John Thomas Beard

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The parents of John Thomas Beard

John Thomas Beard was born in the Valley of Virginia about the year 1775.  He was already a grown young man when his parents moved to Kentucky about 1800, and he was the John Beard mentioned in the 1802 record "Peter Buckingham is aptd Captain of the patrollers and John Beard, son of Samuel and John Beard, son of Hugh be made assistants." He married and had children born between 1811 and 1814, but then we think that his first wife died and he married again.  His second wife was named Jemima, but we unfortunately do not know her maiden name yet. She was born about 1797 in Kentucky and she was much younger than John, too young to have been the mother of his first few children.  In 1810, he seems to be the John Beard listed on the Adair County census on page three; his father was listed on page two.  He was aged 26-45, wife was the same, he had a male child under ten and two females under ten and two females 10-16. We do not know the names of any of these possible children, as the first son we list was born in 1811.  In 1820, there are two John Beards listed in Adair County.

The rolling Kentucky land where John Thomas Beard and his descendants lived and farmed. This land is still in the Beard family.

 The one most likely to be  John Thomas, son of Hugh, was listed aged 26-45 (as was the other John, as well), a possible wife listed 16-26, which would fit Jemima, two males under ten which fits Reason and Hugh, one female under ten, which fits Margaret. We believe that John has remarried and perhaps had three young children when he did. In 1830, this John Beard was 40-50, wife was 20-30, one male under ten, two males 5-10, and one female 10-15. In 1840, John was 60-70, Jemima was 50-60, and they were listed next to his brother Charles in Adair County. Their son in law George Stults, married to daughter Margaret, was also listed on this page.  In 1850 in Adair County, John was 76, Jemima was 53, and their granddaughter Jemima Stults lived with them at age twelve.  They were still listed next to Charles Beard, John's brother.  John died before the next census in 1860, no doubt in Adair County, and he was buried at the Beard Family Cemetery in Portland, Adair County, Kentucky. We do not know when Jemima died, but she is not listed in the 1860 census of Adair County. We have records of only four of the children of John Thomas Beard, and it is not clear who their mothers were.

1. Reason H. Beard, possibly Reason Hugh Beard, was born about 1811. On both the 1850 and the 1860 censuses, he reported that he was born in the state of Ohio, which is certainly unusual for our line of Beards.  It is possible that his mother (of whom we do not know the name) was from Ohio.  It is possible that his father John was with troops in Ohio during the War of 1812, or that he lived there for a time and then came back to Kentucky, but we just do not know.  Reason married Mary Patrum on 12 October 1834 in Green County, Kentucky. She was born about 1817 in Green County, the daughter of William Thomas Patrum and Susannah Brewer. In 1840, Reason H. Beard was listed as head of household on the Adair County, Kentucky census.  In 1850, he and Mary were enumerated in Green County with four daughters.  In 1860, the family was in Green County and two sons had joined the list of children.  Reason died on 28 July 1864 in Green County.  We do not know where his burial place is.  Mary Patrum Beard appeared as a widow on the 1870 Green County census.  She had two sons at home with her, and they lived next door to Richard and America Beard; this was John Richard Beard, the eldest son of Reason's brother Charles. Mary died on 12 October 1872 or 3 in Green County, Kentucky.  No burial place is known. Their children, as proven by census records, were:

2. Marcella Beard was born in Adair County, Kentucky on 24 October 1836.  She married Alexander Winston "Wince" Rodgers/Rogers on 20 December 1855 in Green County, Kentucky.  He was the son of James and Mary Elizabeth Caldwell Rodgers and he was born in Green County in 1836.  In 1860, Marcella and Alexander Rodgers were listed with two young children in Green County; their children were listed as born in Adair County.  In 1870 they were still in Green County.  Marcella Beard Rodgers died on 3 September 1876 and was buried at the Coffey Cemetery in Green County.  Alexander remarried on 8 November 1877 in Green County to Susan A. "Susie" Bagby, the daughter of John Burton and Elenor Wilcox Bagby, and he had three more children.  He died in Green County on 12 December 1891 and was buried at the Coffey Cemetery.

3. Micajah H. Rodgers was born 15 October 1856 in Green County, Kentucky.  He married 18 April 1878 in Green County to Mary Lula Buckner, the daughter of Charles Milton and Narcissa Blakeman Buckner.  She was born about 1863 in Kentucky.  The 1880 census shows "Mike" and Mary L. Rodgers living at Goalders, Green County, with a baby son, nine months.  Micajah died young, at age thirty, on 27 October 1886. His grave is found at the Coffey Cemetery in Green County.  We do not find census records for his widow Lula Rodgers until she appears with her son William M. Rodgers in 1930 on the Keltner, Adair County, Kentucky listing.  We do not have a death date for her nor a burial place.  They had one known child, their son William M. Rodgers.

3. Mary Olive Rodgers (some say Narcissa Mary Olive) was born 18 November 1860 in Green County, Kentucky.  She married in 1879 to Robert R. Wade, the son of Archelaus C. and Nancy Jane Mercer Wade.  Robert was born in Adair County, Kentucky on 14 January 1858.  In 1880, Robert and Mary Wade lived at Grove, Green County, with an eleven month old daughter, Nannie, and his mother, also named Nannie, lived in the home.  In 1900, Robert and Mary had increased their family to eight living children and they lived at Exie in Green County.  Robert passed away on 12 September 1904.

In 1910 in Gresham, Green County, Mary O. Wade was a widow with eight of eleven children still living, farming, with five children in the home.  In 1920 in same, she was sixty and only her son William was still at home at age 22.  In 1930, Mary Olive Wade lived with her married son William in Gresham, Green County.  She died on 30 October 1938; she lived in Campbellsville, Taylor County, Kentucky.  Mary was buried at the Coffey Cemetery in Green County. Known children were Nancy Marcella "Nannie" who married Clem Beard, Archie Winston, Alice W., Mary S., James H., Beatrice, Hettie A., and William A. Wade, in addition to three infants who did not live, two of whom are buried at the Coffey Cemetery.

2. Mary Jane Beard was born on 7 August 1838 in Green County, Kentucky.  She married on 2 April 1857 in Adair County to her distant cousin, John Heston or Houston Beard.  John was born on 21 August 1833 in Bedford County, Tennessee; he was the son of David J. and Mary Fuller Beard.  John's grandparents were Samuel and Rebecca Beard, and Mary Jane's great grandparents were Samuel's brother Hugh and Esther Beard. We do have a small mystery on the 1860 Adair County census, as John H. Beard is listed in his father's household as a 26 year old blacksmith, but no wife is listed with him, nor is his daughter Minerva (born 1858).  It is possible that they were just left off during the enumeration.  Ib 8 October 1861, John, his brother, and father David all joined the Union forces together and were members of the Third Kentucky Infantry. Much later, on 20 August 1879, he was court martialed for being absent without leave from 8 October 1862 until 27 April 1863.  He was found guilty and sentenced to forfeiture of pay for ten months. In 1870 John and Mary were enumerated in Adair County with four children. In 1880 they were residents of Cane Valley in Adair County, and John still made a living as a blacksmith.  They had three teenage children still at home, and their married daughter Minerva Cave lived next door.  John was listed on the 1890 Veterans Schedule as living in Cane Valley and having served as a private rom 19 September 1861 until 13 October 1864.  On the 1900 census, John and Mary lived in Adair County next to their married son James Beard. Mary Jane Beard died on 7 February 1907 in Adair County.  She was buried at the Mount Carmel Cemetery in Cane Valley, Adair County. From her obituary:  "Mrs. Mary J Beard of the Cane Valley country, died last Sunday of pneumonia.  She was wife of Mr. John Beard and a sister of James P. Beard of this city."  It also stated that she was about fifty and a lady of the highest character. In 1910, John H. Beard was a 76 year old widower who lived in the home of his married son James.  John died on 17 April 1914 in Adair County, at home in Cane Valley, at the age of eighty.  His obituary stated that his funeral was largely attended.  He was laid to rest at the Mount Carmel Cemetery beside Mary Jane.

3. Minerva Rebecca Beard was born on 23 October 1858 in Green County, Kentucky.  She married in Adair County on 12 December 1875 to Melvin Cave, the son of Benjamin Bennett and Josephine Joanna Pike Cave.  He was born in January 1856 in Adair County.  In 1880, Melvin and Minerva Cave are found in Cane Valley, Adair County, living next door to her parents. They had a daughter born in June, 1882 and no more children.  By 1900, they still lived in the same place, next door to her parents and her brother James, and Melvin was a blacksmith.  No children were in the home.  By 1910, their daughter Vinnie, who married Ambrose Dulworth, had died and their granddaughter Julia Dulworth lived with them in Cane Valley. Minerva died on 17 February 1917 in Adair County; she was buried at the Cane Valley Cemetery there. In 1920, Julia Dulworth was still with her widowed grandfather, Melvin Cave, living at Cane Valley.  Melvin died on 4 December 1942 and was buried with Minerva at Cane Valley.  Their only child was Vinnie E. Cave who married Ambrose Dulworth.

3. James Bramlett Beard was born in either Green or Adair County, Kentucky on 5 June 1861. He was listed at age nineteen in his parents' home on the 1880 census, and between then and 1891, he was married to an unknown bride; on the 1910 census he was reported as married twice.  In 1892, he married Ann Elizabeth Hardin, the daughter of George Alfred and Nancy Frances Monroe Hardin.  She was born on 9 February 1868 in Adair County.  The 1900 census showed James and Ann as the parents of four children.  Next door was the home of his parents, and his married sister Minerva also lived next to them. In 1910, they lived at Cane Valley in Adair County and his father John H. Beard lived with them as a widower.  By 1920, James and Ann had moved to mcKinney, Collin County, Texas and were listed there with three children at home. In 1930 at same, their two children Jack and Annie lived in the home.  James died on 19 August 1933 in Collin County and was buried at the Pecan Grove Cemetery in McKinney in that county.  Ann Elizabeth Hardin Beard died on 27 February 1937 and is at rest with him there. The names of their four children were Jack Dempsey, William Russell, Annie R. and Fannie Beard.

3. Mary S. "Mollie" Beard was born 5 October 1863 in Adair County, Kentucky.  She married Thomas P. Cave, the son of William D. and Cynthia Pike Cave, before 1890.  They had a daughter born on Christmas Day 1890 in Adair County. Mollie Beard Cave died on 3 November 1898 at the age of 33. She was buried at the Mount Carmel Methodist Church Cemetery in Cane Valley, Adair County, Kentucky.  Thomas P. Cave passed away on 20 November 1899 and is buried there with her.  Their daughter, Mary Alvia Cave, appeared on the 1900 census of Adair County in the home of her paternal grandparents, William D. and Mary E. Cave. She would marry about 1906 to Robert Newbold Tupman of Adair County.

