Here is an article written by John Wilson, Hamilton County Historian. Its an early history of the Beans and Poes (or should I say the Poes and Beans) in Hamilton County. From: john wilson [mailto:news@chattanoogan.com] Sent: Friday, July 08, 2005 9:22 PM To: Peter Liu (Personal) Subject: Re: PLEASE FORWARD TO MR. JOHN WILSON William and Lydia Bean are celebrated as the first permanent settlers in the section that be- came Tennessee, and their son, Russell Bean, was the first white child born within the con- fines of the state. As the descendants of William Bean spread out from the vicinity of the Watau- ga River, some of them made their way to Ham- ilton County. William Hamilton Bean, grandson of Russell Bean, was a major in the Union Army and was elected county tax collector and then sheriff. The William Bean who ventured into frontier Tennessee was born in 1721, and is believed to be the son of another William Bean, of Northumberland County, Va. The younger Wil- liam Bean made his way to Augusta County, Va., and he married Lydia Russell. He began going out on hunting parties with Daniel Boone and others into the untracked wilderness. Despite the presence of hostile Indians, Bean decided in early 1769 to set down roots at the Watauga Riv- er where he had camped while hunting with Boone. The Beans were soon joined by some of their Virginia neighbors and kin, including John and George Russell, brothers of Lydia Russell Bean. It was Lydia Russell Bean who was rescued by the Cherokee "Beloved Woman'' Nancy Ward, according to early accounts. In 1776, Mrs. Bean had been captured by the Indians during a siege at the Watauga while William Bean was away on a hunting trip. When she refused to provide in- formation about conditions at the settlers' fort, she was tied to a stake in preparation for being burned. It is said that after Nancy Ward put out the flames that Mrs. Bean taught her many do- mestic arts that were then passed on to the tribe. Most of the Bean children had been born by the time they arrived in the future Tennessee. The older children were William Jr., Robert, George, Jesse, John, Edmund, Jane and Sarah. Jane was killed by Indians at Grainger County when she was 32. Sarah, who was born in 1768 just before the move to the wilderness, married John Bowen and they lived in Grainger County. Some of the Beans married into the family of William Ellis, who purchased land next to the Beans on Boone's Creek in 1784. Edmund Bean married Martha Ellis. Her brother, John Ellis, married Elizabeth Bean, daughter of Robert Bean and Rhoda Lane and granddaughter of William Bean and Lydia Russell. William Jr., who was born in 1745, had joined his father on the Watauga by 1778. His first wife is listed as Rachel Ball, and his second wife was the widow Elizabeth Shaw. William Bean Jr. fought under John Sevier at King's Mountain. He also lived in Grainger County, and he died there in 1798. William Bean Jr.'s children in- cluded Ahab (by the first wife), Peter Ellis, Wil- liam, Fetna who married John Valentine Bull, Robert, Edmund, Elizabeth Ann, Jesse, Lydia and Jemima. Robert Bean married Christine Miller, and Edmund Bean married Margaret Tappen. Some of these children moved on to Hamilton County in the 1830s and 1840s. One of these was William, son of William Bean Jr. Another was Lydia, who married Goodman Scott in 1818 in Grainger County. At the time of the 1850 census, Lydia Bean Scott was living in Hamilton County with her son, Robert Scott. Orlena Scott, daugh- ter of Goodman and Lydia Bean Scott, married Absalom Selcer and they settled at Falling Wa- ter. Russell Bean grew into "a handsome youth with curly black hair and a fine physique. He was the most perfect specimen of manhood in the whole country.'' But he had "a violent tem- per and a cruel nature, which was responsible for his getting into trouble and being brought into court on many occasions.'' One story is told of Russell Bean terrorizing local officials and of a sheriff who went out to arrest him but could not bring him in. The sheriff is said to have told Judge Andrew Jackson that Bean was at the edge of town and refusing to give up. Jackson strode straight to the site, and Bean meekly sub- mitted. Asked later why he had given up so easi- ly, he said, ""I saw the fire in the old general's eye, and I knew I had better surrender.'' On an- other occasion, Russell Bean was ordered to be branded in the hand with a hot iron and put in the stocks and whipped. They said this "wild and lawless character bit out the burned piece of flesh from his hand in the presence of those who were administering the penalty.'' After the death of William Bean in 1782, Russell Bean in- herited his grist mill on Boone's Creek. He received 400 acres upon the death of his mother. Russell Bean was a gunsmith and metalworker. Most of his sons followed that profession. He married Rosamond Robertson, daughter of Charles Robertson and niece of pioneer Middle Tennessee settler James Robertson. But Russell Bean was a wandering man, and she sued for divorce in March of 1802. It is said that Andrew Jackson found out about the split up and was able to reunite the couple. Rosamond Robert- son Bean was feisty herself. She, her sister-in- law, Jane Bean, and Jemima Scroggins were in- dicted for some sort of trouble in 1798. But the warrant for the three women was