Not much is known about Roy Bean's childhood and not even his actual birth date is known. His real first name is Phantly. When about 15 years old, Bean left Kentucky to follow two older
brothers west. With brother Sam he set up a trading post in Chihuahua, Mexico. In 1849 he went to live with brother Joshua, mayor of San Diego. While there he strutted about town in a sombrero, embroidered pants, and with two guns and a Bowie knife in his belt. He soon had a reputation for romancing the local women, bragging, dueling, and gambling on cockfights.
Joshua made Roy a lieutenant in the state militia and bartender of his saloon Headquarters to try to calm Roy down. It worked for awhile, but in 1852, Roy wounded a man in a duel. He was
arrested, but he broke out of jail. A few months later, Roy went back to New Mexico where Sam had become a sheriff.
He tended bar for several years not getting into any trouble. When the civil war broke out he began running the Union blockade, bringing goods from the Mexican border into Texas. After the war, he was about 40, when he married a Mexican teenager and settled in San Antonio with her and their four children. He peddled firewood cut without permission on another man's land. He sold watered down milk. He participated in other dishonest schemes. Soon his neighborhood
was called Beanville, and the title was not meant to be flattering.
In 1882, crews started building the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railroad to link San Antonio and El Paso. Temperatures were over 100. Water was scarce. Bean served them whiskey from a tent. There were all kinds of roughnecks, gamblers, robbers, and pickpockets hanging around, so Texas rangers could pick up various suspects. But the nearest courtroom was a week's ride away. Some sort of law was needed. So Bean decided he'd be the one. He had only three month's formal education in his entire life. On August 2, 1882, Pecos County Commissioners appointed Bean as Justice of the Peace for Pecos County, Texas.
He moved north to a small settlement. Langtry was just a tent city with a few dance halls and saloons. A beautiful actress also had the same name, and soon Roy claimed to have known her
and named the town after her. He built a small saloon and named it after her, the Jersey Lilly. Above the door he posted signs that said ICE COLD BEER and LAW WEST OF THE PECOS.
