Wellesley Township Heritage & Historical Society
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Rushes Cemetery -  Bean Cryptogram Tombstone

​Samuel G. Bean was the grandson of two of the earliest Mennonite settlers in what became Waterloo Region, John and Barbara Biehn. By the time Samuel was born the spelling of the family name had changed to Bean.
 
Samuel became a teacher, then moved to Pennsylvania where he purchased a medical degree and marred a wife, Henrietta Furry. The couple lived in Linwood where Samuel was the village’s first doctor.   Henrietta died at age 23 on September 27, 1865. Samuel then married Susanna Clegg who died ten months later, on April 27, 1867, after giving birth to a daughter.  
 
To honour his wives he composed a coded puzzle and had it engraved on their double gravestone. The original marble stone weathered considerably so in 1982 a granite replica with more easily readable lettering was manufactured and donated by Superior Memorials of Kitchener.
 
Around 1870, Samuel again changed professions and became a preacher and moved to Florida with his third wife, Anna Wankmiller. They both died in 1904. The first known decodings of Samuel Bean’s brainteaser occurred in the late 1940s. Read the articles here to read more about the tombstone puzzle
For more information about the tombstone, please click here to access articles from local newspapers. 
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