Samuel Jones Beard
Biography from Biographical Annals of Lancaster County, PA, Vol. II p. 483
SAMUEL J. BEARD, one of the prominent farmers of Penn township, belongs to a family which has been settled in Pennsylvania for several generations. Grandfather Robert Beard came to America from Ireland, and resided for a short time in Chester county, in this State, moving then into Lancaster county, where he resided until his death. By trade he was a charcoal burner and this was his occupation during life. Five children were born to him and his wife: Joseph, who moved to York county and died there; Robert, who became a farmer in Dauphin county; James, the father of Samuel J.; John, who is a farmer in Lebanon county; and Margaret, who married John Crawford.
James Beard, the father of Samuel J., was born in Lancaster county, about I795. In early life he followed the business of charcoal burning, but later purchased the farm where Samuel J. now resides, and turned his attention to agriculture until his death, in 1847. James Beard married Miss Ellen Jones, and they had nine children born to them: Martha, deceased wife of Henry Meixell; Mary, the widow of Jacob Krall: Robert, a farmer of Penn township; James, deceased, who lived in Reading; Margaret, unmarried; Catherine, the wife of David Brosey; Eliza, the widow of Isaac Weachter; Ellen, the widow of Abram Kauffman; Samuel J., the youngest of the family.
Samuel J. Beard was born in Penn township April 11, 1835, and was left fatherless at the age of twelve years. Until he was twenty-seven years of age he remained with his mother, a kind and dutiful son. Mr. Beard received an excellent public school education, which was supplemented by one term in the Normal school, in Millersville. Possessing a quick intelligence and a love of study, he soon was qualified for teaching, and took charge of his first school before he was twenty-one years old. For twelve years he acceptably followed this profession. In 1866, at the death of his beloved mother, to whom he had shown every care, he purchased the old homestead and since that time has given his attention to farming, demonstrating that he is as good a farmer as teacher.
In politics Mr. Beard is a stanch Democrat, and has taken a very active interest in the party councils in this locality. For fifteen years he served as justice of the peace, for five years he was assessor, for the same time tax collector, and he served one term as school director. The marriage of Mr. Beard was to Miss Margaret Keath, and to this union was born a family of seven children: Mary, the widow of Harry Diehm; Lizzie, the wife of Jacob Moyer; Maggie, the wife of Horace Biemesderfer; Frank, a farmer of Mechanicsville; John, a farmer at Erbsdale; Charles, a miller, near Mount Hope; and Howard, a teacher of West Park, in Penn township.
Mr. Beard has spent a long and useful life in this locality, is well known and most highly esteemed. He is a leading member of the Lutheran Church, one of the elders and one of its most liberal supporters. Mr. Beard may be justly called a representative man of Penn township.
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