returned un- served and was marked "will not be taken, kept off by force and arms.'' Russell Bean on one oc- casion was said to have returned from a long so- journ and found his wife had borne a child that was not his own. He cut off or clipped the ears of this child "so that it would not get mixed up with his children.'' Bean was said to have been convicted and jailed for this action, and while he was serving time in Jonesboro a fire broke out on March 15, 1803. He escaped from the jail and was heroic in risking his life to extinguish the blaze. It is said that, in reward, Gov. John Sevier pardoned him from his jail sentence. At other times, Russell Bean was on the other side of the law, serving as a sheriff's deputy under his father-in-law and in Memphis. He died at Washington County, Tenn., in 1826. Rosamond Robertson Bean lived until the 1850s. The children of Russell Bean are listed as Baxter, Charles, James M., Joseph, Robert, Cam- illa who married a Garland, Rose Ann and Nan- cy. James M. Bean made his way to Rhea Coun- ty, where he married Minerva Payne in 1821. The James M. Beans moved on to Hamilton County, and he served as a deputy sheriff. James M. Bean died about 1845 when he was 48. His children included Louise, William Hamilton, Easter, Minerva, Martha who married Daniel Jackson in 1860, and James M. Jr. William Hamilton Bean, who was born in 1833, married Martha Stout, daughter of Samuel and Mary Stout. The Stouts were originally from North Carolina. The William H. Beans lived in the vicinity of Daisy. He served as a constable prior to the war. Both William H. Bean and his younger brother, James M. Bean Jr., joined the Sixth Mounted Infantry of the Federal Army in 1864. William Bean rose to the major rank be- fore being mustered out at Nashville. James M. Bean Jr. became a corporal, but he was reduced to captain after he was missing without leave. After the war, most public offices were reserved for Union loyalists. William H. Bean became the county tax collector in 1870. He won election as sheriff in August of 1872. However, his election was challenged in court by the County Court that was led by Judge A.G.W. Puckett. The chal- lenge was based on an assertion that Bean had not settled all his accounts as tax collector. The case went to the Tennessee Supreme Court, where it was decided that Bean's election was invalid. The County Court put James C. Conner into office in his stead. The sheriff previously in office, A.B. Conner, filed suit as well, saying he should have retained the post. But James C. Conner was allowed to stay in office. William H. Bean lived on at Daisy until his death in 1909 when he was 76. Martha Stout Bean lived until 1920. They had one daughter and one son. The daughter, Sarah Louise, married John Hill Poe, a son of Samuel Poe and grandson of the pio- neer settler Hasten Poe. The son, James A. Bean, was born in 1856 near Daisy. He was active in politics and in real es- tate, accumulating a considerable amount of property. James A. Bean moved to the promising suburb of Alton Park in 1896, and he served as its postmaster from 1901 to 1906. The Beans lived on Highland Avenue. He was chairman of the executive committee of the Republican Par- ty for the Fourth District and "a liberal support- er of various churches and charities.'' He and his wife, Kate, had a daughter, Maxie, who died in 1892 when she was eight. James A. Bean died in 1910./P James M. Bean Jr., brother of William H. Bean, married Amanda Gann in 1870. Their chil- dren include John W. who married Louise Gann, Belle who married Albert Penny, Nola who mar- ried John Penny, Hallie who married Mode Clift, and Timothy who married Clem Penny and then Mrs. Ann Gibson Hutcheson, who was first married to John Dale Hutcheson. James M. Bean Jr. died as the result of a leg wound that he had suffered in the Civil War. He was buried at the McGill Cemetery. After his death, Amanda married John Gann. She died in 1934 and was buried at the Soddy Presbyterian Cemetery. Some of the Beans changed the spelling of the name to Beene. William Gann, a great-grandson of William H. Bean, still has the major's saber that he used during the war./P Chattanooga City Court Judge Russell Bean is named for Tennessee's first white child. He and his brother, attorney Martin Bean, are descendants of James Madison Bean, who was born in Virgin- ia in 1802 and married Hollie Virginia Swear- ingen. Their brothers, Crawford Bean Jr. and David Bean, also live here. They are sons of Crawford Bean, who was a Chattanooga attor- ney. Crawford Bean was a son of John Crawford Bean and grandson of Crawford Carlton Bean, who fought along with his six brothers for the Confederacy. These Beans were from the Jack- son County, Ala., area. When commissioners for the newly formed Hamilton County met after the county was orga<- >nized in 1819, they chose the tavern-home of Hasten Poe at Daisy in the north end of the county. It was not located in the center of the county by any means, but most of the white set<- >tlement was then concentrated at the north end while the territory south of the river was still in possession of the Indians. This settlement around the tavern was known as ""Poe's'' or ""Poe's Cross Roads.'' One road went north toward Rhea County and another was Poe's Turnpike that went across Walden's Ridge to the Sequatchie Valley.

