SAMUEL GILDREN BEARD Family

From “Lincoln County. Tennessee Pioneers”, by Jane Warren Waller. Volume VIII. No. 4. Pages 75 – 78
“Samuel Gildren Beard was born in Tennessee on November 28, 1827, the son of Alexander Beard
and his wife, Elizabeth (last name unknown). He was reared on the Liberty road in Lincoln County about
two miles south of the Elk River, near Fayetteville, Tennessee.

On November 29, 1851, in Lincoln County, he was married to Julia Ann McKinney, daughter of James
McKinney and Temperance Rowe. The ceremony was performed by his brother, Rev. W. W. Beard, and
recorded in Book A, page 225, Lincoln County Court records. Eight children resulted from this union.
Samuel G. Beard was a farmer. He enlisted in the Confederate States Army on December 31, 1861, in
Nashville, Tennessee, and was mustered into active service as a private the same day under serial
number 50155551 in Co. H of the 55th Tennessee Infantry (McKoin’s.) He was captured by the Union
forces and taken to a prison camp in Indiana or Illinois. At the end of the war he was released from
prison and had to make his way home to Tennessee on foot with no funds, clothing or provisions. By the
time he arrived, his clothes were in rags, full of lice, and his shoes were completely worn out. His wife
was washing clothes in the yard when he arrived, boiling water in an old black wash pot, as was the
custom of the time. She asked her husband to remove his clothes so she could burn them under the
wash pot to avoid bringing them into the house.

Under the terms of Alexander Beard’s will, dated July 22, 1868, shown on pages 176-79 of Lincoln County
Will Book No. 3, Samuel inherited 40 acres of land on the south side of Elk River, near the intersection
of Highway 231 and the Liberty Road, about three miles south of Fayetteville. This land was not
completely free of debt and Samuel signed a number of notes to Theophilus Harris, executor of the
Alexander Beard, Sr., estate. These notes were payable at $12.00 a year. The first annual installment
was due twelve months after the date of the first note November 27, 1868.
Samuel Gildren Beard died on October 2, 1898, and is buried at the RouttWells Cemetery, near the land
where he lived his entire life.

Samuel and Julia Ann’s children were as follows:

1. Benjamin P. Beard was born in Lincoln County, Tenn., in 1853. He was a farmer. During
the time that his father was away from home in the Confederate States Army, it was Benjamin’s
task to hide the cows and other livestock whenever the Yankee forces came through the area. The
livestock was usually hidden in Blankenship Hollow which was a pretty remote place in those days.
Benjamin married Alice Jones, daughter of Ed Jones. Two children resulted from this union;
Maude, who married Bob Summerford, and Willa, who married an elderly well-to-do-farmer,
named Duckworth. Maude and Bob lived in the Huntsville, Alabama area and has three children:
Ben, Jim Belle, and Lee. Jim Belle was named for her father’s uncle and aunt, James M. Wells
and Isabelle McKinney Wells, daughter of James McKinney and Temperance Rowe McKinney.
Willa (pronounced Willie) was subject to epilepsy. After the death of her husband, Mr. Duckworth,
she lived with her father, Benjamin P. Beard. When Willie was having one of her epileptic seizures,
she would chase people around the house or yard for several minutes until she came out from under
the spell. She would then resume her conversation and activities without knowing or remembering
that she had just had an attack. She was very strong during the attacks and was known to have pulled
screen door hook and eye latches right out of the door facings. When she died her burial dress was
made by Mrs. Mamie Flynt Smith, her cousin, who also prepared her for burial, assisted by
another cousin, Mrs. Julia Flynt Moore.

Early in life, Benjamin P. Beard acquired a penchant for strong language, both cursing and saying
exactly how he felt about everything. He was a short man of medium build with a handle bar
mustache and goatee and always wore a broad-brim black hat. He lived on his farm located on
the Camargo Road about two miles west of Skinem. There are many stores about Uncle Ben. He had
an ancient horse, which he turned out of the barn early every morning to trudge down the lane to
the pasture. Being blind, the horse had to be guided, so Uncle Ben, who was well up in years by
this time, would stand on his back porch and guide the old blind horse by yelling “haw” and “gee”
(go left or go right) until the horse finally made it to the pasture. This disturbed neighbors within a
three-mile-radius, who wondered for months who was doing all of the crack-of-dawn yelling. The
mystery was finally solved by the John Carl Moore, Sr., family, who lived three miles from
Uncle Ben. One day they traced down the source of the sound, which led them to Uncle Ben’s back
doorstep.

Another story about Uncle Ben – It was his custom on Saturday mornings to hitch up his horse to the
buggy and go to town in Fayetteville for supplies. In the early 1930’s Uncle Ben traded at a store
operated by John Willie Neece, located at the south edge of Fayetteville near the railroad track
close to the Ewen Notes Blacksmith Shop. One Saturday morning Uncle Ben asked Mr. Neece to
recommend some coffee. Mr. Neece produced a pound of coffee and said, “Mr. Beard, this is damn-good
coffee.” Uncle Ben purchased it. The next. time Uncle Ben went into Mr. Neece’s store, he said in his
customary loud voice, “John Willie, do you have any more of that ‘damn-good’ coffee?” “Yes, sir, Mr.
Beard. How much do you want?” replied Mr. Neece. “Not a damned drop,” shouted Uncle Ben.
Benjamin P. Beard died on April 20, 1934 at the age of 81. He lived a hard life with few of the comforts
we have today. But he was honest, paid for what he got in life with hard work, and he minded his own
business, attributes not too abundant in the world of 1979. He is buried next to his wife in Sandlin
Cemetery, Lincoln County, Tennessee.