3. David Hyatt Beard was born in Adair County, Kentucky on 20 November 1865. He married about 1896 to Eunice Biggs. We do not know her parents, but she was born in Kentucky on 11 March 1872. On the 1900 census of Cane Valley, Adair County, David was listed as the postmaster and he and Eunice had one child, George.  By 1910, they had divorced, and David H. Beard was listed in Cane Valley by himself.  Eunice had remarried to Jacob Antle Shuler in about 1910, and they are listed together on the 1910 Adair County census in Cane Valley with her son George D. Beard in the home at age thirteen.  In 1920 David Beard was listed next door to his married son George and family in Cane Valley.  By the time of his death on 5 May 1936, David Beard had remarried; the bride was Mattie Jones, the daughter of William H. and Rebecca Ware Jones of Adair County. David Beard is buried at the Mount Carmel Cemetery in Cane Valley, as is Mattie Jones Beard, and Eunice Biggs Beard Shuler is buried at the Cane Valley Cemetery in Adair County with a death date of 16 August 1930.  The only child of David Hyatt Beard was with Eunice Biggs and his name was George Denny "Jack" Beard.

2. Jenetta Beard was born about 1841 in Green County, Kentucky.  She married there on 5 February 1861 to Aaron Martin, the son of William Terrell and Mariah Chapman Martin.  Aaron's younger sister America J. Martin married John Richard Beard just a year previous.  John Richard was the cousin of Jenetta. We have found a record for an Aaron Martin serving in Co G, 13th Kentucky Infantry (Union) as a private during the Civil War. We have not yet found this family on the 1870 census.  Jenetta's widowed mother, Mary Beard, in 1870 had a child named Martha Martin living in her Green County home, and John Richard and America Martin Beard were living next door.  Could this be a granddaughter, and the daughter of Aaron and Jenetta? According to some Martin research, Aaron Martin was shot and killed by a man named G. A. Edwards on 10 January 1877.  We do not know if this is the case, and we have found no burial place of record for either Aaron or Jenetta.  We should be able to find Aaron in 1870, but it is possible that Jenetta was dead by 1870 when her daughter was living with her grandmother, and Jenetta's mother,  Mary Beard. Nothing further is known about young Martha Martin.

3. Martha Martin was born in 1862 in Kentucky.

2. Susan E. Beard was born 25 January 1843 in Green County, Kentucky.  She married on 21 January 1869 there to John "Jack" Watson.  He was born on 16 March 1827 and was the son of the Reverend Joel T. Watson and wife Mildred "Milly" Pemberton.  Just after their marriage, Susan and John Watson were enumerated in Columbia, Adair County, just the two of them, and he worked as a farmer and a house carpenter.  In 1880 they lived at Cane Valley in Adair County with two young sons.  In 1900, John and Susan, married thirty years, lived at same with their two grown sons and John's brother Creed lived with them.  John Watson died on 28 October 1906 in Adair County and was buried at the Mount Carmel Cemetery in Cane Valley.  In 1910, his widow Susan lived with her married son Joel T. at Cane Valley.  Susan died in Adair County on 12 December 1916.  She is at rest beside her husband at Mount Carmel Cemetery.

3. Joel Thomas Watson was born on 13 February 1875 in Adair County, Kentucky.  He married 27 July 1901 in Adair County to Ida Araminta "Mintie" Edrington, the daughter of William Junius and Myra Susan Sharp Edrington.  She was born on 3 November 1883 in Adair County. In 1910, Joel and Minta lived at Cane Valley, Adair County, married eight years with three children.  Susan E. Watson, his mother, lived with them as a widow.  1920 found them in same, with five children at home, and in 1930 still at same they had five children still at home.  Mintie Edrington Watson died on 13 May 1944 in Adair County and was buried at the Cane Valley Cemetery in same.  Joel Thomas Watson passed away just a few months later, on 1 November 1944 in Adair County, and was buried beside her. Their children were Alvin Thomas, Archie William, Dennis, John, Myra A., Gladys N., and Leon J. Watson.

3. Rezen/Reason Brown Watson was born in Adair County, Kentucky on 7 December 1877.  He was listed in his parents' home in 1900, but we have not found him in 1910. He married in Adair County on 16 October 1912 to Susannah Katheryn Page, the daughter of Jordan and Elisa Annis Watson Page of Adair County.  She was born 1 August 1885 in Adair County.  By the time of the World War I draft registration, they had moved to Dallas, Texas and Rezen was a mechanic for the J. H. Shelton company there.  In 1920 they were listed on the census in Dallas, Dallas County with a three month old boy.  In 1930 they were in the same and had added a daughter to the family.  Rezen Brown "R. B." Watson died on 12 August 1969 and was buried at Pecan Grove Cemetery in McKinney, Collin County, Texas.  The next year, Susie Page Watson passed away on 6 April 1970 in Dallas and was buried beside him. Their two children were Robert Page Watson and Mary Katheryn Watson.

2. Charles Josh Beard was born in Green County, Kentucky on 17 October 1853.  He married about 1874 to Louisa V. Howard.  She was born on 17 October 1853 in Taylor County, Kentucky, the daughter of Joseph/Josephus Howard and Frances Stegars. In 1880, Charles and "Lue" lived with two young sons and a baby daughter, who was not named, in Green County, listed just two homes away from his cousin Reason Butler Beard, son of  Charles Francis Beard.  In 1900 they lived at Exie, Green County, with their two grown sons, Edwin and Clarence.  In 1910, they were at same with son Edward, and the same in 1920. Charles Josh Beard passed away the next year, on 22 August 1921, and was buried at the Coffey Cemetery in Green County.  In 1930, Louisa was in the home of her son Ed in Green County.  She died on Christmas Day, 1938 in Green County and she was buried in Coffey Cemetery with her husband. 

3. Alvin Hiat Beard was born on 11 September 1875 in probably Green County, Kentucky.  He married 22 November 1894 in Kentucky to Hattie Olive Pickett.  She was born on 9 September 1879 in Adair County, Kentucky to William Curtis and Louvenia Moss Pickett.  The young couple had two children in Kentucky, but just before the 1900 census they moved to Mason City, Mason County, Illinois.  In that census they were living in the home of a Risen family, married five years with two children.  Alvin worked as a farmhand.  In 1910 they lived at Sheridan, Logan County, Illinois with five children. Alvin filled out a draft card in Mason County, Illinois and his middle name was given as "Hiat", as it was later on his death records. In 1920, listed in Allens Grove, Mason County, Illinois, Alvin and Hattie were farming and had four children at home.  Alvin's brother Clarence and his family lived next household.  Alvin died on 22 April 1921 and was buried at the Mason City Cemetery in Mason City, Mason County, Illinois.  Hattie Pickett Beard remarried to George Becker, who farmed a neighboring farm, and in 1930 they were enumerated on the census in San Jose, Mason County, Illinois; her youngest Beard child was in the home. She died on 16 Februaray 1932 in San Jose, Mason County, Illinois. Their six children were Mack Dewey, Letha, Harry, William, Robert Walter, and Bernice Beard.

3. Edward Hobson Beard was born on 17 October 1878 in Green County, Kentucky.  He lived with his parents in Green County on all the censuses while they were alive. When he filled out a draft registration for World War I, he worked as a "mail contractor" and his leg was "perished" so he was exempt from service. He never married and he is buried at the Coffey Cemetery in Green County where his parents are, with death date 19 January 1958. His World War I draft registration lists him as Edward. His gravestone is engraved "Edd". 

3. Daughter Beard  An unnamed daughter of two months was listed on the 1880 census. In 1900, Charles and Louisa said that five of their six children were still alive.  They had a son who died in 1899, so it would seem that the daughter lived but we do not know her name.

3. Clarence Booker Beard was born in Greensburg, Green County, Kentucky on 7 June 1887.  He married on 5 January 1908 in Green County to Virginia Anne Landis, who was born on 2 August 1891 in Green County.  In 1910 the young couple lived next to his parents in Green County with one son.  In 1917 on his draft card, Clarence stated that he farmed for his father in Green County and supported a wife and five children.  Shortly thereafter, they moved to Allen Grove, Mason County, Illinois, where they are found in 1920 living next to Clarence's brother Alvin Beard and family. In 1930, Clarence and his 22 year old son Raymond lived in a boarding house in Canton, Fulton County, Illinois and held jobs in the farm implements warehouse there.  We have not found Virginia and the rest of the family, but they were all back together on the 1940 census in Mason City, Mason County, Illinois.  Virginia died on 27 May 1949 and she is buried at the Mason City Cemetery.  Clarence died on 8 September 1972 in Illinois and he is there as well.  Their six children were Raymond, Paul, Dallas Robert, Allene, and a set of twins, Otis W. and Olan Beard.

3. James R. Beard was born on 12 July 1885 in Kentucky.  He died at the age of thirteen in Green County on New Year's Day of 1899 and is buried with family at the Coffey Cemetery in Green County. 

2. James Perry Beard was born on 9 August 1857 in Green County, Kentucky.  Where was he on the 1880 and the 1900 censuses?  He was a banker in Adair County through the later years of his life, at least. On 29 December 1903 at age 46,  he married in same to Anna Lewis Gupton, the daughter of John Phenton and Ermine Elizabeth Spillman Gupton of Green County.  Anna was born on 14 February 1870 in Green County.  In 1910 they had a small son and lived in Adair County, Kentucky, as they did in 1920.  In 1930, their grown son John was at home with them in Adair County.  James died on 21 December 1944 in Columbia, Adair County, and was buried at the Columbia Cemetery there.  Anna died on 15 May 1957 in Adair County and is buried with James at Columbia.

3. John Howard Beard was born in Adair County, Kentucky on 12 February 1905. He married Katie Arvin on 30 March 1925 in Adair County, the daughter of Ambrose Jesse and Edna Earle Netherland Arvin.  Katie was born about 1906, according to some reports.  We do not know a death date for her, but on the 1930 census in Adair County, John H. Beard was listed as a widower, living in the home of his parents.  They had a child born 17 February 1926 in Taylor County, Kentucky, and the mother's name is reported on records as Kate Arvin.  This child, Louisa Belle Beard,  died at birth and is buried at the Columbia Cemetery, Adair County, Kentucky. John Howard Beard remarried before the 1940 census, on which he appeared in Adair County with a wife, Dorothy Bailey, and a baby girl.  John and Dorothy eventually had at least six children, named Rebecca Ann, Sarah, James Bolin, Alice Caroline "Carrie", Bobby, and Peggy Beard. John Howard Beard died on 20 July 1958 in Adair County and was buried at the Columbia Cemetery in that county.

