Home of Peter Ellis Bean

Duane's take

The way the official marker tells it, here's the story of the home of Peter Ellis Bean. Born in 1783, died in 1846, and in between those two years, friend, this man packed in enough living for about four ordinary lifetimes. Let's start at the beginning of the trouble, which is where the best stories always start.

The year is 1800, and young Peter Ellis Bean signs on with Nolan's Expedition. Now, that particular adventure does not end well for Bean. He is captured and imprisoned in Mexico.

That's the kind of thing that breaks most men, or at the very least sends them straight home to reconsider their life choices. Not Bean. He comes out of that experience and goes on to serve as a soldier in the Mexican struggle for Independence.

The man has a gift, apparently, for being present at consequential moments in history. Then comes the command. He serves as Commandant at Fort Teran in 1831, and then at Nacogdoches from 1832 through 1835.

That is a man who has climbed up through the hardest possible school and come out holding rank. Now, all of this unfolding life had a home, and that home was erected in 1829, somewhere in the vicinity of a sawmill that Bean himself owned. A soldier, a survivor, a prisoner turned commander, with a sawmill on the side.

The State of Texas saw fit to memorialize that home in 1936, and looking at the arc of Peter Ellis Bean's years, it's hard to argue they were wrong to do it.

What the marker says

(1783-1846) A member of Nolan's Expedition in 1800 Captured and imprisoned in Mexico Soldier in the Mexican struggle for Independence Commandant at Fort Teran, 1831; Nacogdoches, 1832- 1835 Erected in 1829 in the vicinity of a sawmill owned by Bean Erected by the State of Texas 1936