JOSEPH BEAN was born in Clark county, Indiana, July 27, 1820, and is a son of Jacob and Rachel (nee McClure) Bean, the former a native of New Jersey, and the latter of Pennsylvania; they came to Sangamon county in the fall of 1828, arriving one day before the election of Andrew Jackson, President of the United States, and settled in Cotton Hill township, where Mr. Bean carried on farming until his death, April, 1837. Mrs. B. died in March, 1850. June 1, 1843, Joseph, the subject of this paragraph, married Mary P. Spicer. By this union there were two children - Nancy J., now Mrs. Henry Hertel, and Sarah E., who married Isaac Porter, and died in 1869. Mrs. B. died in October, 1850, and April 25, 1854, Mr. B. married Barbara Deardorff, who was born in this county December, 23, 1827; and by this marriage there were these four children: Joseph L. and Waldo P., now living, and Thomas W. and Lindsay C., deceased. Mr. B. owns, in Ball and Cotton Hill townships, two hundred and sixty acres of land, worth $45 an acre. Politically, he is a Democrat. For the last fifteen years he has been justice of the peace, and has been almost a life member of the School Board.