1. Charles Francis Beard was born in 1813 in Adair County, Kentucky.  He married on 24 July 1838 in Green County, Kentucky to Elizabeth "Betsy" J. Brewer, the daughter of Richard Brewer and Lucinda Cynthia Pike of Green County.  Betsy was born in 1816 in Green County. There has been confusion over Betsy's maiden name being Pike or Brewer, because of the death record of her son George, which listed his parents as Charles Beard and Elizabeth Pike, but this was no doubt a mistake when reported to the county by relatives, as it was Betsy's mother's maiden name, not her own. In 1850 Charles and Elizabeth had three children and lived next to his parents, John and Jemimah Beard, in Adair County.  In 1860 they were in Adair County with five children, and they lived next door to the Benjamin Stults home.  In 1870, still in Adair County, listed as Gradyville, they had son George at home and their married son Reason and his family lived next door, as did son Zachariah.  This census is important, as it shows that Charles and Elizabeth Beard lived past the 1870 census.  On their gravestone at the Beard Family Cemetery in Portland, Adair County, their deaths are listed as 1865 and 1866, respectively, but this is obviously incorrect; perhaps the dates are more likely 1875 and 1876. Their proven children:

2. John Richard Beard was born in July of 1839 in Kentucky.  On 2 August 1860 he married America J. Martin, the daughter of William Terrell and Mariah Chapman Martin. She was born on 22 January 1844 in Green County. Her elder brother Aaron Martin married Jenetta Beard, a cousin of John Richard's, in 1861.  In 1860, newly married, John Richard and America lived with his grandparents in Green County, Richard and Lucinda Brewer. In 1870, they were listed in Haskinsonville, Green County, living next to or with John Richard's grandparents, the Brewers, and also near his aunt, Mary Beard, the widow of Reason. In 1880, John and America lived at Goalders, Green County, and in 1900 they were in Exie, Green County.  They appear to have had no children, and we find no burial or death record for John Richard.  He does not appear on a census after 1900. America died on 27 February 1903 in Exie, Green County. 

2. Cynthia Ann Beard was born 14 March 1842 in Adair County, Kentucky.  She married in 1865 in Adair County to James H. "Tobe" Leftwich, the son of James T. and Sallie J. Leftwich.  He was born in February 1840 in Green County, Kentucky, and his younger sister Mary Frances married Cynthia Beard's brother Zachariah in 1865. James Leftwich had served in the Civil War in Company L, 13th Kentucky Cavalry with Zachariah Thomas Beard, Cynthia's brother. In 1870 James and Cynthia lived in Haskinsville, Green County, with two young children.  They are not yet found on the 1880 census, but in 1900 they were listed in Exie, Green County, with a teenage daughter, Lee.  James Leftwich died before 1910 and in that year Cynthia was listed as a widow.  Living with her in Gresham, Green County, was a granddaughter named Hoddy Hartfield. Cynthia died at age 87 in Green County and is buried at Neagle Cemetery in that county. 

3. John Taylor "Johnnie" Leftwich was born in Green County, Kentucky on 16 October 1864.  He married about 1890 to Nora Bird Hay, the daughter of Minor Wade and Nancy Jane Blakeman Hay.  In 1900, John and Nora lived in Gresham, Green County, Kentucky, where they would make their home on all the censuses.  They had four daughters.  In 1910, they had six children and in 1920 five.  By 1930, John and Nora had an empty nest.  Nora Bird Hay Leftwich died in Green County, Kentucky on 22 June 1946 and was buried at the Bethlehem Baptist Church Cemetery in Green County. John Leftwich passed away at age 94 on 28 July 1959.  He is beside Nora at the Bethlehem cemetery.  Their children were Clara, Alta, Lovie, Pernie, Chandler, Naomi, and Maple Leftwich.

3. Louisa F. "Lou" Leftwich was born in Green County, Kentucky on 5 April 1866. She married in 1885 to Leopold Hartfield, the son of Isaac and Susan Scott Hartfield. In 1900 "Lepo" and Lou lived in Green County with three children.  Louisa Leftwich Hartfield died on 11 October 1902, just 36 years of age.  She was buried at the Leftwich/Buchanan Cemetery in Green County, Kentucky.  He was listed as a widower on the 1910 census in Green County, and Leopold remarried to Margaret Elizabeth "Betty" Kelly.  The three children of Louisa and Leopold were Flaveus H., Edmar, and Harley Hartfield.

3. Lee E. Leftwich was born on 2 July 1885 in probably Green County, Kentucky.  She married about 1907 to Everett Marvin Brown, the son of James P. and Alice Angelina Woodward Brown. He was born 27 February 1880 in Green County.  In 1910 and in 1920 they lived in Green County with no children.  Lee died on 2 February 1965 in Boyle County (place of residence noted as Green County) Everett died on 8 February 1970 in Green County.  They are buried under a double stone at the Neagle Cemetery in Green County.  They had no children.

3. Cora Helen "Hellie" Leftwich was born in June 1883 in Green County, Kentucky.  She married in Clark County, Indiana on 20 January 1896 to Charles Robert "Rubble" Mitchum.  He was the son of James Preston and Cynthia Catherine Wade Mitchum.  In 1900, Charles and Cora lived in Perry, Monroe County, Indiana with a baby daughter.  In 1910 they lived at Gresham, Green County, Kentucky with two children.  In 1920 they lived at Harmony, Adair County, Kentucky and they had four children at home.  Cora died right after this census, on 26 January 1920. In Adair County, Kentucky in 1930, Charles was a widower, listed in Adair County with his children.  He passed away on 3 May 1958 in Adair County. They are both buried in the Buchanan Cemetery in the Fry community of Green County, Kentucky.  Their children: Bertha, Tobias Balford, Ernest Odus, Ethel Lee, and Warren Preston Mitchum.

An old oil painting of Zachariah Thomas Beard--click on it to enlarge

2. Zachariah Thomas Beard was born on 24 July 1845 in Portland, Adair County, Kentucky.   He enlisted on 1 November 1863 in Columbia, Kentucky and was mustered out 10 January 1865 in Camp Nelson, Kentucky.  Also in this company was James Leftwich, listed in the biography above for Cynthia Beard.  On 11 February 1865, Zachariah married Mary Frances Leftwich, the sister of James, in Green County.  Zach and Mary Frances had a baby son, Thomas Kinsey, in 1866, but Mary Frances sadly died at age 25 on 2 February 1868.  She is buried in the Beard Family Cemetery at Portland, Adair County.  On 20 May 1868 in Adair County, Zachariah married a second time.  The bride was Sarah Elizabeth "Betty" Pickett, the daughter of Thomas Jefferson Pickett and Martha Ann Settles.  She was born on 25 October 1846 in Portland,

Mary Francis Leftwich Beard

Adair County.  In 1870, listed in Gradyville, Adair County, Zachariah and Elizabeth were next door to Zack's father Charles.  His brother Reason and his children were listed with them.  We have not found them on the 1880 census. In 1900, Zack's family was listed in Keltner, Adair County. With them were Thomas, plus five daughters.  They reported that they had borne eleven children and nine of them were still living.  In 1910 in Milltown, they had a 

Sarah Elizabeth Pickett Beard

daughter, a son, and a young granddaughter, Vivian Pickett, in the home.  Zachariah Thomas Beard died on 8 August 1919 in Portland Adair County, and was buried in the old Beard Family Cemetery there. In 1920, Sarah E. Beard, his widow, lived 

with her son Alva at Milltown, Adair County.  She passed away on 28 August 1927 in Portland, Adair County, and is buried beside Zachariah there.

   

The one child of Zachariah and first wife, Mary Frances Leftwich was:

 3. Thomas Kinsey Beard was born on 19 January 1866 in Adair County, Kentucky. His mother gave him his middle name in honor of her brother, Kinsey D Leftwich, who was killed in the Battle of Burkesville in 1864. In 1901 Thomas married Mary Ollie Burris,

Thomas Kinsey and Mary Ollie Burris Beard

the daughter of William Henry and Mary Frances Tarter Burris. Mary's sister Etta also married a Beard, Artis Everett Beard of this same lin

e. In 1910, married 8 years, Tom and Mary had a son and lived at Milltown in Adair County.  In 1920, listed at same, they had added a second son.  In 1930 they lived at Keltner, Adair County.  Their younger son and also Mary's father W. H. Burris lived with them.  Thomas Kinsey Beard died on 20 December 1943 in Adair County.  He is buried at Tarter's Chapel Cemetery there. Mary Ollie Burris died on 21 December 1964 in Portland, Adair County, and was buried at the same cemetery.  The two sons were Charles Francis "Charlie" Beard and Caleb Powers Beard.

The children of Zachariah and Sarah Elizabeth Pickett Beard:

3. George Taylor Beard  was born on 1 March 1871 in Portland, Adair County, Kentucky. He married in 1898 to Mary Alice Smith, probably in Illinois.  She was born on 19 August 1881 in Illinois, the daughter of Alfred M. and Annie Smith. Her sister Jessie Smith had married George's

George Taylor Beard Family

brother John Martin Beard in 1894.  In 1900 George and Mary Alice lived at Tallula, Menard County, Illinois with a baby son; by 1910 they lived at same with four young children.  Mary Alice died at age 32 on 16 August 1914 in Tallula and she is buried at the Greenwood Cemetery in Tallula.  In 1920 George was listed as a widower living in Petersburg, Menard County, Illinois with two of his children.  About 1929 he remarried to a lady named Lucy Brown.  She was born about 1889 in Illinois.  In 1930, married a year, they lived at Springfield, Sangamon County, Illinois and George was listed as a house painter.  In 1940, George and Lucy lived at same, in the household of George's married son Olaf and family. George died on 4 March 1945 in Tallula, Menard County.  He is buried at Greenwood Cemetery there.  Lucy died in 1964 and is buried in the Strode Cemetery in Sangamon County.  The children of George and Mary Alice Smith Beard: Lester Thomas, Olaf Leslie, Alfred Taylor, Laura, and Clarence Virgil Beard.

Ellenora Beard Rodgers

3. Ellenora "Nora" Beard was born on 18 September 1872 in Portland, Adair County, Kentucky.  On 9 November 1893, she married William Edgar "Edd" Rodgers, the son of George Alfred Rodgers and Elvira Keltner of Adair County.  Edd was born on 14 January 1874 in Adair County.  In 1900, married six years, they lived in Exie, Green County, Kentucky with three chil-

dren.  By 1910 in Keltner, Adair County, they had a large family of seven children and Edd's brother George Elmer Rodgers lived in the household at age 23.  George would marry Ellenora's younger sister, widowed Minerva Beard Pickett Rodgers, on 10 June of that year.  In 1920 we cannot find their census listing, but in 1930 they were still at Keltner in Adair County, with three children and a grandson in their home.  Edd Rodgers died on 30 October 1937 of tuberculosis, and in 1940 Ellenora  was a widow living in the household of her married son Caleb.  She died in Green County on 28 November 1962 at the age of ninety and she was buried with her husband at Tarters Chapel Cemetery in Adair County, Kentucky. We note that his gravestone records the year 1935 as his death, but the Kentucky death records both state the 1937 date.  Their children were Jessie Talbot, Bessie F., Bertie A., Ellie Mae, Otis, Pearl Esther, Mary Lucy, and Caleb Powers Rodgers.

