Calvin and Caroline Crayton Beene

    We don't know the names of the slaves that Obie took to the Civil War with him, but we have had contact with a descendant of former slaves of his!  She is a gracious lady.  We both concluded that although the practice of slavery was heinous, there seemed to be respect between Obie's family and his former slaves.

    The ancestor of our contact took the name Beene.  He was Calvin Beene and he married Caroline Crayton.   The descendant had put the following query on a web site:

I am a descendant of Calvin Beene and Caroline Crayton who were owned by Obadiah Beene in Mantachie Miss. On the 1870 census, they still lived on Obadiah's property. I would like any information regarding Calvin and Caroline. Thank you.

I responded with what little I was able to tell her.   Here is part of what I wrote:

I saw your query about Calvin Beene and Caroline Crayton.

I am a descendant of Obediah Franklin Beene who lived in Itawamba Co, MS till after the Civil War, then migrated to Freestone Co, TX area. I do not know specifics of Calvin Beene and Caroline Crayton, but I can give you anecdotal information that has come down in the family, such as it is.

Family oral history says that Obediah owned a man and wife and their children as slaves. I believe the husband, whose name I do not know, had died before the Civil War was over. After the emancipation proclamation news came, the children of this couple, who were highly respected and valued even if they were slaves, all ran away to go up north and try to make a place for themselves. One by one they all came back.

Obediah is supposed to have taught them all to read and write enough so that he hoped they would not be cheated by unscrupulous people. They worked for him and in payment he bought and/or deeded over land to them and made sure their names were on the deeds (again he did not want them to be cheated). Obediah did not have much cash money in those days himself so he needed to pay them w/land, apparently. Anyway, he migrated to Texas not too many years after that.

I believe that what I have stated above is true. Obediah Franklin Beene and his wife Mary Elizabeth Livingstone Beene were born in the 1830's in Alabama (actually Obediah was probably born in 1828-1829), were married in 1858 in Itawamba Co, MS and later migrated to Texas. If this is the Obediah your family was associated with, then I believe I have told you all anybody now knows, though it is believed that Obediah corresponded for some years with descendants of his former slaves (another indication of mutual friendship and esteem). As far as I know, nothing survives of this correspondence. Obediah Franklin Beene died in 1907 or 1910 (I think now he died in 1906). Obediah's father was Lemuel Beene (sometimes spelled Bean) born in Ft. Watauga, Marion Co, TN and died in 1849 in Mississippi. Mary Livingstone's father was William F. Livingstone b in TN about 1810. My mother said she had a vague impression that the slave couple may have been given to Mary Elizabeth Livingstone Beene as a wedding gift? She is not at all sure about this, however. Check out my web site at http://www.pearland.com/hokanson for some Beene info and a little on the Livingstone family (don't have much).

Here is her reply:

Dear Dianna,

I am so happy to hear from you. The Obediah Franklin Beene of which you speak was, according to my records, the owner of my of my great-great grandfather, Calvin Beene. I am sure the African- American Beenes had a good relationship with the white Beenes because some of them share the same first names as well....

I really appreciate you getting back to me because I have not been able to get past the 1870 census. Mary Livingston is the key to further investigation.

Let it be known that I have no axe to grind about the slavery issue. We all know that it was an institution that enslaved both white and black and we are still suffering from the fallout. I live one day at a time and try to look to the future and not the past.

Thanks again for your help. Please contact me if you have any further info. I will also be in touch with you if I find out anything.

Yours truly,

(name withheld)

We have corresponded a couple of other times, but so far, neither of us has found anything further on Calvin or Caroline Crayton Beene.   My mother has told me, that the two families worked together at harvest time and made cider together till Obie left for Texas.  Also, Obie's son, William Obediah Beene, also known as Obie, traveled through Mantachie, MS during the 1930's.  A relative of Obie's hired a car and told the driver to take Obie wherever he wanted to go!   He visited the old house where he was born. The family that lived there then put him up for the night in the room he was born in in 1865.  He also found out where his old friend that used to be his baby-sitter companion lived and went to see him.  As Obie walked up to the door, the old man opened it and they fell on each others' necks and hugged each other, the old man saying, "Massa Obie, Massa Obie!"  I wonder if this was Calvin's descendant, too. I do not know the name of the man that Obie went to see. Sure, wish I did.  Write to dianna@pearland.com if you can add anything to this story.

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