John
R. Beard
From: Centennial History of Washington
County, Indiana by Warder W. Stevens, 1916; b. 919:
John R. Beard, farmer, who was born on October 27, 1873, in Posey township, Washington county, Indiana, is a son of Daniel B. Beard and Emma C. (Standeford) Beard. Daniel B. Beard, who was born about three miles northeast of Fredericksburg, was a son of Thomas and Martha (Voyles) Beard. Thomas was a son of Benjamin Beard, who came from North Carolina, bringing a large family of children with him. They were on their way to Illinois, but when ear the line of Howard and Jackson townships, the family refused to go further, and there they lived until the children grew up and married.
Thomas Beard married Martha Voyles, daughter of Daniel Voyles, and lived near Mt. Carmel, close to the line between Posey and Howard townships. After five children were born, Martha (Voyles) Beard died, and Thomas Beard married Mrs. Polly Moore, a widow and after four children were born by the second marriage, he died in 1877.
Daniel B. Beard taught school when sixteen years of age, and was a corporal in the United States army. His life work after leaving the army was farming in Posey township until his death in 1878. His wife, Emma C. Standeford, was born at Palmyra, Harrison County, Indiana, and was a daughter of Squire Hildreth Standeford and Mary (Stucker) Standeford. Squire Standeford was a son of Aquilla Standeford and was born in Nicholas County, Kentucky, June 26, 1808. Aquilla Standeford was born in Maryland, June 1, 1780, and with his parents, moved to Kentucky when it was a wild, unsettled country. In 1817 he came to Indiana with his family, where he became an exhorter and class leader of good influence. His son, Rev. Squire H. Standeford, was seven years old when the family settled in Harrison County, Indiana; and was licensed to preach in 1850; also ran a store that is still in business at Palmyra, and ran a hotel there, also, in the early days. His wife, Elizabeth Stucker, was born south of Martinsburg. Their daughter, Emma, married Daniel Beard, and by that marriage were born two children, John R. and Laura E. Mr. Beard died in 1878, and in 1879 his widow married A. J. Dodge of Posey township. By her second marriage was born one son, Elmer, who died when ten years old. Her daughter, Laura E., is wife of John L. Martin, a prosperous farmer in the southeast part of Posey township.
John R. Beard grew up on the farm of his step-father, A. J. Dodge, with whom he is now living. He attended Purdue University, Central Normal, at Danville, Indiana, Indiana State Normal, at Terre Haute, and the college at Moores Hill. He has taught school for the past twelve years. In 1906 he married Ola Taylor, who was born about four miles northeast of Palmyra, in Harrison County, Indiana, and was a daughter of John Harvey and Mary Frances (McCallen) Taylor. John H. Taylor was born at Galena, son of Raleigh Taylor, who was a slaveholder in Kentucky, but did not believe in slavery, left Kentucky and came to Indiana, and used to run flatboats on the Ohio river in early days. Mary Frances McCallen was born northeast of Palmyra, daughter of Hayes B. and Admira (Horner) McCallen. The McCallen family were about the earliest settlers where Palmyra now stands. Palmyra was called McCallens Cross Roads, and McCallen had an early-day hotel there, when the stage coach with eight white horses drove on the pike between New Albany and Vincennes--a time when the country was new and wild and wolves a menace on the way. The McCallen hotel at that time was one of the finest on the pike, and they had a deer park there. The family were very long-lived, and Mrs. Beard remembers her great-grandparents.
Ola Taylor attended Normal school at Corydon, and taught for ten years, seven years of which was at Palmyra. John R. Beard and his wife belong to the Methodist Episcopal church. Their people have been Methodists clear back to the time of the Wesleys; and on the Standeford side, have been exhorters, class-leaders, and local preachers from the beginning. He also belongs to the Masons and Odd Fellows. Mr. and Mrs. Beard have one daughter, Frances Catherine.
