Laura Caroline Bean

Mary Caroline Findley Edmands recorded in her diary for 4 January 1965: "Eleanor Tucker 53-- Sent her Grammy Bean's spoons that were Helen Higgins and Paul gave them to me after she died. Eleanor was always a favorite of Grammy's." Eleanor Ramsdell Tucker (born 4 January 1912) was Mary's niece, the daughter of Mary's sister, Susie Catherine Findley Ramsdell (1881-1932), and the diary entry was on Eleanor's 53rd birthday. "Grammy Bean" was M. Abigail Bean (1834-1921), the stepmother of Mary and Susie's mother, Laura Caroline Bean Findley, 1848-1911. From Mary's diary entry for 22 August 1952: "Wrote to Eleanor and sent her picture of Grammy Bean, Aunt Annie and Mrs Gray on back steps of G. Bean's house on Wash. ave. [presumably in Andover, MA]." Helen [maiden name unknown] Higgins died in Dexter, ME, 20 September 1951; her husband was Paul Higgins. Paul was 6 years younger than Mary, and we can assume that Paul and Helen were about the same age. From this we can infer that Helen and Mary were first cousins, both grandchildren of Arthur Noah Bean. We cannot yet determine which of Arthur's three wives would have been Helen's biological grandmother:

1. Caroline Elizabeth Stickney Bean, 1824-1853, who was Mary's grandmother and Laura's mother and who died at the age of 29 when Laura was only 5;
2. Mary A. D. Bean (1827-1866), who was probably 27 years old when she married Arthur and died at the age of 39; or
3. M. Abigail Bean (1834-1921), "Grammy Bean," who might have been as young as 32 when she married Arthur, was 68 when he died, and lived to the age of 87.