William Obediah Beene, 1865 - 1956

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William Obediah Beene was born in 1865, the last year of the Civil War. 

He became a preacher in the Primitive Baptist Church.   He was a member of Old Pilgrim Church in Elkhart, Texas at one time. Later, he founded and preached at the Shepherd's Fold Church on Little York Road in Houston, Texas. That church disbanded sometime in the 1980's or thereabouts, when the membership became too small to support an active church.

It was always necessary to have other employment as the churches were too small to pay more than expenses for their preachers, who often traveled to different churches each weekend (many met only one weekend per month). William farmed and later ran a small grocery store in an oil boom town.

William was 27 years old and living with his family in the Freestone County, Texas area when he married young Lucy Ann Welch. He met her in Anderson Co, TX. They had four sons and a daughter. Lucy was supposed to have the "sight." She once told her husband that he would not be able to attend both her's and his father's funerals, and that proved to be the case.

Lucy died, and then William received word that his father had passed away. It was not possible to go to both funerals because of the distance involved.  It's only one hour now by car, but those were horse and buggy days.   Lucy was buried at Muse Cemetery in Anderson Co, TX and Obediah Franklin Beene was buried at Union Cemetery in Freestone Co, TX.

William and Lucy's daughter, Inez (see White Rose story), died at the age of about 2 years before her Mother died. When Inez died, William could not bear to put her in a plain coffin. The family did not have much money, but William somehow bought white satin material and lined her coffin with it himself.

William later married Ida Bell Gilliam Foster, widow and already the mother of five children. They had five more children. Two of Ida's children by her first husband, David Foster, died young, one as a teenager and the other as a younger child. Together, William and Ida had four daughters and a son. Then Ida died in the 1918 flu epidemic. She also seems to have had the "sight." When her two oldest stepsons, Reuben Raymond and Dixon Franklin Beene, were leaving to serve in the army during World War I, she told them that she would never see them again. When they protested that they had every intention of making it back, she said that she knew they would make it back (and they did).

Ida nursed her husband, children and half the neighbors through the flu epidemic. She made it almost through the epidemic, then she and the local doctor both became very ill, and there was no one left who had recuperated well enough to take care of them.  A pregnant woman who had more or less "hidden out" trying to protect her unborn baby then came forward.  She said that it wasn't fair that Ida could not be cared for properly.  Unfortunately, she and Ida both died of the flu. They were the last folks in their area to die in the epidemic.   Ida's youngest child (Aaron Obediah Beene) was only 18 months old.

William's third wife was named Lethia Ann Pipkin Ray.   She was also a widow with five children. Imagine their surprise when they had a son together!  He was in his sixties and she was over 50! Walter Neel Beene was a so-called change of life baby, as Lethia thought it was impossible for her to have a child!  But they weren't done with surprises! Lethia had a baby girl, Bobbie Louise Beene, a couple of years later!  So William was a father of 12 and step-father of 10 more. 

William Obediah Beene died of a stroke at the age of 91, in Houston, Texas.

Story 1.  When Reuben, William Obediah "Obie" Beene's oldest son, was coming back home from an extended trip away, he wanted to surprise his family.  Somehow, his father Obie always seemed to know when Reuben would be back from any trip, so Reuben tried to put him off track by writing and saying that he would be back on a certain Saturday at a certain time, coming in on the train.   Then Reuben planned to be on the train a week before that date.  The real arrival day came, and the train was one hour earlier than scheduled, and Obie was there to meet Reuben.  He said he just woke up that morning and knew that Reuben would be there that day.  So once again, Reuben could not surprise his father!

