN
SARAH [1] JOHN BOWEN
RUSSELL [1] ROSAMOND ROBERTSON

https://services.dar.org/Public/DAR_Research/search_adb/default.cfm

Pittslvania, Va pioneers of Tenn. Wm b Northcumberland Va d Washington Tn Capt. William Bean, Lydia Russell, c1744

Pittsylvania, Va first white settler west of the Alleghenies; companion of Daniel Boone c1760.

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Lydia (Russell) Bean (1726-1788), William's wife, was captured along with 13 year old Samuel Moore in July 1776 by hostile Cherokee Indians prior to an attack on the Wataugu settlement.
She was intercepted as she made her way from her home on Boone's Creek to Sycamore Shoals.
She was sent to the Overhill Towns and was led to the stake.
Lydia's brother George Russell, husband of Elizabeth Bean, was killed by Indians while on a hunting trip in Grainger County, Tennessee, in 1796.
Her daughter, Jane Bean, was killed in 1798 by Indians while working her loom outside the walls of Bean's Station.

Lydia was to be killed but she was saved, it is said, by Nancy Ward, "Beloved Woman" of the Cherokees, who told the Indians that they could use Mrs. Bean's instruction in the making of butter and cheese.
So her life was spared and later she returned to her home.

Nancy Ward's act may have had far reaching effects.
When militant Cherokees prepared to attack illegal white communities on the Watauga River, Ward disapproved of intentionally taking civilian lives.
She was able to warn several of the Watauga settlements in time for them to defend themselves or flee.
Lydia was sentenced to execution and was actually being tied to a stake when Ward exercised her right to spare condemned captives.
She took the injured Mrs. Bean into her own home to nurse her back to health. Mrs. Bean, like most "settler women," wove her own cloth.
At this time, the Cherokee were wearing a combination of traditional hide (animal skin) clothing and loomed cloth purchased from traders.
Cherokee people had rough-woven hemp clothing, but it was not as comfortable as clothing made from linen, cotton, or wool.
Mrs. Bean taught Ward how to set up a loom, spin thread or yarn, and weave cloth, revolutionizing the Cherokee garments, which at the time were a combination of hides and cloth bought from traders.
But this weaving revolution also changed the roles of women in the Cherokee society, as they took on the weaving and left men to do the planting, which had traditionally been a woman's job.

This skill would make the Cherokee people less dependent on traders, but it also Europeanized the Cherokee in terms of gender roles.
Women came to be expected to do the weaving and house chores; as men became farmers in the changing society, women became "housewives."
Another aspect of Cherokee life that changed when Ward saved the life of Mrs. Bean was that of raising animals.

Lydia owned dairy cattle. She rescued two of her dairy cows from the settlement, and brought them to Nanye-hi. Nanye-hi learned to raise the cattle and to eat dairy products, which provided some nourishment and would sustain the Cherokee even when hunting was bad.
However, because of Ward's introduction of dairy farming to the Cherokee, they would begin to amass large herds and farms, which required even more manual labor.
The combination of weaving and raising of animals turned the Cherokee from a communal agricultural society into a society very similar to that of their European-American neighbors, with family plots and the need for ever-more labor.
This would soon lead the Cherokee into using slave labor.
Thus the Cherokee began buying and selling slaves.
Ward herself was "awarded" the black slave of a felled Creek warrior after her victory at the Battle of Taliwa and thus became the first Cherokee slave owner.
Nanye-hi was among the first Cherokee to own black slaves.

Around the same time Sequoyah introduced the first written language for the tribe.
A complete Bible was first printed in the 1830's, hence the Cherokee were considered one of the Five Civilized Tribes

WILLIAM 5 BEAN (WILLIAM4, JOHN (MACBEAN)3, WILLIAM 22, WILLIAM 11) was born December 09, 1721 in St. Stephen's Par., Northumberland Co., Virginia, and died May 1782 in Bean Station, Washington Co., Tennessee. He married LYDIA RUSSELL 3,4 1759 5,6. She was born 1726 in Northumberland Co., Virginia, and died Bef. June 18, 1788 in Washington, Co., Tennessee.

http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/u/n/d/Daniel-Pruitt-Unde...

Changes to Cherokee society

As a Ghigau, Nancy had the power to spare captives.
In 1776, following a Cherokee attack on the Fort Watauga settlement on the Watauga River (at present day Elizabethton, Tennessee), she used that power to spare a Mrs. William (Lydia Russell) Bean, whom she took into her house and nursed back to health from injuries suffered in the battle.

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GEDCOM Note
Biography
Lydia was born in 1726. She passed away in 1788. <ref>Entered by MarieMills, Jan 27, 2012</ref>

•Birth: ABT 1726 in Virginia
•Death: 1788 in Washington Co., Tennessee

•Note:

This is by Jenny Pullen it has Lydia Russell (b Sept 19, 1726 in (Virchmond)?? N. Farnham Co., VA with father James Russell, b. abt 1700 in VA.

Brothers: John and George Russell.
"She was captured by the Indians as she rode horseback toward Fort Lee at Watauga and was taken to the Cherokee Camp on Nolichucky River. She was told that she would be killed. She was questioned . . . [and]taken to a little town along the Little Tennessee River. Mrs. Bean was taken to Toquo and tied to a stake at the top of a large mound. The fire had been lighted around her when the Beloved woman, Nancy Ward, arrived on the scene. Revolted at the thought that a Cherokee should torture a squaw she hastened to the rescue, scattered the burning brands and cut the bonds which fastened the prisoner.

She took Mrs. Bean to her own house where she was treated kindly.

Lydia Bean in her gratitude instructed Nancy Ward and the other Cherokee women in the art of making butter and cheese.

Due to Mrs. Bean's training Nancy Ward became the first owner of a herd of cattle."

The Lydia Russell Bean, Knoxville Chapter of the DAR, was organized 18 Apr 1959 . . .
When captured in 1776 by the Indians, she led her captors to believe the garrison was well defended, thus preventing an attack. The following members of the chapter [in 1973] are direct descendants of Lydia Russell Bean and William Bean, Sr.: Miss Anna Lucille Evans, now deceased; Annabel King Agee; Gladys King Alexander;Margaret King McAfee; Jamie Ault Grady.<ref>(Taken from John P. Brown's "Old Frontiers.")</ref>

• Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Aug 16 2022, 14:59:54 UTC
• https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Russell-788

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