Message: Just a note, I am a descendant of the George Emerson Bean that you speak of as being the first resident of Anna Maria Island. I was born in Tampa and now reside in Lugoff, SC. All my family lived in Tampa. My cousin has done the reasearch and past it to the family. Nice to know that someone in our past did something famous. Although I am now 53 years old, I can remember as a child, 5 or 6 years old, getting on a train at Union Station in Tampa and riding from there to Anna Maria to visit for the day. My Mother, Father, sister and I rode down for the day to walk around and enjoy the sites. My dad, all his brothers and his dad all worked for the railroad. They all started working for the railroad in Tampa when it was the Seaboard Airline RR. My grandfather on my mothers side worked for the Atlantic Coast Line so it always made for some interesting conversation when the family got together. It was a very exciting day for my sister and I to ride the train and visit the island. I can only remember the ride and nothing about the island. As a boy child I was permitted to ride the train many times with my grandfather, discovering all the cars from the engine to the caboose. Something I can only pass on to my children and grandchildren as stories. I am sure the Anna Maria Island is nothing like it was when I visited in the mid 50's.