Hasten Poe had earlier moved from his native Virginia to Greene County, Tenn., after taking part in the War of 1812. He was in S.V. Allen's company in the Virginia Militia. Hasten Poe re<- >turned to Virginia to marry and he and his wife, Celia, had a son, Samuel, and two daughters, Sarah J. and Elizabeth, born there. Their home in Hamilton County was described by Judge Lewis Shepherd as ""a large two-story log house that was used as a public house and stock stand for the accommodation of travelers and stock drivers. Here the courts were held for several years.'' Then the community of Dallas was named as the county seat and a log courthouse was built there.

By the time of the Civil War, it was written that Hasten Poe ""had been crippled for a num<- >ber of years.'' His leg had been broken and he had to get about on crutches. But he made known to all his neighbors that his sympathies lay with the Confederacy. He had first believed that the South would win the war, but by 1864 he began to have his doubts. His property deeds were then changed so that the acreage might be protected in the expected backlash against sup<- >porters of the Rebel cause. Isaac G. Thomas, who had known Hasten Poe since 1836, recalled after the war, ""We were neighbors. He was a Rebel and I a Union man. We talked freely to each other about our business.'' Hasten Poe did face lawsuits in the Reconstruction period, with allegations of supposed injuries he had caused during the war. His attorney said he had ""done no such thing. The public sentiment of the coun<- >try was so strongly biased and prejudiced against men who had identified themselves with the Southern cause that excessive damages were being given by the courts and juries of the country without a shadow of right or justice. He (Hasten Poe) believed all his property might be taken by a sort of judicial robbery.'' He be<- >stowed 600 acres of the Poe homeplace to daughter Sarah, who married Thomas Windham in 1837. Another 600 acres went to Elizabeth, who married Sterling S. Condra in 1835. Neither daughter had children by their husbands, though Sarah previously had Azariah Poe.

Bernice Farmer Patton in a 1946 letter to the [OO]Chattanooga Times [oo%]told of Poe's Tavern and the Civil War. She was a granddaughter of Sarah Elizabeth Poe Putnam, who was a granddaugh<- >ter of Hasten Poe. She said, ""The rambling old story-and-a-half log house with its long porches lay peacefully under the afternoon sun in the fall of '63. The Negro women were gathered in the shade behind the picket fence seeding cot<- >ton while the children, slave and free, were playing on the lawn. The mother, Mary Bryant Poe, and the baby son were within. The father and two older sons, William and Hasten Poe, were with the Southern armies. The first Hasten Poe was in the field with the hands. Suddenly a picket, who had been stationed at the cross<- >roads where Poe's Turnpike crossed into Sequatchie Valley, came yelling, ""The Yankees are coming! The Yankees are coming!'' Before he was out of sight on his way to the next house, a band of soldiers rode up, firing into the fence, the yard and the house as they came. The wom<- >en and children had made a mad scramble for the house, but were no sooner inside, with the doors barred, than they discovered that Lewis, one of the Negro babies, just old enough to sit alone, had been left on the lawn. The others held his mother to prevent her going out while bullets plowed up the dirt around him. Not a shot was fired from the house; the women at Poe's Tavern surrendered, and Lewis was brought into the house, unharmed. Now the offi<- >cers took over the house, leaving the family one room for living, cooking, eating and sleeping. Tents for the enlisted men sprang up around the house. The Union soldiers immediately pried up the floor boards and tore off the ceiling, look<- >ing for guns, money and other valuables. My grandmother said that during the last months of the war, they fared better than most families be<- >cause the soldiers divided with them their weevily white beans and crackers. During the battles around Chattanooga, many of the sick and wounded were brought there and the tavern became a hospital. Union soldiers lay on pallets and cots in all the rooms and on the long porches. While the fighting was going on, the wounded were carried there in wagons and laid upon the hard, bare earth in the yard. Doctors threw up emergency tables of boards laid across saw horses and, without aid of anesthesia, probed for bullets, sewed up wounds and ampu<- >tated limbs. Although horrified and sometimes made very sick by the sight and by the men's groans and cries, they stayed to watch, after<- >wards carrying the dismembered parts to a great ditch down in the field and covering them with dirt. Happier scenes were those in which the convalescent men called her to their bed<- >side and asked her to shoo the flies off while they slept. In return for this the soldiers gave her money or some small trinket and told her stories of their children or small brothers and sisters at home. However, during this time her mother and the small brother died of typhoid. Most of the Negroes had gone. The farm was in an impoverished state, with the fences gone and the fields untended. The only remaining live<- >stock was one old lame mule. Both her father, Samuel Poe, and her brother, William, were in the siege of Vicksburg and both were taken pris<- >oner. Samuel had a long illness of dysentery from which he never fully recovered and was exchanged and returned home. His refusal to see defeat for the South is shown by the fact that he was in Atlanta for the purpose of buying slaves when Lee surrendered. A little later, my grandmother, 15 and a tall, fair-skinned, blue-< >eyed girl with black hair, married James Mon<- >roe Putnam, a Hamilton County youth, who fought for three years with the northern army in Co. B, Third Regiment of Infantry, Tennessee Volunteers. Their first son, John H. Putnam, lawyer and county judge of Bledsoe County for 12 or more years, was also born in Hamilton County. While he was still a babe in arms they left Poe Tavern to go west. But that is another story.'' The Poes had 21 slaves prior to the war.

