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| The Original Stone |
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| The original marble stone is still there although it is difficult to read; a duplicate stone was erected beside it in 1982. |
Three kilometres north of Wellesley, Ontario, nestled among lush green hills and farmlands, lies Rushes Pioneer Cemetery. In the far back corner of the communal resting place is a mysterious encoded epitaph that stumped people for a century. This is Ontario’s cryptic gravestone. Finally, in 1947, the cemetery’s caretaker cracked the code that Reverend Doctor Samuel Bean wrote to commemorate two of his three wives. (Yes, one headstone shared by two wives.)
In order to understand why Ontario has a cryptic gravestone, we need to become familiar with the peculiar man who created it. Born in 1838 in Wilmot Township to Abraham and Susannah Bean, Samuel was their fifth son. Throughout his life, he experimented with many professions. Early in his career he taught for several years. Next, he became a medical doctor and practiced for a short time in Linwood, Ontario. The last and longest leg of his working journey was as an Evangelist minister in the US. Historical reports estimate that he read the bible an astonishing 65 times. Talk about dedication. Surprisingly, Samuel Bean is not known for his many professions. Instead, it is the famous “Bean marker”, a cryptogram he created on a double epitaph for his deceased wives, that cemented himself a place in local history books.
Samuel married his first wife, Henrietta Furry from Philadelphia, in 1865 at the age of 27. Unfortunately she passed away 7 months later, leaving him a widower. Shortly thereafter, Bean married his second wife, a local from Wellesley named Susanna Clegg. She also passed away, but this time with a daughter left behind, Susanna. It was then, while working as a doctor in Linwood, that he created what is arguably Ontario’s most creative cryptic gravestone. And shared by 2 wives, no less! He ended up marrying again in 1870 while living in the United States. With his third wife, Annie M. Wankmiller, they had 5 children (Salem, Caroline, Mace, Jesse, and Ivan).
Samuel Bean was a man on the move. Born in Wilmot, Township in Ontario, Canada, he completed his medical training in Philadelphia, at a college that purportedly distributed fradulent diplomas. Later in life he lived in New York, Iowa, and Florida (where he dabbled in fruit farming) before his tragic death. Unfortunately, he perished at sea after the boat in which he was returning to Florida capsized off the coast of Cuba in 1904. His body was never recovered.
Rushes Pioneer Cemetery is a serene, peaceful graveyard started by Methodists in the area. The earliest stone dates back to 1848 and the newest in the 2000s. The well-known encoded grave marker is decorated simply, and yet the 225 alphanumeric code is quite complex. Natural foliage and erosion from people making rubbings rendered the stone difficult to read. Lucky for us, local historical societies created a duplicate headstone in 1982 so that future visitors, code-crackers, historians, and linguists may puzzle and ponder over it.
From https://www.travelwithtmc.com/ontarios-cryptic-gravestone/
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