John Milton and Jessie Smith Beard

3. John Milton Beard was born on 5 November 1872 in Adair County, Kentucky.  He married 1 December 1896 in Menard County, Illinois to Jessie M. Smith, the daughter of Alfred and Annie Smith and sister of Mary Alice Smith, who married John's brother George in 1898.  In 1900 John and Messie lived at Tallula, Menard County, Illinois with no children.  They had three children in the next five years but sadly, John died on 15 October 1907 in Tallula. From his obituary: "John M. Beard died at the Passavant Hospital at Jacksonville [Illinois] at 2 o'clock Tuesday morning....of cerebral meningitis, aged 34 years...He was taken to the hospital Sunday morning as it was thought possible an operation might give relief, but all to no purpose, and he quietlypassed away."  It was also stated that he came to Illinois from Kentucky in 1892.  He was a leader of his lodge and a member of the United Mine Workers union, a miner by trade.  After a funeral which was considered one of the largest attended in the area, John was buried at the Greenwood Cemetery in Tallula. His widow Jessie married again in 1909 to William Wilhelm, a coal miner,  and she and her Beard children were listed on the 1910 census with him in Menard County, Illinois.  The children were Roy William, John Ruh, and Jessie Gaynell Beard who married George Morris.

3. Luther Thomas Beard was born in 1873 in Portland, Adair County, Kentucky 

and died at age three on 13 November 1876 at same.  He is buried at the Beard Family Cemetery in Adair County, Kentucky.

Minerva Beard Pickett Rodgers

3. Minerva G. Beard was born on 12 February 1877 in Adair County, Georgia.  She married Curtis Luther Pickett, the son of William Curtis and Louvenia Moss Pickett, on 17 June 1902, prob-

ably in Adair County.  He was born on 5 April 1860 in Adair County.  They had a daughter born in 1903, but Curtis Luther died on 26 November 1905 and was buried at Old Pickett's Chapel Church Cemetery in Adair County. The widowed Minerva Pickett with her daughter Vivian was living at home with her parents on the 1910 census in Adair County.  Shortly after the census, she married George Elmer Rodgers on 10 June 1910.  By 1920, they had had three children, two still living as their first daughter Alma had died of diptheria at age three. On that census they were enumerated at Milltown, Adair County.  In 1930 they lived at Keltner in Adair County.  Minerva died on 22 March 1947 in Adair County and was buried at Tartars Chapel Cemetery in same.  George Rodgers lived to be 81, and passed away on 4 December 1967 in Adair County.  He is at rest also at Tarters Chapel in Adair County.  Minerva's only child with Mr. Pickett was Vivian Pickett. Her three Rodgers children were Alma Taylor, Lawrence Nell, and Bertha Elizabeth Rodgers.

3. Lottie May Beard was born 22 April 1882 in Adair County, Kentucky.  She married Thomas Taylor before 1907, probably in Kentucky.  We do not find them on the 1910 censu

s yet, but in 1920 Thomas and Lottie lived in St. Louis, Missouri with two children.  It appears that Lottie and Thomas divorced, for she appears on the 1930 census in St. Louis as Mae Maller, married to John Maller.  In her home is her married daughter and her son in law. John Maller was born in Austria on 11 August 1884.  The two Taylor children were Talmadge/Talmage Taylor and Opal Taylor, who married Lester Bradley. Lottie died 16 March 1934 and she is buried at Valhalla Cemetery in St. Louis, as is John Maller, who died on 7 February 1954 in St. Louis County, Missouri.

3. Lou Emma Beard was born in Adair County, Kentucky on 24 March 1885.  She married on 17 December 1902 to Elbert C. Keltner.  He was the son of Thomas J. and Mary Ann Kemp Keltner, born January 1887 in Kentucky. They had a daughter Gracie Keltner, born in 1904 in Kentucky.  We do not know if Elbert Keltner died before, but Lou Emma married Alexander Z. Burris on 29 January 1909.  Alexander, called "Elic" or "Aleck", was born 10 December 1887 in Adair County to William Henry and Mary Frances Tartar Burris. In 1910 Aleck and Emma were listed on the Milltown, Adair County census with Gracie Keltner, age six, and baby Taft Burris, age one.  They were in same in 1920 with three boys. Lou Emma Beard Burris died on New Year's Day 1928 in Adair County.  She is buried at the Tartars Chapel Cemetery there.  Alexander Burris remarried to Delzie Parson and they had children.  He died on 4 March 1966 in Adair County and his is buried with Lou Emma at Tarters Chapel. Their children were Willard Taft, who died in 1913, Roy Hulse, Joe Thomas, Rue Simpson, and Alexander Z. Burris.  A daughter, Louella, was stillborn in 1916.

3. Maggie Lee Beard was born on 14 September 1886 in Adair County, Kentucky.  She married William Edgar "Edd" Keltner son of Curtis Luther and Malissa Frances Pickett Keltner, in probably

Maggie Lee Beard Keltner

Adair County on 18 August 1909.  In 1910 they had a baby daughter and lived at Keltner, Adair County.  They lived at Milltown in Adair County when he filled out a draft card in 1918 and he stated that he had a wife and four children at the time.  In 1920 at Milltown, Edd and "Lee Maggie" Keltner were listed with five children.  In 1930 in Adair County, they had five children at home. Edd Keltner died on 20 January 1948 in Taylor County, Kentucky.  He is buried at Brookside Cemetery in that county.  Maggie Lee Beard Keltner died on 6 February 1969 in Taylor County and is buried with her husband Edd at Brookside. The children: Cleopatra, Clenon Moore, Calvin C., Clarice, Cecil Arlie, Clarence Clyde, and Catherine C. Keltner.

 3.  Minnie Bell Beard was born on 12 September 1887 in Adair County, Kentucky.  She married John Wesley Skaggs in 1901.  He was born on 28 April 1874 in Milltown, Adair County, Kentucky, the son of Archibald and Lucy Ann Deaton Skaggs.  In 1910, Minnie and John lived at Milltown in Adair County with four children.  They stated that they had been married for nine years and that four of five children were living.  It is possible that the deceased child is the "Lora Skaggs" buried at the Milltown Church Cemetery in Adair County, birth 1902 and death 1903. The family was still at Milltown when he filled out his draft papers in 1918.  By 1920, they had relocated to Gresham in neighboring Green County, Kentucky and had seven children.  In 1930 we find the family in Pennsylvania, Mason County, Illinois and four children were still at home.  Minnie Beard Skaggs passed away in Mason County, Illinois in 1939. She was buried at the Mason City Cemetery there.  In 1940, John Wesley Skaggs lived in Mason City, Mason County, Illinois as a widower living in the home of his married son Grady. John Wesley Skaggs died on 8 August 1960 in Illinois. The living children of Minnie and John Wesley Skaggs were George Deaton, Parrie W., Lucy Catherine, Grady A., Ethel Mae, and James Thomas Skaggs.

Alva Eunice Beard and Pearl Bingham Beard

3. Alva Eunice Beard was born on New Years Day of 1891 in Portland, Adair County, Kentucky.  Alva was a soldier in the United States Army during World War I. When he was thirty, he married to Holly Pearl Bingham in Adair County on 20 December 1921.  She was the daughter of Melvin

George Taylor Beard and his brother Alva Eunice Beard

and Leona Bell Kemp Bingham, born in Adair County, Kentucky on 7 August 1904. She died at age 21 on 1 October 1925 in Adair County; tuberculosis was a terrible disease in those times. She is buried at 

the Beard Family Cemetery in Portland, Adair County.  Her stone has an incorrect birth year of 1894.  In 1927, Alva remarried, to Iva Emma Posey. She was born on 3 April 1907 in Mell, Green County, Kentucky, the daughter of Samuel Severs Posey and Mattie Hayes Rodgers. In 1928, Alva and Iva had a baby son, Curtis Hoover Beard, who died in 1928 and was buried at Beard Cemetery in Portland, Adair County. In 1930, Alva and Iva lived at Keltner, Adair County with no children. He died on 2 March 1967 in Kentucky and he is buried at the Beard Family Cemetery in Portland, Adair County.  Iva remarried to Elam Lindie Compton in 1982.  She died on 27 July 2001 in Greensburg, Green County, Kentucky and she is buried at the Bethlehem Baptist Church Cemetery in Greensburg. Alva had no living children.

2. Reason Butler Beard was born on 21 October 1850 in Portland, Adair County, Kentucky.  He married on Christmas Eve of 1867 at the home of Jefferson Pickett to Kitty Ann Pickett.  She was born 17 September 1844 in Kentucky.  She was the daughter of Thomas Jefferson and Martha Ann Settles Pickett and she was the sister of Mary Frances Pickett, who married Reason's brother, Zachariah in 1865. In 1870 they lived at Gradyville, Adair County, next to Charles Beard family, Reason's parents.  They had two baby daughters.  In 1880, listed in Grove, Green County, Kentucky, Reason and "Anna" were listed two homes away from his cousin Charles Beard.  They had seven children at their table. Kitty Ann Pickett Beard died on 19 January 1892 and she is buried at the Tarters Chapel Cemetery in Adair County.  She and Reason had ten children together. On 10 August of that year, Reason married again, to Mary "Mollie" Smith, the daughter of Charles Oliver Perry Smith and Melvina Furkins. Mollie was born in September 1872 in Kentucky.  In 1900 the family was living in Elizabethtown, Hardin County, Kentucky, with three sons still in the home. In 1910 the family was at Taylor County, Kentucky.  In 1920, Reason and Mollie were listed in separate households, but both were listed as married. Mollie was in Illiopolis, Sangamon County, with step son George and his wife Lillie with her, as well as her two younger children. In that year "Reas" and his son Arthur were living together in Mechanicsburg, Sangamon County, Illinois, and both listed as working on the railroad tracks. Another son, Charles Richard, was living a few homes away. We have yet to find them on the 1930 census. Reason's death date is reported as 18 December 1932. He and Mollie are both said to be buried at Tarter's Chapel Cemetery in Adair County, but no date is available for Mollie's death.  They had four children together.  The children of Reason Butler Beard and first wife, Kitty Ann Pickett, were:

3. Mary Bell Beard was born on 18 September 1868 in Kentucky.  She married in 1884 to Achilles Washington Tarter, the son of Shelby and Mary Ann Retherford Tarter.  "Killus" was born on 1 May 1861 in Kentucky.  In 1900, married sixteen years, they lived at Keltner, Adair County, Kentucky and had seven of their nine children still living, and all seven at home.  John A. Beard, Mary's brother, lived in the home, and two homes away was her sister Martha E. Beard Keltner.  In 1910, living in West Columbia, Adair County, they had five children at home.  1920 shows them still at Columbia, where Achilles is employed as the jailer for the county jail.  Two sons were listed as mechanics at the garage.  In 1930 in Adair County, they were listed in the home of married daughter Nell Morgan.  Achilles was employed as a retail merchant dealing in fertilizer. Achilles died on 29 November 1931 in probably Adair County; he is buried at the Columbia Cemetery in Columbia, Adair County.  Mary Bell Beard Tarter passed away 17 June 1944 in Columbia and is buried at same.  The children were Hettie Ann, Charles Butler., Walter Harrison, McClellan N., Dollie L.., Nellie R., McKinley, William Bradley, and Ethel I. Tarter.

