Back to Table of Contents The parents of Jane Beard
Jane was the eldest daughter of Samuel and Rebecca Beard. She was born about 1774 in the Cowpasture River valley of the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia. When a young girl, she made the journey down into the Southwest Territory with her family, and it was in early Greene County, Tennessee that she married James Milliken on September 18, 1792. The Milliken family name has also been found spelled as Milligan, Millican, Millikan, Millikin, and many other variations at various times. We will use the Milliken spelling here to be consistent, but the readers should be aware that all and any of these spellings, and others, may apply to any given generation of this family. The Millikens were family friends--possibly even blood relatives-- of Samuel and Rebecca Beard, who had also lived in the Shenandoah Valley in the same time. The father of James Milliken was also a James, who was married to an Elizabeth. James Milliken Sr was listed on the 1783 Tax List for Greene County, Tennessee with our Beard brothers, and in fact his name is found just next to theirs on the list. This family is also found later in Adair County, Kentucky with all our Beards, and then in Bedford County, Tennessee with our Beards. In 1832, our Samuel Beard listed a James "Milligan" as a reference on his Revolutionary War Pension Application, filed in Henderson County, Tennessee. James Milligan Sr. filed his own application in Cocke County, Tennessee.
Here is a link to a page of the Beard Family Wiki that is more detailed about the Milliken family. Thank you to all the Millikens who have contributed. James Milliken of Cowpasture
By 1798, the Beards and Millikens, along with many other families from Eastern Tennessee, were making the journey up to lands near and along the Green River, in (then) Green County, Kentucky, a part of which became Adair County in 1802.
On the 1802 Tax List in Adair County, Kentucky, we find several "Millicans" listed: James Sr, James Jr, and Isaac. They are listed on lands on the Green River, which is also where Samuel and Rebecca lived. Sometime between 1806 and 1812, many of these families acquired lands in Maury County, Tennessee, parts of which soon became Bedford County. James and Jane Milliken were among the early settlers there. Records show that they had a daughter born about 1806 in Kentucky, and then a son was born by 1808 in Tennessee, so it is a safe bet that was the time of the move. In the fall of 1813, James Milliken died, and an estate sale was held in Maury County on October 5, 1813. Among the buyers listed at the sale were Samuel Beard, father in law of the deceased, James and Elizabeth Millican/Milliken (parents of the deceased), Jane (Milliken) Reynolds, sister of the deceased, and David and Isaac Butler, who married Rebecca and Nancy Milliken, respectively, sisters of James, the deceased. These people were all related and all former citizens of Adair County, Kentucky.
Did Jane remarry? We have not yet found a further record of her. Several of her children have been traced, staying close to the family groups. In 1830 in Bedford County, her inlaws, James Milliken Sr and wife Elizabeth, are listed on the census with many young children and extra adults. It is possible that Jane was living in their household.
In the 1850 court document which details all the living heirs of Samuel Beard at that time, the following line applies to these Millikens: " John Millican, Levisa Millican, and John Millican her husband, and Elizabeth Pate and James Pate her husband, and another child of Jane Millican and all children and heirs of Jane Millican deceased, daughter of Samuel Beard, deceased". Thus, Jane and James Milliken had children John, Levisa (who married a different Milliken) and Elizabeth who married James Pate. They also had a daughter Rebecca who married a McClure, but she was dead many years before 1850 and not included in list of heirs. We also believe there was another son who also was deceased and not an heir in 1850.
The known children of Jane Beard and James Milliken are:
Elizabeth Milliken married James Pate
Rebecca Milliken married Samuel McClure
Unknown Milliken son, possibly a James or a Thomas