BEIRNE FAMILY
 
 

Andrew Beirne was the second son of Patrick and Mary Plunkett O'Beirne of County Roscommon, Ireland. Andrew was educated at Trinity College in Dublin and emigrated to Philadelphia in 1793. He became a trader throughout the eastern part of the country and made his way to Monroe County and stopped by the home of a fellow emigrant Edward Keenan. Andrew married Ellen Keenan and opened several stores in Union, West Virginia, Alabama and New Orleans. Of his ten children who lived were Christopher, Edward, and George,Mary D. (Biele Steenberger) Susan (Charles H. Patton), Nancy (William McFarland), Oliver (1811-1888)(married Margaret Caperton), Ellen (??? Turner), George T (Eliza Gray) and Andrew (Mary Alexander and Ellen Gray). Click here for the Andrew Beirne will.
 
 
 

Oliver Beirne, son of Andrew, married Margaret Melinda Caperton, daughter of Hugh and Jane Erskine Caperton, in 1831. Oliver and Melinda lived at Walnut Grove but moved to Sweet Springs during the Civil War. Children of Oliver and Margaret were: John, Jane Erskine, Andrew and Alice (all died in youth), Elizabeth (1835-1874) married William Porcher Miles, Susan (1840-1871) married Henry Robinson, Nance (1841-1894) married Samuel Breck Parkman. According to his obitualry, he died on a business trip in 1888 in New Orleans. He is buried in the cemetery at Union.

George Beirne (1780-1832), brother of Andrew, arrived in the U.S. in 1800 and went into business with his brother in the firm of A. and G. Beirne in Union. George married Polly Johnson in 1805. His children were Andrew Plunkett, Jackson, Christopher, George, Susan and Mary R. Andrew Plunkett married Frances Evelyn Smith, Jackson, a surgeon in the Confederate army settled in St. Louis. George who died at an early age, married Deliah Alexander in 1827. Christopher, a bachelor and the owner for a while of an estate south of Union, moved to St. Louis. Susan married ???Manilius and Mary R. married Augustus A. Chapman.
 
 

Andrew Plunkett Beirne, Sr married Frances Evelyn Smith(b. 1819) in 1839. She was the daughter of Judge Daniel Smith and Frances Strother Duff of Rockingham Co. Virginia. Andrew was the ninth child of Andrew and Ellen Keenan and brother of Oliver Beirne. Their son, Andrew Plunkett Beirne, Jr. (d. 1916) married Bettie Caperton, daughter of Lewis Erskine Caperton (1808-1874) and Frances C. Alexander (1815-1891).

Andrew and his wife Bettie lived at Sweet Springs and raised five children there. Bettie died 10 days after the birth of their sixth child in 1880. Their children were: Lewis Caperton, Bettie, Mary Plunkett, Andrew Plunkett, Fannie, and Alice Beulah (1880-1956) who was raised by her Caperton relatives at Elmwood. Alice Beulah Beirne married Oren E. Burns in 1901 and lived in Huntington, West Virginia, raising 8 children.