Eliza Jane Byrd

Bush, snap bean. This bean shows some variability in pods characteristics as well as climbing tendency of plants. Pods are generally 3-4" long, with some up to 5". Beans are crunchy, moderately juicy, fairly stringy when larger, slightly astringent, and slightly sweet. Plants grow up to 15" tall with a few weakly climbing plants. Yellow mature pods. Leathery podded dry pods. 5-8 seeds per pod. White seeds, variable in size from small to medium. Highly productive. In 1870, Eliza Jane Byrd and her young children (aged about 3-10 years old) traveled by covered wagon from Abingdon, Virginia to Solo, Missouri to join Eliza’s husband, William. A year or two before, William Byrd had walked to Missouri via the Cumberland Gap to homestead in Texas County, MO. Eliza Jane carried a number of garden seeds with them on the journey, including these bean seeds. Their son, John Byrd and his wife Alta, continued to grow the beans and passed them down to their own children. In 1987, Eliza and William’s great-grandson, Dan Ramsey, shared this family heirloom bean with SSE because he was concerned that he might not be able to garden in the future, “but would like to keep the seeds going.” SSE Accession # 102547