The following biography is from “A twentieth Century History of Allegan County, Michigan” Dr. Henry F. Thomas, ed., Allegan. 1907:

“JACOB BEAN, a Canadian by birth, left the little village in the Province of Quebec, near Montreal, where he was born May 17, 1849, and with his brother Frank came to the United States to seek his fortune. He went first to Vermont, and though but fourteen years of age did not hesitate to accept a job as wood chopper, laborious as it might seem to a boy of his years, as a means of livelihood until something more favorable "turned up." For two years the brothers worked together, then Jacob left and came alone to Saginaw, Michigan, where he worked in the saw mills in summer and in the woods in winter and spring, running logs. Tiring of this after a time he came to Kalamazoo, where he worked on a farm for the period of six months, then in some of the neighboring brick yards. He worked for a portion of the year 1871 on the Michigan Central Railroad. In the spring of 1872 he went to South Haven, and resumed work in the sawmills and woods, at which he remained for two seasons. He worked in various other mills for several months, then went to Williams, Kalamazoo county, where he bought a farm of forty acres. He came to Lee township March 17, 1881, and has remained there since. He bought eighty acres of heavy timber land in section nineteen, which is now all under plow except about two acres. He is a breeder of horses and cows, and also raises considerable fruit, apples, pears and peaches.

By political inclination Mr. Bean is a Democrat. He has held several offices of public responsibility, among them that of school officer and pathmaster. He is a member of the Catholic Church at Grand Junction. He is a son of Francis and Mary (Bean) Bean. His mother, who was not forced to change her maiden name after marriage, was a native of France, and died in Canada. He was one of eleven children.

Mr. Bean was married in St. Joseph, April 25, 1870, to Hattie E. Harris, a native of Kalamazoo County, where she was born April 10, 1850.

Twelve children were born to them, viz.: Nathon Isadore (sic), who is now a teacher; Anthony, also a teacher; Jay X., proprietor of a grocery and meatmarket at Grand Junction; George, a farmer, residing in Casco township; Harrie, an employee of the American Express Company in Chicago; Gertrude, a teacher for a number of years, now a milliner in Chicago; Mary, wife of Arthur Dalrimple, of Lee township; Myrtle and Bertha, in High School at South Haven; Winifred; Roy, who died at the age of ten months and thirteen days, and Arthur, died aged twenty-one months and thirteen days.

Mr. Bean, in common with many a man who has been forced to fight his way and to neglect his schooling for the purpose of obtaining a livelihood in the impressionable years of his life, sets great store on a liberal education. He has in the past and is at the present giving his children the benefit of the training of which he would have been glad to avail himself in his youth had he had the opportunity.”

The name of Jacob Bean’s birthplace has come down to me as Chataigne (also spelled Chataign/Chastain), but I am unable to locate any such place in Quebec. Quite possibly the location is Châteauguay, to the south of Montreal, or Champlain, which is just northeast of Montreal, and was corrupted over the years to Chataigne. Although Jacob spoke English as a second language, he never learned to read or write in either French or English. According to stories my mother told, he spoke English with a definite accent and, to his dying day, had a tendency to break into French whenever he became very excited or angry. All we can say for certain at this point is that he was born “near Montreal.” My mother also claimed that his family had some connection with Normandy, perhaps his father’s or mother’s birthplace. He clearly came from a large family. My grandfather, Charles Anthony Bean/Lefevre, was nicknamed “Doc” because of the old adage “The seventh son of a seventh son shall become a Doctor.” He never used the name Charles except on legal documents, and went by the name Anthony or Tony. To those close to him, he was always called Doc, or to his grandchildren “Grandpa Doc.” I have also been given the names of two sisters, Mary (LeFebvre) Corbett and Josephine (LeFebvre) McCarthy, but have not been able to validate these claims. I have serious doubts about the latter because a sister named Josephine Constance was living with Jacob and his family in Kalamazoo, Michigan when the 1910 census was conducted.

Hattie E. Harris is Harriet Elizabeth Harris, the only child of Irad Harris who died in 1851. Irad was the son of Enoch and Deborah Harris of Oshtemo Township, Kalamazoo Country, Michigan.

The surname Bean is actually a mistranslation of the name LeFebvre, which would more properly be rendered “Tinker” or “Smith” in English. As with many immigrants, changing one’s name to a more English-sounding one was an attempt to fit into American society and avoid prejudice.