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It's not easy being a Beeson — but it's never dull, either. As a gathering of 23 Beeson relatives learned this week in Talent, people descended from the three Beeson brothers who came to America from England in 1830 like to swim against the current, stick up for the disadvantaged and dabble in out-of-the-mainstream spirituality. Well-known here is the storied life of wagon trail pioneer John Beeson, who got run out of the Rogue Valley for sticking up for the Indians. He felt American Indians got the short end of the stick from white settlers in the Rogue Indian Wars of the mid-1850s. However, few know that the John Beeson line comes down from William Beeson, one of the three Beeson brothers who sailed to America 177 years ago to join the Quakers in Pennsylvania. Another brother, Jacob Beeson, was the progenitor of all the Beesons who this week gathered at the historic farm built on Wagner Creek Road by Welborn Beeson, son of John Beeson, in the mid-1800s. They'd never heard much, if anything, about their distant cousin John Beeson — and when Jan Wright, executive director of the Talent Historical Society, read them that history, especially the part about working for social justice, it clearly rang a bell. "My grandfather, Alexander Conn Beeson, ran a mine in West Virginia and hired blacks to work there. He had crosses burned on his lawn," says Deedie Runkel, owner of Anne Hathaway's Bed and Breakfast in Ashland and organizer of the reunion. "My father was an early environmentalist and in the fifties, ran for township commissioner near Philadelphia, campaigning in hip boots to dramatize how the streams needed to be cleaned up. He won," says Runkel, who for years has volunteered at soup kitchens and worked for the Peace Corps. In Washington, D.C., she started Peace Link to help prevent nuclear war. She knew nothing of her Beeson cousins when she moved here five years ago. But she soon learned, as Wright related on the Beeson back porch in Talent, that John Beeson had written "A Plea for the Indians" in 1857, been menaced and had his mail opened by locals, who called an "Indignation Meeting" to confront him for pro-Indian activities. For his own safety he decided to leave the valley. Back East, John Beeson worked on the problem of prejudice and genocide against Indians, testifying before Congress, getting to know President Abraham Lincoln and his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, who was an ardent spiritualist like Beeson, according to Wright's history lesson. Beeson returned here after nine years, but, according to the half-century-long diary of son Welborn, the father was "consumed by his mission, not happy here, didn't get enough respect and was laughed at and scorned" for his unusual beliefs and habits, including attending séances, feeling he was guided by Indian spirits, mistrusting organized medicine and being a self-taught doctor, says Wright. Jacob Beeson descendants this week told eerily similar stories. Betsy Beeson Towle of Newton, N.J., is head of a 10-year plan to end homelessness in her county. When abortion was illegal in Massachusetts in the 1960s, Harriet Beeson Luxner of Dorset, Vt., would help women come to New York with their doctor and get a safe abortion, she said, noting she was also very active in opposing the Vietnam War. "I've always been a contrarian," she said. "My mother and her sisters were shot at when they walked to school in the 1920s (because of the hiring of black people for coal mining), but my father kept on doing it, saying they were the best people for the job. He went on to become commissioner of mines for West Virginia." Her son is in Indonesia working for the U.S. Agency for International Development, helping developing countries strengthen health care, education and environmental practices, Luxner said. Alexandra Beeson Taylor of Hailey, Idaho, facilitates "Council Circles" in the American Indian tradition, helping people learn "to listen to others, honor each other and speak from the heart," she said. Alexander Beeson of Bucksport, Maine, calls himself a "naturalist" who beat cancer with a belief in the sanctity and wisdom of nature, he said. "That's strange," said Amanda Beeson McConnell of Newton, N.J. "Just before coming here, I met with a group of people working on finding your own spirit guide — and I work with the Course in Miracles." Living in the shadow of his activist father, Welborn Beeson often considered himself a failure, a simple farmer who lost his farm to the lenders and died, leaving eight children behind. However, said Wright, his diaries, containing a detailed account of pioneer days and the bulk of Talent history, were all saved by a daughter, Anna Beeson, then donated to the University of Oregon. With the work of Wright, volunteers and a grant from the Oregon Heritage Commission in 2005, she said, those diaries have been released, microfilmed and are now available to local researchers. John Darling is a freelance writer living in Ashland. E-mail him at [email protected].