It was the troops under Union commander John T. Wilder that approached from Dunlap to Poe's Tavern in late August 1863. They later told of poking through buildings and barnyards, finding ""several stand of arms secreted in Poe's barn and house, which he professes to know nothing about.''

Hasten Poe in 1871 began receiving a pension of $8 per month for his service in the War of 1812. He died in April of 1878. Celia Poe had died in late December of 1875.

Samuel Poe, the only son of Hasten Poe, was elected major of a regiment he raised to fight in the Mexican War. But the war was over before the unit could march. He married Mary E. Bryant. Their children included William H. Poe who fought with the Confederate forces and married Ruth Champion, Hasten H. Poe, and Sarah Elizabeth who married James Monroe Putnam. Another son, John Hill Poe, married Sarah Louise Bean, daughter of William H. Bean. Samuel Poe died just after the close of the war in 1866.

John H. Poe, who had been born inside the walls of Poe's Tavern, was a member of the County Court for three terms. He was one of the organizers of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church at Daisy. It was said that ""his ideals for righteousness, for fraternity, and for clean liv<- >ing will be the standards for Daisy for all the years to come.'' He was said to have ""come from a long line of slave-owning aristocrats, but was himself a great Democrat.'' John H. Poe was laid to rest in 1927 at the old Poe cemetery ""in which six generations of the Poe family are buried.'' His large home was at Daisy near the foot of the turnpike leading across the mountain. John H. Poe had four sons, Burt, Floyd, Coke and Coster Lawrence, then he had five daughters, Elma, Al<- >lie, Effie, Mae and Martha Lee.

Burt Poe occupied the old Poe's Tavern. In 1911, he built a newer home around the old tav<- >ern. It was on the same hewed-log foundation. His son, Charles Poe, was executive editor of the [OO]Chattanooga News [oo%]and was state conserva<- >tion commissioner. Charles Poe was active in the formation of Harrison Bay State Park. G. Leslie Poe, another son of Burt Poe, was princi<- >pal at Daisy Elementary School and then princi<- >pal of a school at Coral Gables, Fla. Dr. Floyd Poe was a Presbyterian minister who had a church in Kansas, then was pastor for many years of the City Temple at Dallas, Tex. For a number of years, he had a folksy column called ""This, That and The Other'' on the front-page of the [OO]Dallas Morning News. [oo%]He wrote a short his<- >tory of the Poe family. His daughter, Helen Poe, operates the Poe Travel Agency at Dallas. A world traveler, she frequently lectures on her travels. A number of Poe Lecture Clubs have been set up. Coke Poe moved to Kentucky. Coster Poe married Mary M. Powell, and they resided at Daisy. Their daughter is Jane Poe Dent. Elma married Ben Gann and they lived in Chattanooga. Their children included William H. Gann and Anita Gann Jones. Allie married George Eichorn and they resided at Daisy. Effie married Dr. N.S. Richie of Daisy. Mae married Charles Blacker and Martha Lee married James Larrimore, an Atlantan who was in Daisy with the Hood Brick Company. The Larrimores lived at the old John H. Poe place before moving to Cloverport, Ky. The Richies later lived in the John H. Poe residence. It later burned.