Story 2.  When Aaron Obediah Beene was a little boy about 4 or 5 years old, he and his Grandmother "Mollie" (Mary Elizabeth Livingston Beene) went to visit Uncle Sam (Samuel David Beene).  Grandma lived most of the time now with her oldest surviving son, Obie (William Obediah Beene), because Obie was a widower with a house full of young children and he really needed her.  However, she and Aaron, the only child not in school yet, went to stay with Uncle Sam for a couple of weeks.  Uncle Sam lived at Point Enterprise in Limestone County, Texas, the next county over from Freestone County where his brother Obie lived.  Mollie was probably about 82 years old at this time.  It was about 1922.

The weather turned bad with one thunderstorm after another rolling through for several days, and there had been a lot of wind and rain.   Mollie was ready to go home, and Sam had borrowed a buggy to carry her and his nephew, but the weather was just too bad.  For a couple of days he was able to put his Mother off, but finally she insisted that she was going home, she was going to have breakfast the next morning with Obie!  So that evening, just before dark, at Mollie's adamant insistence, they set out for Obie's.   It was about a 22 mile journey, and Sam was worried.  He carried an ax to chop up and remove the downed trees he expected to find strewn on the road.  He was also worried about crossing the Navasota River after all the rain they had had.  There was no way to let Obie know that they were coming.

When they came to the first broken tree limbs across the road, he tried again to convince his mother to wait for better weather.  No, no, "We're going to have breakfast with Obie," she said.

When they got to the Navasota River bridge, Sam could see the big railroad spike size nails that held the thick wooden planks down on the bridge being sucked up and down by the river that was just barely over the bridge.   "Mother, it is just too dangerous to cross," he said.

"We're going to have breakfast with Obie," his Mother said.

Sam got down on his knees and prayed, "Lord, my foolish old Mother insists she will have breakfast with Obie.  I don't believe in putting You to the test like this, but my Mother wants to go on, so please keep us safe, Lord."

Then Sam unhitched the horse from the buggy so that the horse would not be hampered by the buggy if he was swept away.  He took the horse across, then drug the buggy across, then walked his Mother and nephew Aaron across.

Then they continued.  Sam prayed again (very colorfully) when he was faced with the task of removing a very large tree from across the road, but finally, about 4:00 in the morning, they were getting close to Obie's.   They could smell breakfast cooking, and Obie was waiting for them. 

Story 3:  Obediah Franklin Beene and Mary Elizabeth "Mollie" Livingston Beene had a daughter, Sarah "Sallie" Anna who died young when they were still living in Itawamba Co, MS.   (BTW, Obediah Franklin and his son William Obediah were both called Obie Beene).   Back then, folks used to raise cabbage.  In the fall, they would harvest the cabbage and store it under piles of brush to protect it from the weather till they could get to it to process. 

One fall, Obie and his family were harvesting the cabbage.  They had made a couple of brush fires to warm themselves, as the weather was turning very chilly.  Somehow, daughter Sallie, who was about 8 years old, or so) backed up to the fire and caught the hem of her dress on fire. It flamed way up and she began to run as though trying to run away from the fire. They didn't teach "drop and roll" in those days!  Obie and his oldest son (also known as Obie) had to chase her down.  They knocked her down and tried to pull the flaming dress off of Sallie.   It would not come off.  Her mother had sewn her into her dress that morning, as was customary when buttons were so expensive.  They had to put the fire out with their hands and both were burned on the hands very badly.  Sallie lived for several years. 

Sallie Anna would seem to be recovering nicely, at times, only to have infection flare up, yet again.  She died about the time of the 1880 census at about the age of 12.  Her father had bought the new, young doctor in the area, a horse and carriage so that he could come quickly whenever Mollie called for him.  Toward the last, when he knew there was nothing further he could do to save Sallie Anna, the doctor wouldn't always come when the desperate mother would send for him.   Obie went and got his horse and buggy and took them back.  He was very angry that the doctor would not at least come and comfort the grieving mother who was facing such a terrible loss.  A few years later, the family moved to Freestone Co, TX.   The Itawamba Co, MS area was experiencing devastating economic times, caused in part by Yankee land speculators, and there was a mass exit during those years from the beautiful Itawamba County area.

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