KENTUCKY: A History of the State, Battle, Perrin & Kniffin, 4th ed., 1887,
Adair Co.

JAMES W. BEARD was born in Green County, Ky., August 17, 1831, and is the
eighth in a family of nine children, born to Isaiah and Diodema (Mann)
Beard, natives of Greenbrier and Culpeper Counties, Virginia.  Josiah
Beard was born February 24, 1790, and in 1798 came with his parents to
Kentucky.  The family, numbering seventeen, including servants,
accomplished the entire journey over the mountains on pack-horses, and
first halted for a short rest at Crab Orchard, Lincoln County, where there
was a settlement and a fort; thence journeyed to Carpenter's Station, in
the same county, and from that place to a point on the Green River, two and
a half miles below the mouth of Casey Creek, in what was then a part of
Green, but is now Adair County.  Here the father located several thousand
acres of wild land, and improved several hundred, on which he resided for
many years.  He gave away from time to time large bodies to friends and
acquaintances, to induce them to settle near him.  He also built on the
Green River, near his home, the first grist-mill in Adair County.  In this
wild country young Josiah grew to manhood, early becoming inured to the
hardships and privations incident to pioneer life, soon acquiring great
skill as a hunter and trapper.  Wild game of all kinds abounded on every
hill and in every valley, and the numerous streams were filled with
excellent fish and frequented by every species of water fowl.  Josiah was
married at the age of twenty-two years, and soon after moved to what is now
Taylor (but then Green) County, Ky., where his father-in-law gave him wild
land near the present village of Mannsville.  There he improved a farm on
which he resided for many years.  In 1836 he sold this farm and bought
another near Columbia, Adair County, upon which he remained until 1856,
when he retired from active business and made his home with his son, James
W., until his death, February 25, 1866.  For many years he was a major in
the old state militia, and he and his wife were members of the Christian
Church.  He was also an old and bright member of the Masonic fraternity,
having held numerous official positions in his lodge, and  was buried with
the honors of his order.  His father, Samuel Beard, was a veteran in the
Revolution, and after he came to Kentucky became a noted hunter.  Late in
life he moved to Tennessee, and settled near Jackson, where his death
occurred suddenly from heart disease.  Mrs. Diodema (Mann) Beard was born
October 4, 1792, and died May 19, 1882.  Her father, Moses Mann, was also a
native of Virginia and a Revolutionary veteran.  In the latter part of the
last century he came with his family to Kentucky, also accomplishing the
entire journey on pack-horses, and first settled in what is now Marion
County, on the Rolling Fork, where he entered wild land and improved a farm
upon which he remained several years.  While living on this place he was
appointed a Government scout, and he and a man named Coppage were for
several years engaged in hunting and Indian fighting  from Rolling Fork to
the Cumberland River.  Just before he engaged in hunting and Indian
fighting, however, he had a son, a nephew and a hired man shot and scalped
by the savages, while fishing on the Rolling Fork.  Later his associate,
Coppage, was also killed scalped while on one of their expeditions.  After
these occurrences he swore vengeance on the red men, and pursued them with
unerring rifle to the end.  He was one of the most noted and successful
hunters in the country, and paid for several thousand acres of land through
his skill with the rifle.  About 1806 or 1807 he moved to Green County,
where he located some 6,000 or 7,000 acres of wild land on Robinson's
Creek, improved a large farm and became quite wealthy.  There he resided
until his death in 1843.  He was for several years extensively engaged in
the manufacture of salt in connection with farming and stock raising.  He
and his wife were life-long members of the Old School Presbyterian Church.
James W. Beard received a good English education in youth at the common and
select schools of the county, and at the Columbia Male and Female College.
At the age of twenty-two years he bought a partially improved farm on Casey
Creek, in Adair County, to which he has added from time to time, now owning
300 acres, well improved and in a good state of cultivation, and is engaged
in farming and stock raising.  He commenced to teach at the age of
seventeen and so continued in connection with farming for some eighteen or
twenty years.  In 1869 he went to Texas, returning to Kentucky in 1871.  He
married, December 25, 1858, Miss Elizabeth M. McWhorter, a native of Adair
County, born March 2, 1842.  She is a daughter of Richard W. and Elizabeth
M. (Southerland) McWhorter, natives of Casey County, Ky., and of Scotch and
English descent respectively.  To Mr. and Mrs. Beard the following children
have been born: William H., Creed T., Mollie E. (wife of William B.
Hendrickson), Shelton C., John M., Florence R., Virgil, Herschell, James
O., Sallie B., Bertha and Eugene.  Mr. and Mrs. Beard have been for years
members of the Christian Church, in which he has officiated as ruling elder
for many years.  He is also a bright member of the Masonic fraternity,
having been W.M. of his lodge for many years.  He is an earnest advocate of
the temperance cause, and politically a Democrat.

Beard Mann Coppage McWhorter Southerland Hendrickson
=
Green-KY Lincoln-KY Taylor-KY Casey-KY Marion-KY Greenbrier-VA Culpeper-VA
TN TX

http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/adair/beard.jw.txt