William H. Bean Family Round Robin Letters: February 9, 1940 to October 19, 2012
The Round Robin Letters of the William H. Bean family began when the mother, Hattie Bethards Bean, wanted to keep in touch with her thirteen children. She wrote a letter, sent it to a daughter who lived out of town who then sent the two letters on to the next out of town daughter or wife of a son. Eventually, the letters accumulated and returned to family members in the vicinity of the home farm outside Blue Mound, Illinois. When the letters came for the second mail around, the person wrote a new letter and removed the prior letter written and continued the mailing of all the rest. Haldane whose wife, Agnes, wrote in the letters, transcribed all the letters that came to his house and saved them for prosperity. Original letters continued for about two years. It was then proposed that instead of wives doing the writing, the sons should write and the four stepchildren, who were very much a part of the family, should be included.
From that time forward, the letters continued to travel around the country from Illinois to California to New York to Mississippi to Indiana and back to Illinois. After Hattie died in 1950, the letters kept making the rounds. When one of the brothers or sisters passed away, the surviving spouse or a next generation member wrote the letter. Haldane continued to type the letters and send on the originals. Someone suggested using bound notebooks. At this time, it was possible to use copying machines so he made copies that way. As new notebooks had to be bought to replace the filled ones, he kept the completed notebooks. When he passed away, his daughter, Norma, took on the copying and the collection. The letters in the most recent years are copies, April 15, 2008 to October 29, 2012, since the location of those originals is unknown. The collection is a remarkable history of the William H. Bean Family.
Norma and her sister, Marjory Bean McDowell have had the letters scanned to a flash drive and then printed for interested family members. Originals will be sent to the Allen County Genealogical Library in Ft. Wayne, Indiana for safekeeping.
Table of Contents:
Box 1 (approx. February 9, 1940 to January 9, 1945)
Box 2 (approx. January 9, 1945 to May 9, 1959)
Box 3 (approx. December 3, 1960 to August 28, 1968)
Box 4 (approx. September 9, 1968 to November 30, 1997)
Box 5 (approx. April 28, 1997 to October 27, 2007)
Family of Jacob Bean and Hannah Kolb (chart)