Family & Murder

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Co-written with Allen Viehmeyer

On Facebook, we shared the August 6, 1776, birthday of Jacob Bean. He was married to a Schwenkfelder-- Catharina Beyer Bean [184-39]. Jacob Bean died on  August 5, 1856. The Beans had 6 children, of whom 5 lived to adulthood. He and his wife as well as children Joshua, Catharine, Jacob, and Isaac are buried in the Methacton Mennonite Cemetery, Norristown, Montgomery Co., PA.

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Catharina lived from September 14, 1783, until March 10, 1852, and was a daughter of Jacob and Rachel (Metz) Beyer [184-11]. Catharina was the first of 11 children, all of whom but one lived to adulthood. Catharina’s mother and father, a house carpenter, are buried in the Methacton Mennonite Cemetery. Her grandfather [184-3] was Andrew Beyer [E 189] (ab 1733–19 Apr 1773), and her great grandfather was immigrant [184] Abraham Beer (Beyer) [E 184] and his wife Rosina Jäckel [E 185]. They arrived in Pennsylvania in 1736 with 3 sons and 3 daughters. It is said that Abraham was the only Schwenkfelder who went back to Europe and returned to Pennsylvania in 1749, bringing with him Hans Ulrich Seiler, a Swiss Redemptioner. On June 14, 1750,  Seiler murdered Abraham’s 30-year-old daughter Anna Rosina, wife of Schwenkfelder David Schultz [7-3a].

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For help in understanding an entry in the Genealogical Record of the Schwenkfelder Families, as indicated by bracketed numbers above,  go to https://www.schwenkfelder.org/saved-in-vault-blog/how-to-read-a-family-entry.

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