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CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Bybee Untrivia

These sections were originally entitled, "Trivia," but trivia sounds so--well--trivial. So, not having found an antonym for this word, and not having come up with anything better, I will use "Untrivia," until a better title shows up. I made this change because what is small and insignificant to one reader may not be so to another. Herein possibly lies the repository of more facts, figures and myths about the Bybees than will be found in any one single place.

Those of you who are mining the nation's archives for genealogical material may strike something in these chapters that will open up to you a whole new branch of the family, or give you other information that you did not have. Then again, maybe not.

It took me a number of years to gather all this and I sincerely hope that the odds and ends collected will be of help to someone who is struggling up the family tree. They are, for the most part, not in any particular order of importance. So, begin mining; the ore you strike may be, for you, the "mother lode."

If an occasional mention of my hometown creeps in, please understand.

The family name, Bybee, has undergone considerable evolution. When our ancestors arrived on this continent, the first spelling of the name was most probably Biby, Bib or perhaps Barbee. Due to census takers and other public officials who many times recorded names phonetically and were not very careful, the name has a number of spellings. This, plus the fact that many persons in those days could not sign their own names, has caused Bib to change to Bibb, Bibby, Bibbey, Biby, Byby, Beebe, Bebe, Bibbee, Bigbee and probably other variations, including Bybee. Many of the Bybee documents I have uncovered have been signed with an "X."

Around Novinger, Missouri, where some of my closer relatives grew up and some are still living, both Bybee and Beebe have been in use. There was a school teacher from Novinger who came to Moulton several years ago with the name Beebe. My sister, Hope Sellers, seemed to think he was one of the descendants of the Bybees who settled in that area.

I have been addressed as everything from Mr. Baby to even worse. It used to bother me, but after I found out how much the name has changed, I figured they just might be pronouncing it right.

There is a Bibb County in Georgia named after a statesman, I believe, who was probably from the family.

(See also the Chapter 12, entitled: A Tale of Three Cities, regarding Thomas Bibee, early pioneer of Bybee, TN.)

The following item was sent to me by my sister-in-law, Elizabeth Powell Bybee. It is from a Moulton Tribune of unknown date: Fire broke out in the Bybee Millinery last night. The goods were mostly ruined by the blaze and water from the fire company's hose. Small insurance.

And that was it in 1904!

(From the time our family moved to Moulton in 1922 there was no Bybee Millinery in town. From the closing sentence, I take it that this was a Tribune column reprinting events of 1904. Many related Bybees were in and around Davis and Appanoose counties (Iowa) in former days, so it could have been one of them.

(As for the "Small insurance," it probably meant that there was inadequate coverage, rather than that there was a Small Insurance Co.)

Many Bybees probably do not know that we have a very prominent star in the family, a star of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, no less! Her name is Ariel Bybee, and she is related to my line of the family in that her great-great-great-great grandfather, John Bybee III, son of John Bybee, Jr., was a brother of Neal McCann Bybee Sr., my great-great grandfather. All lived in Barren County, Kentucky at one time or another.

Ariel Bybee has had major roles in a number of Met productions which have been shown on television and broadcast on radio. She also makes recordings. She has played the role of Alisa in a production of "Lucia di Lammermoor," among other roles.

I wrote to Ariel while I was working on this book to get information about her family. She very graciously replied, and included a printout of her family tree and a handwritten note. It concluded, "Good luck with your work!"

I appreciate very much the fact that she took time out of her busy schedule to help me out. Thanks, Cousin!

I have come across at least two "Bybee Coats of Arms" while doing family research. There is a similarity between the two. Whether this is due to the fact that there ever was such a thing, or whether one plagiarized the other I do not know. It is my understanding that Coats-of-Arms were issued to individuals, not to families. If such is the case there are many of these hanging on walls which probably should not be there.

The first I came across was in a copy of a newspaper article. Typed in, above the article, was: This is from the Boston Paper, Boston Mass. This, by itself, is not much help since it does not give a date or the name of the paper, and I am sure there was more than one newspaper in Boston at the time. However, for what it is worth:

The Bybee family embraces those who spell the name as Beebe, Beebee and Beeby. The name is of Norman origin. Richard and William de Beebe were knights in the Royal Guard of William the Conqueror. The family was represented early in New England and Kentucky.

One of the largest family units was that of John, grandfather of Alexander of Great Addington, England, who was born in Broughton, Northampton, England in 1600. He came to New London, Connecticut in 1650, and brought with him five sons and two daughters who had many descendants. James Bybee is on record in Hadley as having married there in 1668.

Another James was a resident of Stratford, Conn., in 1679. He moved to Norwalk and then to Danbury, Conn.

General Lewis C. Beebe, U.S.A., was a Japanese prisoner of war in the Philippines for over three years in World War II. He is now (at the time this article was written) Chief of Staff, 4th Army, U.S.A., at San Antonio. Lucius M. Beebe, born in Wakefield, is a New York newspaperman. Minnie Mason Beebe is a professor of history, emeritus, Syracuse University; Raymond N. Beebe, a prominent Washington lawyer; William Beebe, a noted scientist and author of New York City, and General Royden E. Beebe, Vermont-born, is now retired from the U.S. Army. He has sons, General Royden E. Beebe, Jr., U. S. A., and Lieutenant Robert P. Beebe, U. S. A.

(The article shows a coat-of-arms with a knight's head at the top, three eagles across the center, and the name BYBEE emblazoned across the bottom. Evidently the writer of the article could not find anyone who spelled their name Bybee that he could mention!)

The second coat of arms, supposedly relating to the Bybee family, was in an advertisement I received in the mail. The illiustration in the ad also showed a knight's head at the top. The configuration around the shield was somewhat fancier than the first. A single rose had replaced the three eagles in the center. Again, the name Bybee was across the bottom of the shield.

Because of the wording in the literature that came with the ad, I would accept the first example as the more authentic one. Many of these are turned out by "genealogy mills," catering not only the Bybees, but also to other families who are interested. You can purchase not only the coat of arms, itself, but T-shirts, sweat shirts and coffee mugs with the insignia on them.

Whether any of them are authentic, we will probably never know. If you feel like investing a few dollars in one as a conversation piece, they are probably worth the price.

While we were growing up, we always "knew" that there was Indian blood in the family. No details were ever given, but it was taken for granted. My father, Pearl, had very high cheekbones, which I understand is an Indian trait. Whether our branch of the family had such blood, we never really knew. The idea may have come from the fact that there was an Indian princess from the Powhatan Tribe who married an early Bybee.

John Bybee, Sr., had a son Thomas, born about 1732 in Goochland County, VA, who married Wahanee (or Wahonee) of the Powhatan tribe. Unlike her more famous relative, Pocahontas, details regarding Wahanee are sparse.

Pocahontas also was a daughter of a Powhatan chief and gained fame by saving the life of Captain John Smith (more than once, according to some records.) In 1614 at the age of 18, she married another early English colonist, John Rolfe, a planter and early tobacco farmer. She evidently had the approval of both her father and the Governor of Virginia. The marriage resulted in several years of peace between the tribes and colonists.

In 1616 she accompanied Rolfe to England where she was entertained royally by the King and Queen. She died there shortly before her planned return to her homeland.

Wahanee must have died at an early age also, since Thomas is known to have remarried someone named Judith. Thomas had the honor of having a Tennessee town carry his name. Perhaps this is Wahanee's claim to fame.

Thomas died in 1834, having been listed as being 100 years of age two years earlier. (See Chapter 12, "A Tale of Three Cities.")

Back to Chapter 12

On to Chapter 14