- Peter Ellis Bean
Peter Ellis Bean (sometimes "Ellis Peter Bean"; Spanish: "Pedro Elias Bean") (
June 8 ,1783 ,Bean Station, Tennessee –October 3 ,1846 ,Veracruz ) was a United States filibuster inTexas andMexico , and a Mexican revolutionary.Early life
Bean was born in Tennessee in 1783 to Elizabeth Blair and William Bean, Jr. In 1800, at 17 years of age, his father sent him south on the Mississippi by flatboat with a load of trade goods. The boat capsized at
Muscle Shoals, Alabama , and Bean escaped with nothing but his clothes. He continued on toNatchez, Mississippi , where he joinedPhilip Nolan 's last filibustering expedition toSpanish Texas , on the promise of riches from captured mustangs and perhaps gold and silver.On
March 21 ,1801 , a Spanish force of 120 men under the command of Lieutenant Miguel Francisco Múzquiz left Nacogdoches in pursuit of Nolan, whom they encountered entrenched and unwilling to surrender just upstream from where the currentNolan River flows into the larger Brazos (now inHill County, Texas ). Several of Nolan’s men surrendered immediately, and after Nolan was killed, the remainder yielded. Bean opposed surrender, but Múzquiz promised the prisoners would be taken to Natchez and released. A first-hand account of the expedition, capture and subsequent imprisonment is contained in Bean's "Memoirs". Bean was second in command of the expedition.In Mexico
Instead of Natchez, Bean and the other survivors were taken deep into Mexico, and held at various towns. Bean tried several times to escape. As punishment, he was once held in
stocks for fifteen days. The men finally arrived in Chihuahua, where they were held for five or six days in prison, but then granted freedom of the town. The names and fates of the other prisoners are unknown, but thanks to his memoirs, Bean's story has survived.In Chihuahua, Bean went into business as a hatter, doing well. After five years, Bean and some other prisoners attempted to escape through
New Mexico , but were recaptured. Bean was sent to the prison inAcapulco . He remained in prison there until November 1811, when he was released after volunteering to fight for the Spanish Royalists against the insurgents under GeneralJosé María Morelos , who was besieging Acapulco. However, at the first opportunity Bean deserted, joining Morelos, and helping in the latter's capture of the town. Bean rose in rank and favor in the insurgent army, in large part because of his knowledge of munitions. He established several powder mills and furnaces for casting cannons.Return to the United States
Fifteen years after leaving the United States, Bean returned as a Mexican colonel and emissary from Morelos to seek American aid for the insurgents, but without much success. In
New Orleans he encountered the pirateJean Lafitte , and together they offered their services to GeneralAndrew Jackson in theBattle of New Orleans against the British. They were assigned positions in the American battle line. Their valiant conduct gained a pardon for Lafitte, and promises of help for the Mexican insurgents for Bean.On
February 18 ,1815 Bean sailed on the "Águila" to return to Mexico, but he soon was sent back to New Orleans as the escort of the Mexican emissary to the United States,José Manuel Herrera , and Morelos's son,Juan Almonte . By the time Bean got back to Mexico, Morelos had been captured and shot. The insurrection was in desperate straits. Bean raised money and tried to gather mules and stock for the patriot army.Bean married Magdalena Falfán de los Godos, a lady of "fine family", intending to return with her to the United States. However, in 1816 Bean was nearly captured by Royalists in Veracruz. He managed to get back to New Orleans, but by mutual consent his wife remained in Mexico. The details of this escape are not given in his memoirs. He stayed in the
Neutral Ground (between theLouisiana Purchase , belonging to the United States, and Spanish colonialNew Spain ), working on his memoirs. In 1817 he decided to visit relatives in Tennessee. There in 1818 he married Candace Midkiff, daughter of Isaac Midkiff, either assuming his Mexican wife was dead, or simply not mentioning her. In 1820 the couple moved to southwestArkansas , where their son, Isaac Bean, was born in 1821.Return to Mexico
With news of Mexican independence, in 1823 Bean moved with his family to Nacogdoches, Texas, intending to seek reward for his revolutionary services. He settled in Mound Prairie, near the
Neches River on theOld San Antonio Road . In 1825 Bean went toMexico City , where he received a land grant and was commissioned as a colonel in the Mexican army. He was also appointed agent to theCherokees and other immigrant tribes inEast Texas . He applied for colonization rights to the border reserve along theSabine River , but Mexico awarded them toLorenzo de Zavala instead, in 1829.While he was back in Mexico, Bean renewed his relations with his first wife, Magdalena Falfán, but kept his home with his second wife, Candace Midkiff, in Texas. He eventually had three children with Candace.
Back in Texas
Bean settled down to discharge his duties as Indian agent. He was instrumental in defusing the Fredonian Rebellion in Texas in 1826, by keeping the Cherokees neutral. He briefly commanded a small military force at
Fort Terán in 1831 and helped overthrow the centralist commandant at Nacogdoches in 1832, becoming the interim Mexican military chief in East Texas.Although he probably sympathized with the
Texas Revolution , Bean was after all an officer in the Mexican army. He took no active part in the revolution, and volunteered to place himself under arrest when the fighting began. He was initially granted parole, but GeneralSam Houston ordered him detained in April 1836.After Texas gained independence, Bean continued to live around Nacogdoches until 1843, when he returned to Jalapa, Veracruz and his first wife. He died in bed at her estate in 1847, at age 63. His second wife and the mother of his children, Candace Midkiff, died in 1848. She is buried in Roark Cemetery at Linwood.
Although uneducated, Peter Ellis Bean was a natural leader. At the time of his death he owned considerable property in East Texas. He was well thought of by the people who knew him. (See [http://www.sfasu.edu/libweb/etrc/collections/manuscript/personal/BeanPeter/index.asp The Peter Ellis Bean Collection] at
Stephen F. Austin State University .)References
*Bean, Ellis Peter, "Memoirs of Ellis P. Bean". Yoakum, 1855.
*Fehrenbach, T.R., "Lone Star: A History of Texas and the Texans", updated edition, 2000, p. 117. ISBN 0306809427
*Jackson, Jack, "Indian Agent: Peter Ellis Bean in Mexican Texas".Texas A&M University Press , 2005. ISBN 1-58544-444-8
*Lay, Bennett, "The Lives of Ellis P. Bean" Austin:University of Texas Press , 1960. ISBN 0292732929External links
* [http://www.tamu.edu/ccbn/dewitt/beanellis.htm A good biography]
* [http://www.sfasu.edu/libweb/etrc/collections/manuscript/personal/BeanPeter/index.asp The Peter Ellis Bean Collection] at Stephen F. Austin State University, with a biographical sketch
* [http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/BB/fbe7.html Article "Bean, Peter Ellis"] at "The Handbook of Texas Online "
* [http://www.larkcom.us/ancestry/Bean/notables.cfm Short biography]
* [http://www.texasescapes.com/They-Shoe-Horses-Dont-They/Three-Bean-Salad.htm "Three Bean Salad"] by John Troesser
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