Patrick & Hannah Woodward Beard PageWoodward Home PageReturn to Beard and Crull Page in Mercer County page Return to John and Martha Beard Page Hannah Woodward was the third child and second daughter of Abraham & Hannah Thornbrough Woodward of Chester County, Pa, Randolph County, NC, and Jefferson County, Tn. Patrick Beard was the second child and second son of John & Martha Beard of Ireland and Randolph County, NC. |
born 12/29/1769 Londonderry, Ireland died 3/12/1831 Wayne Co, In burial north of Pennville |
born 3/31/1766 Rowan Co, NC died 10/19/1823 (?) Wayne Co, In burial Beard Cemetery |
Children: Alice Beard born 6/23/1792, Randolph Co, NC; died unmarried 12/5/1846 Mercer County, Illinois; burial Mannon Cemetery John Beard born about 1796, Jefferson County, Tn; married Charity Brady, Wayne Co, In Jane Beard born before 6/1802, Jefferson County, Tn; married Isaac Hicks Martha Beard born before 6/1802, Jefferson Co, Tn; married Nathan Commons, Wayne Co, In Hannah Beard born bef 6/1802, Jefferson County, Tn; married Eli Cook, Wayne Co, In Abraham Beard born 3/21/1803, Randolph County, NC; married Elizabeth Crull, Wayne Co, In Elizabeth Beard born before 1808, Randolph County, NC Patrick Beard born 6/15/1807(1809?) Jefferson County, Tn; married Susannah Winslow, Wayne Co, In Rachel A. Beard born 1/4/1811 Jefferson County, Tn; married Thomas Church, Wayne Co, In Woodward Beard born 1813 Wayne County, In; married Mary Crull, sister of Elizabeth Crull, Wayne Co, In |
Beards to North CarolinaPatrick Beard came with his parents, John and Martha Beard, and his brother Thomas Beard on the Ship Lord Dunluce to Charleston, South Carolina, in 1770 . By 1778 the Beards appear in Quaker records in Guilford County, North Carolina. John Beard purchased land adjacent to Abraham Woodward in Randolph County, North Carolina. There are other Beards found nearby (Guilford County) in both land and Quaker records but they were from Nantucket and not related to these Beards.Patrick Beard was very nearly the same age as Abraham's son, John Woodward, brother of Hannah, and the two boys became lifelong friends, Patrick being named coexecutor of John's will in 1821 in Wayne County, Indiana. Patrick and Hannah to Tennessee and return to North CarolinaPatrick and Hannah Woodward Beard followed the Woodward family to the Holston River area of the future state of Tennessee. A certificate to New Hope Monthly Meeting for the family was received on 12/26/1795 from Centre Monthly Meeting in North Carolina dated 4/18/1795. New Hope Meeting in Greene County was one receiving certificates for those moving to the Holston River area. On 3/25/1797 Patrick Beard was condemned at New Hope for holding a disorderly marriage in his house with fiddling and dancing. This gives us some idea of Patrick's personality.On 5/7/1803 Patrick Beard and son John, Hannah Beard and daughters Alice, Jane, Martha, and Hannah were received at Springfield Monthly Meeting in North Carolina on a certificate from Lost Creek Monthly Meeting in Tennessee. Hannah's certificate was dated 6/18/1802 at Lost Creek, hence our assignment of birthdates for the girls above as the order in the certificate usually followed age order. Martha's birthdate is sometimes seen as about 1809 from census records but we have noticed a little "fudging" on age by both men and women when they replied to census takers. Patrick's father, John Beard , had remained behind in North Carolina and died there 9/9/1809 according to records of Springfield Monthly Meeting. Patrick and family no doubt went back to North Carolina to help his father. Return to TennesseeOn 2/1/1808 a certificate was granted at Springfield for Hannah Beard and daughters Alice, Jane, Martha, Hannah and Elizabeth back to Lost Creek Monthly Meeting. Patrick Beard requested a certificate but it was withheld. It was finally granted on 3/4/1809, for Patrick and sons John and Abraham, after they had already gone back to Lost Creek. We have some question about the birthdate of Patrick, Jr., as he is not named on this certificate in 1809. We believe the return to Jefferson County, Tennessee, is another strong argument that Hannah Beard was a daughter of Abraham Woodward, otherwise the family would probably have remained in North Carolina with John Beard.The Move to IndianaPatrick, and brothers Thomas, John, and Jesse Beard are found in the 1810 Census in Wayne County, Indiana. Apparently they went there soon after the death of their father to scope out the land. According to Hinshaw "About the end of the eighteenth century there began the great migration to the Middle West which sapped the strength of all North Carolina [Quaker] meetings and ended the existence of many." Of Lost Creek Meeting in Tennessee, he writes that about 35 certificates