Biography of Alexander Bean, Sr., submitted by Compatriot William J. Tankersley.

Information quoted directly from:  The Clan MacBean of North America Genealogy and History, Volume II, 5th Edition, Revised, by Joseph S. Bean, Page 619.  Published 1993.

On Sept. 12th 1775, The Ship GEORGIA PACKET landed at Charleston, South Carolina with freight and passengers from Scotland and England. Among the passengers was a young Scottish laddie of 23, Alexander MacBean / Bean and his young wife, Christiana, aged 18 years, also from Scotland. The Georgia Packet was English Registry. The young Scotsman was a shoemaker by trade but he was seeking better employment in the New Land of America. It appears that their original destination was Georgia but they disembarked at Charleston and from there started their new life. Tradition in the family states that their arrival in North America was 1779, the same year they were married in Aberdeen, Scotland, however, their age as given on their immigration papers and the ship’s passenger lists make it clear that the year was 1775, the year of the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War. The DAR Patriot List shows that Alexander served as a juror in South Carolina in 1778-1779. It appears that he chose farming as his new employment and they settled on Little Stevens Creek in Edgefield District in what is now Edgefield County. It was near the Meeting Street Post Office. In January, 1784, they purchased 500 acres of land here from George Bukalew, and apparently lived their lives right here, he passing away in 1812 and his wife in 1837. There is some confusion as to his wife’s full maiden name. It is shown as Massey, Cassey or Matson. Probably the weight of evidence indicates that it was Matson. Alexander’s Will was probated in Edgefield Co., SC, 3/16/1812. It is thought by some of his descendants that they were in Georgia for a while, though in which years we have no record. There is also an indication that at least a brother or a cousin also came to America and lived in Georgia. The story persists in two branches of his family that this supposed brother or cousin came to America in 1814, from France where he had gone to marry his Scottish sweetheart whose family had moved there. Certainly there is no doubt that all of the children of Alexander Bean were born in Edgefield Co., South Carolina.  The 1790 Census for Edgefield Co., shows him with 1 Free White male 16 years and upward; 2 free white males under 16, and 5 free white females. Their youngest, a son, was not born until 1796. His widow apparently remarried after his death though we have not found the marriage record or the name of her 2nd husband. Like so many of the early pioneers in North America, the Beans of South Carolina also began to move west a little after the Revolutionary War, and almost en masse after 1800. The Alexander Bean Family first spread to Georgia and then to Alabama, and finally on west to Louisiana and to Jasper and Newton Counties in Texas. Christiana Matson-Cassey and Alexander BEAN were married circa 1775 in Aberdeenshire, Scotland.