the family connecton

The family connection is complex.........a bringing together of people under one system from a variety of sources. The history of our family is rooted in Ireland and Scotland, but it never connected until the movement to America.....and it is a strange story because the original families were neighbors in those lands (although somewhat distant from each other) and after migration were neighbors in this land in Western Virginia but never connected until several generations later in St. Albans,W.Va. when the Beans met the Jarrells.

The first history we have of the Beans began during the Revolutionary War when a MacBane from Scotland was serving in the occupational army of King George in America. After the war, the King refused to pay passage back to England for the defeated soldiers, so McBane settled in America. The name was shortened to Bean. His son William Bean, settled in Western Virginia.and the Bean family prospered in the area near Peters Mountain, not far from land settled by the Jarrells.

The first history we have of the Jarrells was of John Jarrell, who arrived from Ireland in 1654 and settled on Northumberland County, Virginia. During subsequent migrations the Jarrells moved westward and settled in Monroe County, W.Va., where Daniel Jarrell fathered a son John, who later moved to what in now Boone County, where he acquired 7,700 acres of prime land, rich in timber, coal and gas. He was a farmer, with five slaves, unaware of the value of his holdings. He gave his daughter, Julie Jarrell, 4,000 acres as a wedding gift when she married Dr. White. They had 12 children.

John Jarrell was the great grandfather of my father, Andrew Jackson Jarrell, who moved to St. Albans where he met and married my mother. Gladys Marie Davis, the daughter of Lulu Bean Davis.Mom's mother was the daughter of Augustus Bean, directly descended from the William Bean mentioned before. Now after many generations, the Beans and the Jarrells finally became connected by blood, brought together by a series of unlikely circumstances. No doubt, they were acquainted with each other in those early years, but the connection was not made for many years. Now we are family.

The scenario of the two families, having originated in Scotland and Ireland, and finally coming together in West Virginia, is poetic for me. I am pleased with the results. I married June Oxley in 1947 and we produced seven children. Our six surviving offspring are successful in respective careers and I am very proud of our family. It stands today as a living monument to the struggles and efforts of our early ancestors.