- WALTER BEAN, who is carrying on an extensive business in Seymour, Wisconsin, as proprietor of the Seymour Valley Cheese Factory, is a son of Solomon and Harriet Thorpe (Brunette) Bean. Solomon Bean was born March 4, 1839, in Clyde, St. Clair county, Michigan, a son of Richard and Mary (Laucar) Bean. On August 1, 1861, Solomon Bean enrolled as a soldier at Port Huron, Michigan, becoming a member of Company K, Second Michigan Cavalry, assigned to the department of Northern Missouri under General Pope. During the following spring the company was brigaded into the Third Michigan Cavalry, under General Gordon Granger, and saw active service at Island No. 10, Monterey, Boonville, Block Island and Baldwin. On October 20, 1882, Mr. Bean received his honorable discharge on account of disability, and returned to his home. By profession a carpenter and mechanic, Mr. Bean during the '60s built some of the first houses in Shiocton and Seymour, Wisconsin, but it was not until 1883 that he located in Seymour to reside permanently, and here his death occurred. Mrs. Bean died May 24, 1893, aged fifty-four years. They were married December 8, 1864, she being the widow of James R. Thorpe, who was the youngest son of Sir Thorpe of England and who came to Green Bay from Philadelphia to buy some of the first land in this section. He enlisted for service during the Civl War, and was killed while on garrison duty at Philadelphia. Mrs. Bean was a daughter of Prudent Brunette, the first settler of Green Bay, who took part in the hostilities between the whites and the Chippewa Indians. She had four children by her marriage with Mr Thorpe, namely: John, Mrs. M. S. Parner, Mrs. John R. Shepherd and Richard. Seven children were born to Solomon and Harriet Bean, namely: George; Carrie, who married Thomas Shier; Walter, Herbert, Myrtle, Harriet and Claud.
Walter Bean secured his education in the graded and high schools of Seymour, and when he was fifteen years old began working at the butcher trade for Albert Kuehne, with whom he continued until he was twenty years of age. As his father had been a soldier in the Civil War and his grandfather, Richard Bean, a soldier during the War of 1812 and the Blackhawk War, it was only natural that during the Spanish-American War young Bean should enlist under his country's flag, and he became a member of a well-known company of Wisconsin Volunteers, enlisting at Green Bay, Wisconsin, and serving nine months. On his return to Seymour he learned the trade of cheesemaking and in 1911 he purchased the Seymour Valley Cheese Factory, which has a capacity of 8,000 pounds. Mr. Bean was born July 8, 1877, and on January 4, 1907, he was married to Mary Agnes Beaulitte, who was born April 12, 1885, at Cochrane, Wisconsin, and to this union there have been born two children: Richard, born February 1, 1909, and Margaret, born December 28, 1910.
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1877 - 1964 (87 years)
Military Service