Edgar Allan Poe, a farmer at Daisy, was the son of Hasten and Ruth Champion Poe. His sons were Roland Gaines Poe and Hamilton Luther Poe. Rohn Dewitt Poe, a TVA employee, is a son of Roland G. Poe.

The Poes kept the Poe's Tavern property on Dayton Pike at Daisy until the early 1960s when it was sold to Margaret Davenport. She sold it to Harold Rigsby, and he later transferred it to Fred Doss. When Hamilton County celebrated its 175th anniversary on Oct. 25, 1994, an histori<- >cal marker was created for the Poe's Tavern site.

JOHN POE, a kinsman of Hasten Poe, was an<- >other early settler of Hamilton County. He was born in North Carolina in 1785. His first wife was Dorothy Gouge, whom he married in Rhea County in 1812. Their sons included William Jasper and Ansel. John Poe later married Re<- >becca Hinkle, who was of German background. Their children included James Calvin, R. Ste<- >phenson, Nancy, Catherine, Francis Marion, John Lindsay, Larkin Haskew, Jesse Henry who married Rachel Standifer, and Rebecca Jane who married Samuel Houston Boyd.

John Poe lived near Charleston, Tenn., in the 1830s and he took his family to Dahlonega, Ga., during the gold rush there. But, after the gold fever subsided, most of the family moved to the Hamilton County area. John Poe died near the close of the Civil War. Rebecca Hinkle Poe lived until 1878.

Larkin Poe was born in 1833 when the family was living in McMinn County. He married Sarah Brotherton of Chickamauga, Ga. Her parents were George and Mary Carter Brotherton. The Larkin Poes were living at Chickamauga at the time the battle was fought on their property. Larkin Poe fought with Co. K of the Fourth Ten<- >nessee Cavalry. He was a teamster and at the time of the Chickamauga fight he drove from Rome, Ga., to Jay's Mill, then borrowed an offi<- >cer's horse to check on his family. He rode by moonlight, turning the horse to avoid stepping on dead soldiers as he neared his home. His own house had been reduced to a pile of ashes, and two soldiers had been hastily bured there. The Brotherton cabin was still standing. His fa<- >ther-in law was there along with many wounded soldiers. Poe hastened on and found his wife and their two small children at a nearby refugee camp northwest of the Snodgrass home. About 60 older men, women and children were gath<- >ered by a large fire, subsiding mainly on green cow peas. Poe brought back two sacks of corn meal to the refugees, who spent eight days at the camp. There is still a Poe Road at the Chicka<- >mauga Battlefield.

In 1865, the Larkin Poes moved near Apison. He was a justice of the peace there for many years. Their son, Thomas L. Poe, was involved in stockraising, farming and lumbering in James County. In 1893, he married Martha Allie Huf<- >faker, daughter of Samuel L. Huffaker. The T.L. Poe farm was a mile north of Apison. The T.L. Poes had a daughter Vio./l x ----- Original Message ----- From: Peter Liu (Personal) To: news@chattanoogan.com Sent: Friday, July 08, 2005 9:17 PM Subject: PLEASE FORWARD TO MR. JOHN WILSON Dear Mr. Wilson: My name is Peter Liu; my wifes name is Gail Elizabeth Poe. We have been doing some research on our family tree for our son, Gene Allan Liu. From our immediate family recollections/anecdotes, we could only go back as far as Bert Poe and Edith Lee. I started to do research on the internet and came across a webpage for the Poe Cemetery in Hamilton County with the name of Bert Poe and Edith Lee Poe (daughter). I also found Jim Holcombs name on the page and started to correspond with him. Jim was able to provide me with more information rather than just names and dates. Jim indicated that the information he provided to me came from articles that, as Hamilton County historian, you had previously written. I have now been able to continue my search but only getting more names and dates. Here is a brief outline of what I have on the Poes Gail Poe -> Eugene Poe -> G Leslie Poe -> Bert Poe -> John Hill Poe -> Samuel P Poe -> Hasten Poe -> Simon Poe -> Simon Poe And on the Beans Sarah Louise Bean -> William Hamilton Bean -> James M Bean ->Russell Bean -> William Bean -> William Bean Jim mentioned that you are the Hamilton County historian and done a series of articles that include the Poe and Bean families. My family and I would be ever grateful if you are able to forward copies of those articles to us or to recommend places that we may find them. Sincerely yours, Peter and Gail Liu 301 Fluvia Avenue Coral Gables, FL 33134