of removal were issued to Ohio meetings between 1802 and 1810, but beginning with 1810 the tide of immigration turned to Indiana. Patrick Beard returned to Tennesse for his family, and in 1812 sold his land in Tennessee. A certificate was issued for the family at Newberry Monthly Meeting in Blount County, Tennessee in 1812, one of the first from that meeting to be issued to the north. The certificate was received at Whitewater Monthly Meeting in Wayne County, Indiana, on 10/31/1812. It named Patrick and sons John, Abraham, and Patrick and wife Hannah and daughters Alice, Martha, Elizabeth, and Rachel. Daughter Hannah was with them, just missed in the naming! We are not sure about daughter Jane, as to whether she was missed. In the pattern of births listed above she was probably born about 1794, and was probably already married to Isaac Hicks, as we do not find a marriage for them in Wayne County, Indiana.Indiana was a raw frontier having been organized as Indiana Territory in 1800, not becoming a state until 1816. The last Indian resistance was overcome at the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811. Thomas Beard, brother of Patrick, had brought his family to Wayne County in the fall of 1811, according to the Wayne County History, 1872. He cut his way for his team through the wilderness. Other settlers advised him not to stay, but Thomas resolved to remain. About a dozen men set about building a fort and the cabin of Thomas was taken into the enclosure. Three families were crowded into the cabin. This fort was never attacked; but just south of them two men were shot and scalped. When Patrick, Hannah and family arrived in 1812, they found it safe and settled not far from Thomas. When Indiana formed as a state in 1816, Wayne County had a total population of 6407 and had white males over 21 years numbering 1225. Patrick Beard was sent with three others to the State Convention in 1816, where they participated in lawmaking for the new state. He also represented Wayne County in the first two sessions of the State Senate. The name is seen variously as Baird and Beard for both Patrick and his son John who also served in politics. Patrick Beard, in one of his biographies, is credited with helping develop the Indiana state system of free schools which later served as a model for the other states. This is somewhat of an overstatement; Patrick probably "helped" in the sense that he voted for it. There is an interesting Web Site that includes the Journal of the Convention of the Indiana Territory. It verifies that Patrick Beard/Baird did indeed participate, and has daily session transcripts where you can see how he voted on various issues. Deaths in IndianaIn the 1830 Census for Wayne County, Patrick's wife Hannah Beard is no longer with him. The Beard Cemetery in Wayne County includes a tombstone with only the letters "na" remaining and a date of death of October 19, 1823. This is probably Hannah's tombstone. Patrick Beard died in Wayne County in 1831. He had given up his Senate duties in 1829 and was also dismissed by Milford Monthly Meeting in 1829 for nonattendance at meeting. He had actually joined the Hicksite Quakers. Milford Monthly Meeting minutes indicate that several of the Beard children were dismissed for non attendance and for deviating from plainness of speech and dress, but some also joined the Hicksites.Barbara Frisby, a Woodward Beard descendant, located the will of Patrick Beard. Unfortunately the second page of the will is missing but we have posted the first page on the Beard Will Page. It is not dated but must have been written about 1830/31. It names all his children except Martha, and she may be covered in the second page. It verifies that Jane's married name was Hicks, that Hannah's was Cook, and tells us Alice, Elizabeth, and Rachel were unmarried at that time. We know Alice never married and we have not found a marriage record for Elizabeth. Rachel married Thomas Church on 1/29/1835 in Wayne County. Martha had married Nathan Commons on 10/28/1819 in Wayne County. A sketch of the Commons family in Wayne County History, 1792 verifies that Nathan married Martha, daughter of Patrick Beard. There is more on the Commons family on the Mercer County Web Site listed below. Descendants to IllinoisAccording to various census records Woodward Beard, Patrick Beard, Jr., Abraham Beard, Hannah Cook, Rachel Church, and Martha Beard Commons's son Enos Commons moved on to Mercer County, Illinois. They settled very near Harvey and Rachel Woodward Welch. Rachel was their cousin, daughter ofHannah's brother, John Woodward. For more on the life of the Beard and Crull families in Mercer County see the Web Site Life along the Mississippi in the 1800's. |
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