2. Louiza Joanna Beard was born in Lincoln County, Tennessee, on August 19, 1855. She married
William Henry Crawford. They resided in Lincoln County and the marriage produced two children,
Nina and William Rufus Crawford. William Henry Crawford died on May 18, 1882 of
inflammatory rheumatism when he was 28 years old. Louiza then married a Mr. Marshall, but
divorced him in less than a year and reclaimed the name of her first husband, Crawford. Born to
Louiza and Mr. Marshall was one daughter, Agnes Marshall, who married Van Fields. After Mr.
Marshall’s death, Louiza and her children lived with her father, Samuel Gildren Beard, until 1894,
when she and her children moved to Texas. Louiza’s daughter, Nina, married Danny Cravy. Nina
died at age 56 of cancer in 1935. Louiza’s son, William Rufus Crawford, married Estella Franke, on
October 10, 1909. At the age of 98 William Rufus Crawford lives with his wife, Estella, in Austin, Texas.
They will celebrate their 70th wedding anniversary on October 10, 1979. William Rufus and Estella’s
daughter, Georgia married Charlie E. Oden and lives in Houston, Texas. Louiza was living with her
daughter, Agnes, in San Antonio when she died. She is buried in San Antonio, 1946.

3. Cordelia Beard was born in 1858 in Lincoln County, Tennessee. In her early thirties she joined
her brothers in Salty, Texas. She married Joe Jenkins, who was born and reared in Birmingham,
Alabama, and had come to Salty, Texas as a young man. Their children were Morgan, Frank, Oscar,
Media, and Robert. Mr. Jenkins died at the age of 63 of cancer in Thorndale, Texas. Cordelia died at the
age of 80 of a heart attack in Thorndale, where she lived for many years. All of their children are deceased
except Media Clark, who now lives in Cameron, Texas.

4. Rufus M. Beard was born in Lincoln County, Tennessee, in 1860. He moved to Texas while still a
young man and settled in Salty. He married Lillie Caffey. This marriage resulted in eight children: R.
M., Tom, Cordie, Clara, Gladys, Ed, Bernice and Nora. Their son, R. M. and his wife, Livy, operate a
large cattle ranch near Thorndale, Texas. Tom died in April, 1978. While in her nineties, Cordie was
living by herself and running her own cattle and farming operation, performing all the work by herself.
Ed was the oldest and had two or three children: Vera, who married a Bauerslag, and a son named
Ulrich. Rufus M. Beard died in August 1948 at 88 years of age. He is buried in Salty, Texas.

5. James Beard was born in 1862 in Lincoln County, Tennessee, and journeyed West, settling with
his brother, Rufus, at Salty, Texas. He married Mattie Jenks and reared a large family: Sam, Eula,
Marvin, Dan and four others. While the family was young, they moved near Lubbock. He brothers
and sisters lost touch with him after that.

6. Mary Ann Beard was born on November 13, 1866, in Lincoln County, Tennessee, and remained
there her entire life. She was a thin-built sickly person with poor eyesight. She never married. In
her later years she lived with her sister Ellen, the wife of Hiram Pendleton (Pete) Flynt. Aunt
Mary was remembered by the Flynt children for not being a ball of fire when it came time to wash
dishes or do other family chores. She was content to rock all day in her rocking chair. She died on
September 11, 1902, at the age of 35 and was buried in the family plot at the Routt-Wells cemetery in
Lincoln County.

7. Ellen Beard was born December 28, 1869, in Lincoln County, Tennessee. She married
Hiram Pendleton Flynt (Pete) on February 8, 1890. The married ceremony was conducted by
Justice of Peace. A. S. Randolph, and it is recorded in Lincoln County Marriage Records Book C. page
463. The union produced nine children: Alva Lee, Mamie Florence, Julia Ann, Earl Hiram, Clara
Louise, Gordon Oliver, Dillard Younger, Lillian Sue, and Glenn Morris. Ellen is especially
remembered by her children and grandchildren for her dry wit and humorous stories. She was
musically gifted, playing both the zither and accordion. She lived her entire life in the country near
Skinem, when fireplaces and wood cookstoves were the order of the day. It fell her duty to start the
day by stirring up the coals in the fireplace and by preparing meals for her large family. Their
fare usually consisted of rabbit, squirrel, quail, and turkey from the surrounding woods, and vegetables
from her garden, which she tended with TLC. The male members of the family were excellent
hunters and fishermen. In spite of primitive living with few advantages, she never complained,
but made the most of each day, letting the morrow take care of itself. Mrs. Ellen Beard Flynt died of
a stroke on February 26, 1945, at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Harry N. Smith (Mamie) in
Nashville, Tennessee. She was buried in Sandlin Cemetery in Lincoln County next to her husband.

8. Thomas A. was the youngest of the children. He was born in Lincoln County on August 9,
1871 and died when only 18 or 19 years old. He is buried in the Routt-Wells Cemetery.
NOTE: Information obtained from Lincoln County, Tennessee, census records, courthouse records,
marriage records, Nashville Archives, and from Mrs. Mamie Flynt Smith, Mrs. Georgia
Crawford Oden and Mrs. Media Jenkins Clark.