Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Same as Sam


Sam Bean Ella Bean baby photo California
Some brothers grow up, having the kind of relationship that observers often excuse with that overused phrase, “Boys will be boys.” Others have a lifetime together that models those sought-after ideals we think of when we use terms such as “fraternity” and “brotherhood.”

While I don’t know what type of childhood Earle Raymond Bean shared with his older brother Sam, I do know they shared a common destiny. Both of them succumbed to the cardiovascular issues that plague people with Marfan syndrome.

Firstborn Samuel William Bean—named after his father—arrived on the family scene on September 26, 1921. I don’t know whether anyone ever remarked at his extraordinary height at any time during his childhood, although I’m fairly certain not much was widely known about the syndrome that was, even in childhood, shaping his body with its distinctive markings. Perhaps because he had cousins with similar propensities, the physical distortions were assumed to be due more to family resemblance than medical anomaly.

Almost five years later, Sam—or Sammie junior, as he was called in his younger years—was joined by his brother Earle. Just like his older brother, Earle turned out to be a long, lanky lad with the characteristically thin face, bony arms and legs, and long, long fingers.

Alameda California Bean family in front of grandmothers home
There are a few pictures remaining of that time when Sam and Earle were still young children. Though faded through the many years since, one photo captures the family in front of the “Beanery” in Alameda, California. To the left, standing by her front step, is Ella May Shields Bean, the paternal grandmother of Sam and Earle. Standing next to her—at least this is my guess, as the picture is not marked—is her daughter-in-law, Maud Woodworth Bean, nearly shoulder-to-shoulder with her husband, Samuel senior. If my guess is correct, the last person in the back row of the photograph is Sam’s older sister, Leona.

It looks like the photographic session has interrupted some important play activity, for young Sammie is standing in front, between his dad and his aunt, donning an impressive cowboy hat. His younger brother seems deeply interested in whatever he is holding—surely an item meant to complement his feather headdress.

I’ve long remembered seeing the photograph of Sammie junior as a baby, being held by his grandmother as if she is seeing him for the first time—and simultaneously presenting him to the world. I also remember hearing family members talk about “that picture of Sam in the baby carriage”—and wonder if the photo I found of the oversized boy in that old-fashioned stroller would be the one they meant.

But I never had the chance to meet Sam. He was gone long before I could possibly have met him. As for his younger brother—the one who played “Indian” to Sam’s “Cowboy”—he followed suit in the same fashion. All I know of these brothers is the stories they left behind.

Sam Bean as child in baby carriage

15 comments:

  1. Loved the last sentence. "All I know of these brothers is the story they left behind." Isn't that so true with family history. So often we have to find those stories or nobody would know anything about them.

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    1. True, Grant--and I'm glad there are family members out there who have that internal drive to find those stories and pass them along to others. I hate to think how many family treasures have been lost because stories weren't preserved and passed down. But I try to look on the positive side when I witness how many are out there, making the effort to recapture (and document) whatever family history they can.

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  2. The Cowboy and Indian - how iconic of the time. How revealing of brothers that the older one was the cowboy (traditionally perceived as the good guy) and the younger was the Indian (the savage enemy).

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    1. Yes, Wendy, a good point about what the chosen roles may reveal about the brothers' temperaments--and self-perceptions.

      ...but then there are those opposites, like my sister and I, with our own neighborhood friends. The cowboys might have been the "good guys" but they were definitely not the fun guys to play; we always chose the Indians for ourselves :)

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  3. I wish I had a family name that would lend itself to naming my home something as cool as the "Beanery"!

    ;)

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    1. hmmmm....

      Well, with a name as ripe for targeting as Bean, I guess they figured they might as well make the most of it!

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  4. The family photo in front of the home in Alameda looks so much like the pictures of my maternal grandmother. Her family transplanted itself from Massachusetts in the late teens and lived in Alameda during the 1920s & 1930s. How ironic would it be if they were neighbors?

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    1. I am a firm believer in the Small World, and keep wondering when someone will pop up and turn out to be a long-lost friend or neighbor. Ironic, yes, but not out of the realm of the possible for your grandmother and this Bean family to have been neighbors. I'll get to some census records in a while, and we can compare notes.

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    2. My grandmother, Louise Leonard, lived on 2026 San Antonio Street in Alameda in 1930. She graduated from Alameda High School in 1931. She was living with her grandmother Hattie Whitten, uncle Earl Whitten, and her mother Estelle Leonard.

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  5. I'm glad to keep following this story of Sam and Earle. Yes, Sam does look unusually tall for a baby in a carriage. and he looks happy at the same time. I've forgotten whether Sam and Earle are your uncles, or if not, how they are related? Have others in this same family also had Marfan syndrome, or do you have to inherit it from both sides at the same time...?

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    1. Mariann, from what I understand, those who inherit the gene responsible for Marfan syndrome need only receive one (of the pair) of the affected gene to have the disorder. The syndrome is inherited as a dominant trait, and can be passed by either parent.

      While a number of the men in this extended family had Marfan syndrome, the difficulty in tracing it in this family history is that I'm currently researching a generation born at about the same time as the syndrome was first documented (1896, about the same time as Earle's parents were born). What I suspect is that I will find others in earlier generations who died inexplicably at a relatively young age. That may be my only sign of the heritage of this Marfan scourge.

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  6. That is one fancy carriage! I notice you are in the I think part when it come to identifying people too..good to know I have company:)

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    1. I thought you'd get a kick out of that carriage, Far Side. Yes, I'm definitely into the "I think" stage...and it may get murkier before it gets clearer. Told you that you were my inspiration! :)

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  7. Replies
    1. Thanks, Betty. It makes me happy to share remembrances of that family. Those two brothers seemed so alike.

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