An American Family History

William Bean

also spelled Been, Beene

Washington County, Tennessee,was established in 1777 as Washington County, North Carolina. From 1784 to 1788,it was part of the State of Franklin.

Nancy (Nanyeh) Ward (1738-1824) was a Cherokee leader in Tennessee who was an important intermediary between European American settlers and the Cherokee people.

Boones Creek is a tributary of the Watauga River.

William Bean was born on December 9, 1721 in Northumberland County, Virginia. He was the son of William Bean.

About 1744, he married Lydia Russell. Lydia was born in 1726 in Northumberland County.

William and Lydia's children may have included:

William Bean (1745),
Robert Bean (1747)
George Bean (1750),
Jesse Bean (1756),
Jane Bean (1764),
Sarah Bean (1768, married John Bowen), and
Russell Bean (1769, married Rosamond Robertson).

In 1762, John built a temporary the shelter that William and Lydia Bean moved into in 1769.

In 1772 he was elected as a commisioner of the Watauga Association.

In 1776 he signed the petition of Watauga settlers asking to become part of North Carolina.

In July, 1776 Lydia was captured, along with 13 year old Samuel Moore, by some Cherokee people prior to an attack on the Wataugua settlement. Her life was spared by Nancy Ward and she was able to return home. Nancy took her into her house and nursed her back to health from injuries suffered in the battle. Mrs. Bean taught Nancy her new loom weave technique, revolutionizing the Cherokee garments. Lydia Bean also rescued two of her dairy cows from the settlement, and brought them to Nancy who learned to raise the cattle.

He was granted 3,000 acres by North Carolina for his service in the Revolutionary war.

William Bean was at a court in Washington County on February 23, 1778.

In 1780 Washington County court records:

Ord. William Been build a mill on Boone Creek.

The court have appointed
Wm. Been, Thomas Hardiman and George Russell
to appraise Joab Mitchell Estate.

In 1780, William, John, George, Jesse, Edmund, and Robert Bean were with Sevier at the Battle of Kings Mountain.

In 1787, Bean's sons constructed a fort that became known as Bean's Station at the on the Old Wilderness Trail.

William Bean died in May, 1782.

In 1793, John Alison substituted for William Bean in the Sullivan County Militia.

In 1799, their daughter, Jane Bean was killed by indigenous warriors while weaving outside the walls of Bean's Station.

The Cherokee were indigenous people who lived in the southern Appalachian mountains. European Americans called their towns in eastern Tennessee, the Overhill Towns. The towns included Chota, Tellico and Tanasi.

In 1776, the Cherokee planned to drive settlers out of the Washington District. The settlers were warned and stopped the first attack at Heaton's Station. The second attack was stopped at Fort Watauga. In response to these attacks, the militia burned Tuskegee and Citico.

In 1780, while the militia was away at the Battle of Kings Mountain, the Cherokee raided the setttlements. When the militia returned, Colonel John Sevier's men defeated the Cherokee at Boyd's Creek and destroyed most of the remaining towns.

East Tennessee is part of Appalachia. At the end of the French and Indian War, colonists began drifting into the area. In 1769, they first settled along the Watauga River. During the Revolution, the Overmountain Men defeated British loyalists at the Battle of Kings Mountain. The State of Franklin was formed in the 1780s, but never admitted to the Union.

Appalachia was the 18th century backcountry and many settlers were Scots-Irish. It includes southern New York, western Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Virginia, West Virginia, eastern Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee and northern Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia.

Robert R. Bean was born in 1800.

Joseph B. Bacon sued Robert R. Bean in Washington County in February, 1821 for debauchery and impregnating his sister-in-law and servant, Martha Patsy Crouch. Robert and Patsy married one month later.

Watauga Pioneer Neighbors
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©Roberta Tuller 2026
tuller.roberta@gmail.com
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