3. Martha Elizabeth "Bettie" Beard was born 30 December 1870 in Adair County, Kentucky.  On 13 January 1886, she married Samuel Noel Keltner in Adair County.  He was the son of Henry and Sally Ann Rogers Keltner, and he was born on 27 October 1867 in Adair County.  In 1900, Samuel and Martha lived with their three children in Keltner, Adair County, in the home of Samuel's widower father Henry.  They were listed two homes away from Martha's sister Mary Bell Beard Tarter and family. In 1910 they were at same, with four children home, and 1920 at same with just the two youngest daughters in the home.  Samuel died on 24 March 1924 in Kentucky and was buried at Tarter's Chapel Cemetery in Portland, Adair County.  Martha Elizabeth Beard Keltner was in an accident in a home in Barren County, Kentucky in 1941, and her clothing caught fire from an open flame.  She died on 10 January 1941 and was buried at Tarter's Chapel with Samuel.  Their children were Henry Marvin, Bertha Lena, Virgie Alice, Della Mae, and Sally Allen Keltner.

3. Charles Richard Beard  was born on 2 December 1871 in Adair County, Kentucky. He married in 1902, perhaps in Illinois, to Zora M., whose maiden name is unknown.  She was born in about 1875 in Illinois and both her parents were born in Missouri, according to census records.  In 1910, living in Auburn, Sangamon County, Illinois, they had a baby named Pearl.  Charles was a farm laborer.  In 1920 they lived at Mechanicsburg in the same county.  No child named Pearl was with them, but they had three children in the home.  In 1930 they were enumerated at Buffalo, Sangamon County, Illinois with same children listed.  In 1940 Charles R. Beard and wife Zora M. were empty nesters at Mechanicsburg in Sangamon County.  We do not have death dates or burial places.  The children were named Pearl, Floyd, Thelma, and James.

3. William Edgar Beard was born on 27 September 1873 in Adair County, Kentucky.  He is reported to have died at age twenty on 28 February 1893.  No place of burial is yet found.

3. James Hezekiah Beard was born on 26 November 1876 in Adair County, Kentucky.  In 1900 at age 24, "Hez" Beard lived in the home of Ray Ritter in Rock Creek, Menard County, Illinois and worked as a farm laborer.  He was single. He married in 1905 to Emma Ritterbush, the daughter of Richard Henry and Reka Landau Ritterbush.  Emma was born 8 June 1886 in Illinois.  In 1910, married five years, they had no children and lived at Tallula, Menard County, Illinois.  He filled out his draft card in 1918 in Sangamon County, Illinois, and lived at Springfield.  He worked as a miner there and listed wife Emma as his next of kin.  In 1920 they lived at Fancy Creek, Sangamon County.  In 1930 they were still at same, and the twin sons of his deceased brother Aaron Thomas Beard lived with James and Emma.  They were Harold and Darold Beard, aged thirteen.  Emma died on 11 May 1935 in Menard County and was buried at the Rose Hill Cemetery in Petersburg, Menard County, Illinois. On the 1940 census, James is listed alone as a widower and still worked as a miner in Sangamon County.  James is buried beside Emma with a death date of 12 February 1951.

3. Aaron Thomas Beard was born on 26 October 1878 in Adair County, Kentucky.  He married before 1913 in Illinois to Myrtle V. Keltner, the daughter of Riley F. and Emma D. Vance Keltner of Adair County, Kentucky. She was born in October 1893 in Adair County.  We find a death date for Aaron of 15 November 1917 in Clear Lake, Sangamon County, Illinois.  He was buried at Wolf Creek Cemetery in Sherman, Sangamon County, Illinois. He was 39 and left behind his widow Myrtle and four children under seven.  In 1920 they were listed at Clear Lake, Sangamon County. Aaron's brother John Beard lived in the home, listed as brother in law.   We do not know what happened to Myrtle; she probably remarried, possibly to a Jones.  On the 1930 census, the male twins, Harold and Darold Beard, were aged thirteen and lived with their uncle and aunt, James Hezekiah and Emma Beard, in Fancy Creek, Sangamon County.  We have found a death record for a child, Wilbert Beard, who was born 3 October 1913 in Illinois and died on 21 September 1919 in Sangamon County; he was buried at Wolf Creek by his father.  On the record, his father was listed as Aaron Beard and mother as Myrtle Keltner. We find a burial record for Harold with death of 8 March 2004 in Mount Vernon, Jefferson County, Illinois and burial at Mount Vernon Memorial Gardens there.  We find a death record for the youngest child, Ora, of 14 September 1924 and burial at Evergreen Cemetery in McLean County, Illinois, where she died. Her father is listed as Aaron Beard who was born in Adair County, Kentucky on the death record.  No record is found for the eldest daughter, Anna L., nor the other twin, Darold Beard.

3. John Alfred Beard  was born 16 September 1880 in Kentucky. In 1900 in Keltner, Adair County, Kentucky,  John was enumerated in the home of "Killus" [Achilles] Tartar and wife Mary B. Tarter as brother in law.  This Mary was John's sister Mary Bell Beard Tartar.  Two homes away were his sister Mary Beard Keltner and family and next page was family of Zachariah Beard.  On World War I draft papers, John Alfred Beard of Sangamon County, Illinois was a miner for the Springfield Coal Company; he listed his next of kin as his nephew Wilbert Beard of Sangamon County.  John's birth date was given as 6 September 1879 on this record.  In 1920, John was forty and listed as the brother in law in the home of his brother Aaron's widow, Myrtle Beard of Clear Lake, Sangamon Co, Illinois.  He was a miner. John died on 3 February 1920 in Spaulding, Sangamon County,  apparently immediately after this census.  He was buried at Wolf Creek Cemetery in Sangamon County.  He never married.

3. Arthur Ewing Beard was born 1 October 1882 in Adair County, Kentucky.  In 1910 Arthur was listed at age 25 living in Gardner, Sangamon County, Illinois in the home of John Stevenson as a hired man.  He was single.  In 1920, Arthur lived with his father "Reas" Beard at Mechanicsburg, Sangamon County, Illinois and they both worked on the railroad tracks. Close by lived Charles and Zora Beard. There is a 1930 record for an Arthur Beard in Decatur County, Illinois who was single and lived on East Washington Street, but there are other Arthur Beards who lived in Decatur County, Illinois at this time so we are not sure. He filled out draft papers for World War II at age 59, living in Decatur, Macon County, Illinois.  He stated that he was born on this date in "Dear County, Kentucky" which we presume to be the transcriber's interpretation of Adair County.  Arthur signed an "X" so he did not fill out the card himself.  His closest relative was listed as his half brother Melvin Beard of Route 1, Decatur, Illinois.  Arthur worked for the WPA in Macon County, Illinois.  He is said by researchers to have died on 2 February 1960, but we find no death record or place of burial yet.

3. Maudeala Maud Beard was born in Adair County, Kentucky on 14 November 1883.  She married on 17 December 1902 to George Evert/Everett Kemp, the son of Squire and Jane Roy Keltner Kemp of Adair County, who was born 12 August 1881.  In 1910 and 1920, listed at Milltown, Adair County, they had three and then six children at home.  In 1930 they were listed at Keltner, Adair County, with seven children still at home. Maud died on 1 November 1930 of tuberculosis.  She is buried at Tarters Chapel Cemetery in Adair County.  George passed away 14 May 1971 in Green County, with residence at Adair County.  He is buried at Tarters Chapel with Maud. They had eight children: Ural E., Otis W. "Jack", May, Willie, Owen, Allene, Claudy, and Maxine Kemp.

3. Oasten Olen Beard was born on 8 January 1886 in Adair County, Kentucky.  In 1910, Oasten was living in the home of John and Allie Kohl in Curran, Sangamon County, Illinois, listed as a single hired man of 22. He joined the army on 10 March 1913 and served in Company I, 43rd Infantry, 15th Division and was honorably discharged on 9 March 1920, as a sergeant.  He married, probably in Utah, to Gladys Jane Urry on 16 August 1918.  She was the daughter of Edgar Septimus Urry and Margaret Maxwell Hird, born on 1 March 1901 in Salt Lake City, where her family were Mormons. On the 1920 census, Gladys and Oasten Beard were living in Salt Lake City, Utah in the home of her widowed mother.  Oasten was employed as a motorman on the street cars. In 1930, still in Salt Lake, they had a ten year old son, and in 1940 they were parents of two sons.  Oasten died in Salt Lake City on 11 November 1953; Gladys Urry Beard died on 11 November 1993 in same.  They are buried at the Salt Lake City Cemetery.  Their sons were Oasten J. "Oaste" and  Stephen Henry Beard.  Another son, Robert, died as an infant.

And, the children of Reason Beard with second wife, Mary "Mollie" Smith:

3. George Henry Beard  was born on 12 May 1892 in Milltown, Adair County, Kentucky.  From the Indiana marriage records, he married on 30 June 1915 in Orange County, Indiana to Lillie Harmon.  George's brother James Melvin married Lillie's sister Anna the same day. Lillie was born in December 1897, the daughter of Isaac B. Harmon and wife Barbara Ellen. George filled out his draft card in 1917 in Jacksonville, Morgan County, Illinois and stated that he was married and worked in concrete, as did his brother James Melvin. George served in World War I as a private with Company G, 5 Ammunition Train, 28 June 1918 through 8 August 1919.  On the 1920 census in Illiopolis, Sangamon County, Illinois, George and Lillie lived with his mother Mollie Beard and they had an infant son named James.  By 1930, Lilly Beard, aged 32 and divorced, was still in Macon County.  She had two young children with her, Georgianna and Carl, but no James.  Also in her home was Anna Beard, age 29, listed as her sister.  We believe that this is Anna Harmon Beard and that she was the wife or divorced wife of James Melvin Beard, brother of George Henry, listed below.  We have yet to find George Henry Beard on the 1930 or the 1940 census, but in 1940, his young son Carl Beard was listed as nephew in the home of James Melvin Beard in Decatur, Macon County, Illinois.  George Henry did fill out a draft card for World War II and stated that he lived in Decatur, Illinois, worked for the WPA, and his nearest relative was Melvin Beard of RR 1, Decatur, Illinois.  We do not know if he remarried or not.  He died on 25 August 1951 in Macon County, Illinois and he is buried at Graceland Cemetery in Decatur, Macon County. The children of George and Lillie Harmon Beard were James, Georgianna, and Carl Beard.

