The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-08-20
Niece Thought DIR. Beams Body
Had Been Recovered.
Sister Received From Geneva
Picture of Burial Place.
DIARY WAS WITH 1T
Peculiarities OF Incident Now
Considered as Strange.
Deb0uch OF Glacier Expected to
Clear Alpine Tragedy.

Mrs. c. V. Prather, 315 Polk street,
Topeka, is one of the most concerned
in the recovery of the body of her I'M
Gle, DR.. James B. Bean. formerly of
Kansas and Baltimore, whose life was
lost in a great storm on Mount Blanc,
Switzerland. 40 years ago. Surprise was
brought to Mrs. Prather on Thursday
when she read a dispatch in the State
Journal that efforts were being made
to recover the bodies of the three climb
ers and eight guides. She had been
led to believe that DR.. Beams body
had been recovered shortly following
the death and had been buried.
When the Blossoms glacier, which
once in every 40 years gives up it's
dead, debcucnes at Chamounix, Swtz-
erland, shortly the bodies are expected
to be released and dropped into the sea.
A party of relatives of Rev. George
McCorkindale of Scotland, and John C.
Randall of Quincy, Mass, have gone to
the borders of France and Switzerland
to watch for the delivery of the bodies
from the icy tomb.
The only known relatives of DR.. Bean.
according to Mrs. Prather, are herself
her mother, Mrs. A. P. Withers of STAN
ton. Neb.. and Henry H. Gever of Of
tawa' Kan, cousin.
Picture of His Grave.
This is al a mystery" said Mrs.
Prather. Mother received from &C.
neva a picture Of the grave of my IN
Gle about a month after he was re-
ported lost. 1t had first been sent to
MIS- Dr. Bean and she sent it to moth
er. remember now that the picture
showed a beautiful well sodded spot
with lowered border. Now, that strikes
me as peculiar. How could his grave
been so we'll erased and cared for so
soon! But there was a letter with
the picture In 1T was DR.. Beams diary.
In that last writing he said ne had
round little cross and added: This is
Tor you. Bessie This cross had been
found on the body, the Geneva letter
read, and had been taken to mean that
my uncle was a Catholic The picture
of the grave showed a cross erected
On it and the letter asked whether or
not that was right. My mother said
she wrote and told them that he was
not Catholic but Baptist
And that diary of his told about
them digging a place in the snow for
protection and that as he wrote he
was sick and hardly could move his
myers The writing was scarcely
readable, too. How do you suppose
they ever got that diary and that little
cross if they did not find my uncIe's
body? 1 do not believe that picture
was of my uncles grave but think it
was just sent to keep us from worry
ing about the disposal of the body.
Still it all is mystery to me.
Was a Handsome Man.
81 was only a little girl when DR..
Bean went to Europe for scientific re-
search. He came to our home at Dali
las, N. c., and 1 can remember him as
a tall handsome man with curly hair
black as a raven. He had finished
both medical and a dental course in
Baltimore, but had chosen dentistry
for practice and had moved to Jones'
boro, Tenn. We lived between Spen-
GERS and Kings mountains and I re-
member him running to the mountains
to see an eclipse of the sun There
was total eclipse when he was there.
The negroes were frantic and praying
and the chickens and turkeys were
wild and squawking to get to a roost
My uncle hurried to the top of Kings
mountain to watch the eclipse, and 1
remember that he was very much in
terested in that sort of phenomenon.
He had great boxes of bugs and pecu-
liar rocks and l guess was interested
in anything scientific.
There was a lot written about DR.,
Bean in the State Journal 20 years
ago. That was 5 years after he was
lost, but 1 do not know whether they