Wayne County

Francis Bean

1884 Biographical Sketches of City of Fairfield

FRANCIS BEAN, physician, Fairfield, Ill., was born in Athens County, Ohio. February 15, 1845. He is the third of a family of twelve children of Archibald Bean and Adeline Woodworth, both of whom were natives of Ohio.

Francis Bean was reared upon the farm and educated in the public schools of his native county, where he qualified himself for the profession of teaching.

In June of 1862, he enlisted in Company R, of the Eighty-seventh Ohio Regiment, and in September of the same year was captured at Harper's Ferry, paroled and sent home. After remaining at home for eighteen months, he again volunteered, this time in the One Hundred and Forty-first Regiment, Company C, from which he was discharged in the fall of 1884.

In 1865, he came with his father's family to Wayne County, Ill., and settled in Lamard Township, near Jeffersonville.

In April, 1870, he commenced the study of medicine, performing the usual preparatory reading under Dr. S. W. Vertreese, at Fairfield, Ill. He graduated from the Medical College of Ohio, and in 1875, having previously practiced two years at Jeffersonville. He located at Fairfield in 1875, where he still remains. Dr. Bean was married in Fairfield, Ill, November 6, 1867, to Nancy J. Koontz, daughter of Simon P. and Easter Koontz, of Lamard Township. She was born in Wayne County March 19, 1848. They have a family of four children;

  1. Ida May, born January 26, 1869, and died October 7, 1873
  2. Ira 0. Bean, born August 26, 1872
  3. Charles 1. Bean, born August 27, 1876
  4. Wilsey R. Bean, born October 28, 1878

George Bean, grandfather of Dr. Bean, was born in 1789, and died on the 15th of May, 1864. His grandmother, Ann Bean, was born in 1794, and died February 1, 1887.

His grandparents on his mother's side were Zebioa and Mary (Baker) Woodworth, the former born in Now Hampshire and died in advanced age in Wayne County, Ill., in the year 1873. The latter was born in Boston and died in this county in 1864.

Archibald Bean was born in November, 1815, and died April 3, 1875. Adeline (Woodworth) Bean was born November 26, 1819, and died May 21, 1870. They were married April 16, 1840, and had a family of eleven children, seven of whom are now residents of Wayne County and four of whom are deceased.

Dr. Bean is a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen, and both he and wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church of Fairfield.



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