3. James Melvin Beard was born on 6 May 1894 in Adair County, Kentucky.  He went by the middle name of Melvin. He married  Anna Harmon on 30 June 1915 in Orange County, Indiana, before he filled out his draft card in 1917.  She was the daughter of Isaac and Barbara Ellen Harmon, born about 1901 in Illinois.  Her older sister Lillie married George Henry, James Melvin's brother, on the same day.  It appears that both marriages ended in divorce before 1930, when the two Harmon sisters who married Beard brothers were listed in their own household in Decatur, Macon County, Illinois.  Strangely, we have not located James Melvin on the 1920 or the 1930 censuses.  We do know that he remarried to Hazel M. Parks, who was born in Illinois on 9 October 1914.  We do not know her parents.  In 1940, James and Hazel Beard were living in Decatur, Macon County, Illinois, and their fourteen year old nephew Carl, the son of George and first wife Lillie Harmon Beard, was in their home. James Melvin Beard died on 3 March 1977 in Decatur, Macon County, Illinois and was buried at the Boiling Springs Cemetery there.  Hazel passed away 1 April 1992 in same and is buried with Melvin at Boiling Springs.  James Melvin Beard appears to have not had children.

3. Oliver Perry Beard was born on 22 December 1906 in Adair County, Kentucky.  In 1920 he was on the census in his mother's home in Sangamon County, Illinois, but we have not found him on the 1930 census.  He died on 29 March 1985 in Decatur, Macon County, Illinois and is buried at the Boiling Springs Cemetery there. We know of no spouse or children.

3. Nona or Nora Beard was born in Adair County, Kentucky on 12 May 1909.  We have no records for her after the 1920 census when she was in her mother's home in Sangamon County, Illinois.

2. George Alfred Beard was born in Adair County, Kentucky on 3 May 1855.  He married 14 March 1878 in Adair County to Tina Columbus Pickett, the daughter of George Washington and and Emiline Rodgers Pickett. Tina was born on 22 October 1860, also in Adair County.  In 1880 George and "Columbus" Beard had a baby son and lived in Gradyville, Adair County, Kentucky, but they were also listed in Green County in the same census, so perhaps they moved from one to the other during the interim.  In 1900 they lived

George Alfred and Tina Columbus Pickett Beard

at Keltner, Adair County and had nine of their fifteen children still living, all at home.  George worked as a blacksmith.  On 13 November 1902, Tina Pickett Beard died at age 42 in Adair County.  She is buried at Old Pickett's Chapel Church Cemetery in Adair County.  George remarried in 1909 and in 1910 he was listed as married for one year to Anna Kate Rudd and they lived with two of his sons in Adair County.  Anna was born on 16 August 1864 in Kentucky.  We do not know her parents yet.  She and George would have two sons together.  George Alfred Beard died on 7 January 1942 and he was buried at Milltown Cemetery in Adair County.  Anna Rudd Beard passed away on 21 December 1961 in Adair County; she is buried at Milltown as well.  The children of George Alfred Beard and first wife, Tina Columbus Pickett, were:

3. Clemery Beard was born on 10 November 1879 in Green County, Kentucky.  He married on 1 September 1900 to Nancy "Nannie" Marcella (or Marilla)  Wade, the daughter of Robert and Mary Olive Rogers Wade.  Nancy was born on 17 July 1879 in Green County, Kentucky.  In 1910, Clem and Nannie lived at Gresham in Green County, Kentucky.  He was working as a teamster and they had four of five children still living.  Clem filled out his draft card in 1918, living in Green County at Greensburg. He was farming for Joe Perry of that town. In 1920, listed still at Greensburg, Clem and Nannie had eight children.  In 1930 at same, they had six children still at home and lived next door to son Guy.  Nancy Wade Beard died on 9 April 1958 in Kentucky.  She was buried at the Coffey Cemetery in Green County.  Clem Beard passed away on 6 February 1963 in Green County and is buried with her at Coffey Cemetery.  According to a local obituary, he was a retired farmer and lived at the home of his married daughter Gertrude Davenport at the time.  The children of Clem and Nancy were George Robert, Guy W., Morris A., Cleo B., Lucien H., Clem Jr., Olive Gertrude, Pearl, Able P., Mary Margaret, Mae S., and Clem Taylor.

Artis Everett and Etta Burris Beard

3. Artis /Artice Everett "Bud" Beard was born on 16 June 1881 in Adair County, Kentucky.  He married about 1905 to Rettie Faye Bryant, the daughter of Samuel M. and Nancy Bryant of Adair County, Kentucky.  Rettie was born in February 1891 in Adair County.  The family appears on the 1910 census at Marion, Owen County, Indiana in the home of Rettie's parents.  Bud and Rettie had two small daughters at that time.  Sadly, Rettie died just after the census, on 17 April 1910 in Hausertown, Owen County, Indiana and was buried at Beech Cemetery in Coal City, Owen County, Indiana.  Bud remarried on 2 October 1913 to Dicie Belle McGaha Aaron, the daughter of James Allen McGaha and Martha Ellen Redmon.  Dicie, born in July 1883 in Kentucky, had been married previously to Millard Aaron.  Bud and Belle had a daughter in 1914, but they parted ways by 1915, when Bud married for the third time, in Clay City, Owen County, Indiana to Etta Bell Burris.  Etta, born on 3 March 1896 in Kentucky, was the younger sister of Mary Ollie Burris, who married Thomas Kensey Beard.  They were both daughters of William Henry Burris and Mary Frances Tartar.  In 1920 Bud and Etta lived in Milltown, Adair County, Kentucky with three small children.  

 They were listed at Gresham, Green County, Kentucky, with six children on the 1930 census.  Bud Beard died on 6 March

 1950 in Adair County and was buried at the Milltown Cemetery there.  Etta Bell Burris Beard passed away at 84 on 31 October 1980 in Jefferson County, Kentucky and was buried near Artis at Milltown.  The children of the first marriage to Rettie Bryant were Annie Mabel and Mary Pearl.  The child with second wife Belle McGaha was Alice Lucy.  The children with Etta Burris were Alfred Everett, Mary Lovie, Christine, Ope

l Thelma, David Russell, Loretta, George Williamson, Holland Simpson, Doris Dean, Bobby Lewis, Peggy Joyce, and James Rogers Beard.

3. Louella E. Beard was born in Adair County, Kentucky on 13 November 1884.  She married on 13 November 1906 to Edd Waymon White, the son of James "Jim" Robert White and Sara Bennett.  Edd was born 4 April 1887 in Adair County.  Louella and Edd lived in Green County on all the censuses during their marriage.  Louella died there of heart disease on 11 August 1941and was buried at Hogards Chapel Cemetery in Green County.  Edd remarried on 17 March 1942 to Ida Stephens.  He died in Elizabethtown, Hardin County, Kentucky on 24 March 1973.  He is buried at Hogards Cemetery also.  The children of Edd and Louella Beard White were Gladys, Irene, James Alfred, Will Ed, Mary Katherine, and Ann White.

3. Lena Eva Beard was born in Adair County, Kentucky on 5 February 1886.  She married in 1905 in Kentucky to Obediah D."Obe"  Parson, the son of Drury and Louisa Ann Keltner Parson.  He was born on 15 January 1875 in Green County, Kentucky, and he was married previously to an unknown wife.  Lena and Obediah were enumerated on the 1910 census, married five years, living in Adair County with two little girls. In 1920 they lived in same, with seven children at their table, and in 1930 they were listed in Green County with nine children.  Lena Beard Parson died on 29 June 1931 and she was buried at the Milltown Cemetery in Adair County.  Obediah died on 12 March 1949 in Taylor County, Kentucky and is buried at the same.  Their nine children were Tina, Lillian, Beatrice Pearl, Tobe L., Lawrence, Mabel, Madeline, Obediah D., Jr, and William Frank Parson.

3. Lydia Pearl Beard was born on 6 March 1885 in Adair County, Kentucky.  She married on 12 March 1905 in Adair County to Daniel Clarence Keltner, the son of Henry Clayton Keltner and wife Lucinda Tarter.  In 1910 they lived at Keltner, Adair County, as they did on all the censuses.  They had two small children.  Daniel filed his draft registration for World War I in Adair County, where he farmed and named his wife as closest relative.  In 1920 they had five children at home and in 1930 three were still living at home.  Daniel died on 6 May 1960 in Adair County; Lydia Pearl Beard Keltner passed away 15 November 1966 in Green County.  They are both interred at the Tarters Chapel Cemetery in Adair County. Their children were named Gertrude, Caleb Powers, Cecil  Roswell, Lula Evaline (who died as an infant), Anna Marie, Curtis Owen, and Cashus Cooley Keltner.

3. Cashius Beard was born on 30 November 1890 in Adair County, Kentucky.  He filled out a draft card while living at Milltown in Adair County.  In 1920, Cashius Beard was listed as a soldier of 29 years at Camp Dix, Burlington, New Jersey.  On the same census was seventeen year old Vester E. Beard, living with her parents, Charles William and Viola Keltner Beard, in Green County, Kentucky.  Cashius would marry his cousin Vester E. Beard very soon after the 1920 census. She was born on 22 February 1901 in Adair County.   In 1930, they lived at Greensburg, Green County, Kentucky with their two children.  Vester Beard died on 13 December 1966 in Adair County; Cash Beard passed away in Jefferson County, Kentucky on 12 July 1968.  They are both buried at Milltown in Adair County.  Their two children are Rosa E. and William Thomas Beard. 

3. Tobe Beard was born on 8 January 1895 in Adair County, Kentucky. In 1910 Tobe lived in the home of his sister Lena and her husband Chris D. Parsons in Adair County; he was fifteen.  He registered for the draft for World War I in Adair County and he served in the 140th Field Artillery, Battery E, of the 39th Division as a private from 27 May 1818 to 17 June 1919 and was honorably discharged. On the 1920 census, Tobe was at home in Milltown, Adair County, Kentucky with his parents, age 25 and single. He married shortly after to Grace Lee Littrell, the daughter of Annie M. Leach and Robert Edward Litrell.  Grace was born on 30 January 1897 in Kentucky.  By 1930 in Keltner, Adair County, Tobe and Grace had a son in the home and in 1940 in Adair County, they had two living sons at home.  Tobe died on 22 April 1962 in Adair County.  Grace Littrell Beard passed away on 15 September 1978.  They are buried at the Milltown Cemetery in Adair County.  They had three sons, Milton Lewis "Buster", Henry Allen (who died at nine days old in 1930), and Woodruff Lee "Flennie" Beard.

