Charles D. Bean, attorney and member of one of Geneva's old families, died this morning at the Geneva General Hospital after a short illness. He was 76 years of age. There are no near survivors.
Funeral announcements will be made later.
Charles Danford Bean, only child of Charles and Cloa Maria Sanford Bean, was born in Marion, Wayne county, in 1861. His early years were spent in New York City, where he was a pupil at St. John's Trinity Parish School and North Moore grammar school. He also attended the Franklin Academy of Prattsburgh and received his preparatory education for college at the Union School of Geneva.
He then matriculated at Hobart College, from which he was graduated in 1882 in a class of eighteen with the degree of Bachelor of Science. While attending college he was a member of the choir and Phi Kappa Psi fraternity, no longer on the Hobart campus. After accompanying his father on a pleasure trip to Europe he returned and took a post-graduate course at Hobart, about the same time starting the study of law under the preceptorship of his uncle, Major John E. Bean, and of Judge Charles J. Folger.
He became a member of the Hobart Cadets and commenced the study of military tactics under the auspices of a United States officers. He was honored why a number of institutions of learning in recognition of his articles in various legal publications and his writings on the laws of fraternities and societies.
Syracuse University conferred upon him the degree of Bachelor of Philosophy; Allegheny College, that of Mater of Arts; and the Southern Normal University College of Law, that of Doctor of Laws, In 1887 he was elected justice of the peace for four years; in 1889 he was elected justice of sessions, being re-elected in 1890. For four years Mr. Bean was Professor of Law and Dean of the Department of Law at Keuka College, that time co-educational.
Maple Hill, the homestead of the Bean family, now known as the Lafayette Inn, was originally erected in 1834 and was at that time a two-story structure. Successive owners added wings and rebuilding and remodeling the house. To the northwest are the buildings which, at one time, were to house the Endymion Military Preparatory School, a venture of Mr. Bean's which never successfully materialized.
The junction of the two state roads in front of the Lafayette Inn was named "Bean's Hill," after Charles Bean Sr., by Judge Folger, Captain J. S. Lewis and Stephen H. Parker, when the friends were together on a special occasion many years ago. Of late years the former Bean family estate was developed into a real real estate tract known as Lenox Park on which is now located many attractive homes.
On Bean's Hill, besides the famous Lafayette Tree, are two memorials to General Lafayette, placed by the Historical Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Mr. Bean gave the sites for the two memorials and paid the cost of the one built by the Geneva Historical Society. He was the owner of property in the Prattsburg Valley, Steuben County, where the Indian Oak Tablet, the Sarah Bernhardt Memorial and The Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Gateway are located.
Mr. Bean was active for years in business and fraternal circles but, of late, had relinquished these connections. In 1893 he was elected to the office of junior warden of Ark Loge No. 33, F. & A.M., and was re-elected to that office in the following year. He was also elected master of Ark Lodge in 1895, and returned to that office in 1896. He was a member of Geneva Chapter, No. 36, R.A.M., and Geneva Commandery, No. 29, Knights Templar. Mr. Bean was unmarried.