3. William Francis "Bill" Beard was born on 5 May 1897 in Adair County.  He registered for the draft for World War I in Adair.  He was listed as Bill in his parents' home in 1920, at age 22. Shortly after, about 1920, he married to Hillie Mattie Littrell, the daughter of Robert Edward and Annie Leach Littrell and the younger sister of Grace Littrell, who married Bill's brother Tobe about the same time.  In 1930, W. F. Beard and wife Hillie were listed in Adair County with two children.  In 1940, they lived in Adair County with four children in the home.  Bill died on 24 September 1956 in Adair County and was buried at Milltown Cemetery.  Hillie Litrell Beard died on 21 May 1999 and is laid to rest there also. Their children: Montra H., William, Ray Miller, Allene, and Bobby Beard.

3. Mabel Lula Beard was born on 2 May 1900 in Adair County, Kentucky.  She died at age nine on 4 February 1909 in Milltown, Adair County, from burns received from a fireplace.  She was buried at the Old Pickett's Chapel Cemetery next to her mother TIna.

The children with second wife, Anna Katie Rudd were:

3. George E. Beard was born in Adair County on 28 May 1911.  On the 1930 census in Adair County, he was age 18 and listed as a nephew in the home of Valentine and Ella Leftwich in Keltner.  We do not know of a marriage.   His death date was 4 February 1975 in Adair County, and he was buried there in the Milltown Cemetery.

3. Charles Alfred "Charlie" Beard was born in Adair County, Kentucky on 13 June 1913. Charlie entered military service in June 1940 and he was with the first United States troops sent to North Africa in November of 1942.  He was reported missing in action there on 20 February 1943.  In May, his mother received a letter from him dated 16 March 1943.  In it he told her that he was lucky not to be killed.  Five hundred soldiers were captured with him.  He told of going almost a week without anything to eat, and of fighting hand to hand during this time.  Camp life was much better, and he was well satisfied with the situation!  On 16 May 1945, the Adair County News carried the notice of his release. Charlie would soon be home to "swing the girls" and take up his life at home.  He died in Kentucky on 4 April 1995 and was interred at the Milltown Cemetery in Adair County.

2. William Buford  Beard was born in 1858 in Adair County, Kentucky.  He appeared on the 1860 census there with his family, but he was not on the 1870 enumeration with them.  His headstone is at the Beard Cemetery in Portland, Adair County, Kentucky, but it has no dates on it.

1. Margaret R. Beard was born  in Adair County, Kentucky.  She married George Wesley Stults on 23 December 1834 in Adair County.  He was born on 25 August 1813 in Lincoln County, Kentucky, the son of William and Rhoda Coulter Stults, and he was mostly raised in Adair County.   George had two brothers, William Burke and Benjamin B. Stults, who would also marry into the Beard line. We have so far ascertained that George and Margaret had six children together but then Margaret died on 24 February 1847 in Adair County. As she had a child, Amanda, born ten days before, it is very possible that Margaret died as a complication of childbirth.  She is buried at the Beard Family Cemetery in Portland, Adair County. The baby, Amanda, died before the year was out. After Margaret's death, George Stults took the four sons they had and moved to Macoupin County, Illinois, where his uncle Richard Stults was living.  It appears that the only living daughter, Jemima, was left in Adair County in the care of her Beard relatives. Macoupin County was a wilderness at this time, and the family set about settling it.  On 2 July 1848, George married again to Hopestill Jane "Hoppy" Stults, who was the daughter of his uncle and neighbor Richard Stults.  In 1850, twelve year old Jemima lived in the home of her grandparents, John and Jemima Beard, in Adair County.  In that same census, George Stults was listed in Macoupin County, Illinois with  new wife, Hoppy Stults, and his four sons by Margaret and one baby son he had with Hoppy.  We are still searching for the family on both the 1860 and 1870 census.  An old history of Jasper County, Missouri states that George and his family lived in Macoupin County for about nine years and then lived in Champaign County, Illinois for the same length of time, and moved to Jasper County, Missouri in May 1866. They settled on a farm just west of Oronogo.  On the 1880 census they were living at Mineral, Jasper County, Missouri. Again from The History of Jasper County, Missouri, published in 1883: "Our subject has a farm of eighty acres about one mile west of Oronogo, where he at one time controlled a half section.  Twenty five acres sown to wheat in 1882 produced an average of twenty-four bushels, and twelve acres of corn had, the past season, a good crop.  There is one of the finest orchards of the county on the farm of seven acres, which produced at least 500 bushes of apples in 1882.  In his younger and palmy days, Mr. Stults was the village blacksmith 'with strong and sinewy hands,' who made both welkin and the anvil ring for the bread of honest toil and sweat, for the yeomen who then came from Joplin, Carthage, and Spring River.  Times and custom in those days were strangely new.  The subject of this sketch recalls being compelled to purchase corn and pay $15 per bushel in Dade County.  George Raider, the first postmaster of Carthage, used to take a meal bag and get the mail from Ft. Scott weekly.  Wild game was plenty and Mr. Stults used to go out and bring down a deer often in half an hour.  Few men, indeed, live to raise such an unusually large family to usefulness and manhood.  Being deprived of many school advantages, Mr. Stults loses no opportunity to secure the benefits of an education for his children, in which he is an enthusiast, being himself a great reader and a lover of public enterprise."  George Wesley Stults died on 23 August 1889 in Oronogo, Jasper County, Missouri and he is buried at an old cemetery near there. Hoppy Stults was listed in the 1900 census in Joplin, Jasper County, Missouri as a widow.  On this Beard family site, we will only concern ourselves with the children of Margaret R. Beard and George Wesley Stults, and not the many children George had with Hoppy.  Margaret Beard and George Stults' children were:

2. Margaret Ann Stults is reported to be the first child of this couple.  She was born 2 May 1835 in Adair      County and died in February 1849 in Kentucky, at age thirteen.  We do not know a burial place.

2. Jemima Jane Stults was born on 14 March 1838 in Adair County.  She was perhaps raised by her grandparents, John Thomas and Jemima Beard, for whom she was named, as she was listed in their home in 1850.  Her mother Margaret Beard Stults had died in 1847 and her father by 1850 had moved with her brothers to Macoupin County, Illinois.  Jemima apparently joined her family in Illinois, for she married there on 22 May 1856 to Clark E. Maston.  Clark was born in Tennessee on 25 April 1835. We have not found the names of his parents yet.  It is possible that his middle name was Elijah, for there are many records in Tennessee for Elijah Mastons of this age, but we do not know that. In the 1860 census, Clark and Jemima lived at Carlinville, Macoupin County, Illinois with two young daughters.  Clark was a blacksmith.  In July of 1863, Clark Maston filed a draft registration for Union soldiers. He lived in Carlinville, Macoupin County, Illinois, he was married, and he was born in Tennessee.  In 1870, Clark was listed as a blacksmith in Macoupin County.  He and "Jane" had three daughters.  They lived next door to a William and Frances Stults; this William could have been the son of William and Jane Gearhart Stults.  In 1880, C. E. and Jemima Maston were living at Bird, Macoupin County with three daughters.  One daughter, Belva, was married and her husband and baby daughter lived in her parents' home with her.  Clark and Jemima Maston are both buried in the Stults Cemetery in Macoupin County, Illinois.  He died on 14 October 1888; her death date is not on the stone and we do not know what the date was. Three children who died young were also buried there. Known children of Jemima Jane and Clark E. Maston Beard were:

3. Belva Ann Maston was born in Illinois on 19 April 1857.  She married about 1876 to Horatio Hon Wilson, who was the son of Thomas B. and Eliza Bender Wilson.  Horatio was bor in Casey County, Kentucky on 1 May 1856. On the 1880 census, they lived with Belva's parents in Bird, Macoupin County, Illinois and they had one baby girl.  In 1900 Horatio and Belva lived at Bird in Macoupin County with ten children. They still lived there in 1910.  We do not find them on the 1920 census.  On 9 June 1925, Horatio Wilson died in Illinois and was buried at the Shiloh Cemetery in Macoupin County.  Belva lived in the household of her son Robert B. Wilson in the 1930 census, listed in Chesterfield, Macoupin County, Illinois.  She died in Chesterfield on 17 March 1935 and was laid to rest beside Horatio.  Their ten children were Claudia O., Richard A., Eva G., Robert B., Ota A., Paul Hubert, Nannie Lenora, Eugene Maston, Edith Bell, and Thomas M. Wilson.

3. Laura Maston was born in Macoupin County, Illinois in 1859.  According to the 1880 Mortality Schedules in Illinois, she died in April 1880 in Havana, Mason County, Illinois.  She was 21 years old. We do not have a recorded burial place for Laura

3. Julia Maston was born in Illinois in 1861.  She died at age two on 19 July 1863 and she is buried at the Stults Cemetery at Hettick, Macoupin County, Illinois.

3. Sissey Maston was a daughter born in June 1863 who died at the age of one month on 8 July 1863 in Illinois, just eleven days before her sister Julia.  Sissey is buried at the Stults Cemetery in Hettick, Macoupin County, Illinois.

3. Charles "Charlie" Maston was born about 1865 in Illinois.  He is buried at the Stults Cemetery in Hettick, Macoupin County, Illinois with other family.  There is no death date given.

3. Minnie Maston was born in 1868 in Macoupin County, Illinois.  She married in 1892 to Albert H. Fletcher.  They probably married in Illinois as their first child was born there in 1898.  Albert was born in December 1861, said to be at sea as his parents immigrated to the United States from England.  By the 1900 census, Minnie and Albert lived at Cherokee County, Iowa with baby daughter Laura.  In 1910 at same they had added another daughter, Ruth.  In 1920 they still lived at same.  On the 1925 Iowa State Census, Minnie was listed as a widow.  Albert had died on 12 August 1924 in Iowa. He was buried at Oak Hill Cemetery in Cherokee County, Iowa.  In 1930, Minnie lived at same with her elder daughter.  Minnie died 12 July 1950 in Iowa and was buried at Oak Hill as well.  The two daughters were Laura B. and Ruth E. Fletcher.

2. John William Stults was born on 11 July 1839 in Adair County, Kentucky. He appears to be the John W. Stults who married Lavisa Jane Cooly on 24 March 1859 in Sangamon County, Illinois.  Lavisa, born in 1843,  was the daughter of Thomas Hutchins Cooley and Letitia Anderson, who lived in Casey County, Kentucky at one time.  In the year 1860 John and Lavisa were enumerated on the census in Sedorus, Champaign County, Illinois with a five month old daughter, Laura. On 12 August 1862 in Champaign County, John William enlisted as a private in the 125th Illinois Infantry, Company E.  He was discharged in Mound City, Illinois at war's end.  In 1870 John was a retail grocer, listed at Springfield, Sangamon County, Illinois.  Lavisa was listed as "Vica J."  They had two children, Laura and Thomas, and John's half brother Richard Stults lived with them and worked as a clerk in the grocery store.  By 1880, John and Lavisa had parted ways.  She was listed in the home of her father, Thomas H. Cooley, in Kenney, DeWitt County, Illinois.  She was 38, a seamstress, and listed as a "widow".  We do not yet find John W. Stults on the census anywhere in 1880.  We know that at some point he moved to Jasper County, Missouri, where many of his family resided.  On 7 June 1899, there is a marriage record on which he married  to a bride named "Lulu" Montgomery in Joplin, Jasper County, Missouri. John was sixty and Louisa was 25.  In the 1900 Mineral, Jasper County, Missouri census, John and Louisa had been married one year and had an eight month old son, William.   John William Stults and his  wife Louisa seem to have parted ways before 1907, when she married Will Slingerland in Newton County, Missouri.  By 1910, she was listed in Pennsylvania in the home of her brother in law, Ernest Slingerland, and she had a nine year old "Otto W. Stults" with her.  John William, meanwhile, was listed as a 70 year old "widower" in Ruth, Stone County, Missouri.  By 1912, Louisa Slingerland had married a third time, in Newton County, Missouri, to C. W. Bentley.  In 1920, John Stults was living in Joplin, Jasper County, Missouri by himself, a salesman in a dry goods store.  We found a record from 1925 which shows that John was admitted to the Disabled Veterans Soldiers Home in Leavenworth, Kansas that year.  He was a mechanic, his home was listed as Joplin, Missouri, he was 5 feet, eight inches tall, had gray eyes and hair.  His medical history included a gun shot wound in the right shoulder, probably sustained during the Civil War service.  Of great interest is the line where he lists nearest relative as one Mamie Gum of Range, [which is Texas County] Oklahoma.  This may indicate that she was a child of his marriage to Lula Montgomery in 1899, or perhaps there was an interim relationship with someone unknown?  Information about Mamie Stults can be found below.  In 1930 John was 90, said he was first married at age 19, and lived in Joplin, Jasper County, Missouri. He died on 23 February 1934, probably in Jasper, but we do not know that and we do not know where he is buried. His wife Louisa died in Arlington, Tarrant County, Texas on 4 January 1961. 

            Children with first wife, Lavisa Jane Cooley, were:

            3. Laura Lenora Stults      TO BE CONTINUED................

            3. Thomas H. Stults

            Child of unknown:

            3.  Mamie Stults

One known child of John William and Louisa R. Montgomery Stults was:

3. William Otto Stults was born in May 1900 in Jasper County, Missouri.  No further information is known for him.

2. Charles Matthew Stults was born in Adair County, Kentucky on 29 May 1841.   He is said to have died in 1861 in the Civil War.  We find a record of a Charles M. Stults serving with the 25th Illinois Infantry, and this man died at Rolla, Phelps County, Missouri on 31 December 1861, and it is probable that this is the same, since we find a record for his brother George in the same unit.

2. George Alfred Stults was born on 5 May 1843 in Adair County, Kentucky.  He served in the 25th Illinois Infantry, Company E, during the Civil War.  On 10 August 1868, he married Caroline Cynthia Hixson in Carthage, Jasper County, Missouri.  Cynthia was born 7 February 1851 in Fountain County, Indiana, the daughter of Nathaniel and Margaret Hixson.  We have yet to find this family on the 1870 census, but they should be enumerated in Jasper County, as they had children born there at the time.  In 1880, they lived at Twin Groves, Jasper County, Missouri with two sons.  In 1900,  at Ruth, Stone County, Missouri, George A. Stults was listed as a mechanic and  a widower.  His wife Cynthia was listed on this census living alone back in Twin Groves, Jasper County.  She was listed as married, 49 years old.  We do not find Cynthia on any further census; she died on 27 July 1921 in Jasper County, Missouri and was buried at the Twin Groves Cemetery in Carls Junction, Jasper County, Missouri.  Meanwhile, George was listed in 1910 in the home of his son Brick Stults, in Ruth, Stone County, Missouri, as a widower of 66.  Next door lived his brother Benjamin Taylor Stults.  In 1920, he lived in the Ray Drohn household in Ruth, Stone County, Missouri. By 1930, George lived in the National Military Home in Delaware, Leavenworth County, Kansas.  He was a widower of 86 years.  His son Brick lived in the same county.  George died at the "Old Soldiers Home" in 1934.  He was buried at the Leavenworth National Cemetery in Leavenworth, Kansas.  The two children of George Alfred and Caroline Cynthia Hixson Stults were:

Brick Pomeroy Stults

3. Brick Plumerroy Stults was born in Orongo, Jasper County, Missouri on 14 July 1869.

 He married Fannie Ester Holcomb, the daughter of Edward Albert Holcomb and wife Elizabeth Lucinda Thomas.  Fannie was born on 30 March 1875 in Jasper County, Missouri. She had been married a first time to Joseph Allen in 1891.  In 1910, Brick and Fannie lived with their two children in Ruth, Stone County, Missouri.  Next door was Benjamin Taylor Stults, Brick's uncle.  Brick was listed as an engineer at a portable mill.  In 1920, Bruck and Annie were empty nesters and lived still at Ruth in Stone County.  By 1930, they lived at Delaware, Leavenworth County, Kansas.    According to an account written by a grandchild, Brick worked as a timber inspector and buyer for the railroad and helped build the first rail that went into the Missouri Ozarks.  He also worked in the mines around Oronogo.  Late in life he lived a few years in Ogden, Utah.  Fannie Holcomb Stults died on 20 July 1955 in Jasper County, Missouri.  Brick Stults passed away on 19 December 1957 in Oronogo in Jasper County.  They are both at rest at the Oronogo Cemetery in Jasper County, Missouri.  They had two children, Margaret and William B. Stults.

3. Frank B. Stults was born 8 April 1874 in Oronogo, Jasper County, Missouri.  He died at same on 9 April 1905 and he is buried at the Twin Groves Cemetery at Carl Junction, Jasper County, Missouri.  Frank was unmarried.

2. Benjamin Taylor Stults was born on 17 February 1845 in Adair County, Kentucky. The following information about him is from the White River Valley Historical Quarterly:  Ben was only two when his mother Margaret Beard Stults died.  He grew up in Macoupin County, Illinois, where his father moved the family and remarried. He learned to hunt by shooting prairie chickens and rabbits with his flintlock gun, and this started a lifelong habit, as he became a well known hunter throughout the Midwest as an adult. When the family moved to Sadorus, Illinois, he would help his father in the blacksmith shop and hunt with his friends.  When the Civil War opened up, Benjamin was deferred to help keep food on the table for the family, friends, and the Army.  He was a teenager who would rather have been in the fight with his brothers. In 1868, Benjamin moved to Missouri, where his family had gone two years before.  On Christmas Day 1870, Ben married Eleanor Elizabeth Teeter/Teter in Columbus, Cherokee County, Kansas.  He worked in the lead mines at Oronogo, Jasper County, Missouri. We do not know the parents or birthdate of Eleanor.  She and Ben had three children, but she died in 1878 during the birth of a fourth child, and the child also died.  We do not know a burial place for them, but no doubt it was in Jasper County, Missouri. Ben met Alice Mandana Hannah when she was on a visit with her married sister Sarah Smith in Jasper County.  She was born 2 July 1856 in Randolph County, Missouri, the daughter of George Newton and Matilda Elizabeth Turner Hannah. Ben and Alice  were married on 2 December 1878, and her Hannah family moved close by. They were enumerated on the 1880 census living at Mineral, Jasper County, Missouri with his three children and a nine month old baby, Belle.  Ben Stults developed some health problems from the work in the mines, and sought a healthier place to live.  He found high elevation land in Stone County, Missouri, about a hundred miles away, bought it, and moved his wife, children, and in laws to the new home. He worked hard to create a good home for his family, and he became a leader in the community and served as Justice of the Peace for a time.  At the birth of her eighth child on 20 July 1897, Alice Hannah Stults died  She is buried at the Stults Cemetery in Stone County, Missouri.  Benjamin remarried the next year to a young widow, Hettie Jane Garber Hines, who had two Hines sons.  She was born on 13 June 1866 in Missouri, daughter of Joel C. and Martha C. McGee Garber. She had married first to Horatio Hines on 14 August 1884 in Caldwell County, Missouri. On the 1900 census of Ruth, Stone County, Missouri, Benjamin and Hettie had eight children at home and several others living nearby. In 1910 they were still in the same, they lived next to George Alfred Stults, Ben's brother. In 1920 and 1930 the family still lived at Ruth. Ben started a lumbering business and soon built the family a new twelve room house, connected by a walkway to the old house.  Later he opened a general store and a funeral home business.  He lived a long life, enriched by many adventures, and he wrote down many of his memories, which were published in later years by various sources of early Missouri history.  Some of his writings may be viewed here.  A longer biography of him can be found at this link. He died on 6 November 1930 in Stone County at the age of 85 and was buried at the Eisenhour Cemetery in Spokane, Christian County, Missouri.  Hettie lived on to the age of 83 and died in 1950 in Ruth, Stone County, Missouri.  She lies at the same cemetery.  They had one son together. Children of Benjamin and Eleanor Teeter Stults:

3. Charles Gaston Stults was born at Minersville, Jasper County, Missouri on 20 October 1871.  He married on 14 March 1894 to Martha Jane Mease in Stone County, Missouri. She was the daughter of John Jacob Mease and Elizabeth Walkey.  Mattie was born in Gage County, Nebraska on 18 September 1871. Charles and Mattie had a child, Raymond Earl Stults, in 1894 in Reeds Spring, Jasper County, Missouri, but the marriage did not last and she remarried by 1898.  On 23 October 1898, Charles married a second time, to Agnes "Pearly" May in Stone County, Missouri.  She was the daughter of George W. Gibbs May and Hester Ann Peters, and she was born in Missouri in 1883.  She had been previously married to a Froebel, and she had a young son named Earl N. Froebel when she married Charles.  In 1910, Charles and Agnes lived in Ruth, Stone County, Missouri with four young sons under nine years.  In 1920, they lived at Fresno in Fresno County, California and had added another son and two daughters to their brood.  TO BE CONTINUED

3. Taylor Stults

3. Nellie Jane Stults

Children of Ben with second wife Alice Hannah:

3. Fannie Belle Stults

3. Ola May Stults

3. George Wesley Stults

3. Matilda Elizabeth Stults

3. Orbie Lewis Stults

3. Henry Franklin Stults

3. Bertha Elaine Stults

Child of Ben and third wife Hettie Jane Garber was:

3. Jesse Richard Stults

2. Amanda W. Stults was born on 9 February 1847 in Adair County, Kentucky and her mother, Margaret Beard Stults, died just twelve days later.  The baby died on 15 December 1847.  She is probably buried at the Beard Family Cemetery in Adair County beside or near her mother.

1. John Thomas Beard Jr. is a reported son of John Thomas Beard, but so far we have not found any written records of him. He is said to have been born about 1824 and to have married Mary Rutherford.