JOHN1 BEARD, “the 1st, was born about 1665 and was from Exeter, Devonshire, England.  The name of his wife is not recorded in this country.  He came from Teigmouth, a widower, with two sons…Richard, probably born around 1690, and John, Jr., 1704-1795.  Richard had with him his wife, Dorothy.  Around 1710 they had settled at Nantucket Island, Massachusetts.  They were Quakers.”

JOHN BEARD had two sons:

RICHARD2 BEARD (JOHN1) was born Abt. 1690.  He married DOROTHY.

RICHARD and DOROTHY had one son:

JOHN2 BEARD, JR. (JOHN1) was born 1704, and died 1795.  He married DEBORAH PEASE, daughter of NATHAN PEASE and HANNAH CHASE.  She was born in 1714, and died in 1791.

    JOHN and DEBORAH had eleven children:

RICHARD3 BEARD, JR. (RICHARD2, JOHN1) was born in 1718, and died in 1803.  On July 09, 1742 he married EUNICE MACY, daughter of JABEZ MACY and SARAH STARBUCK.  She was born in 1721, and died in 1776.

 ‘They left Nantucket for Guilford County in North Carolina in 1772 when  “many islanders who cared more for cultivation of the earth than pursuing the  whale departed for more distant lands during the years 1771-1775.  Several went  to Orange County (later Guilford County was made from it) in North Carolina  to several of the springheads of Deep River.”  At the time their certificate was  received, New Garden was the only official Quaker meeting in this new  settlement.  It was set off from Crane Creek Monthly Meeting in 1754.  The  Quakers in the Deep River Settlement belonged to New Garden Monthly  Meeting until Deep River Monthly Meeting was set up later.
    The home of Richard and Eunice was located a few hundred yards south of Deep  River Friends Church and Cemetery.’

RICHARD and EUNICE had six children:

WILLIAM4 BEARD (RICHARD3, RICHARD2, JOHN1) was born in 1751, and died in 1795.  On February 04, 1773 he married LAVINAH GIFFORD in North Carolina.  She died in 1807 and “was a sister of Jonathan Gifford, who married William’s sister, Eunice, in Nantucket.  They probably made their home with William’s parents south of the Church at Deep River.”
 

 ‘To establish with certainty the home of William and Lavinah Beard we copy a  part of Cornwallis’ report to his Government after the battle of Guilford Court  House, March 15, 1781.  “We were encamped between the forks of Deep River at  the Quaker Church on the 13th and 14th, and received word that Green had  moved his army to Guilford about twelve miles away.  On the morning of the  15th at daybreak we broke camp and met the enemy.”  (Wheeler: History of  North Carolina)  Reliable tradition records that Cornwallis was encamped in  and around Deep River Church with his tented headquarters under four large  white oak trees almost in William’s yard.  The trees were historic landmarks  until recent years when they have decayed and fallen.

 What occupation William was engaged in other than farming would be  conjecture, but in all probability, he carried on hat-making to some extent. There is also evidence at the old home of some form of pottery business.’

WILLIAM and LAVINAH had five children:

      ‘From his (William’s) will executed November 9, 1794, he willed to his, David  “All the interest by his Hatter’s Trade, also all the hatter’s tools and his time from my death till he arrives at the age of 21.”  This may have been of large value than it appears.
    To his son, Benjamin, he willed: “all that tract of land I bought of Richard Glover and William Roper containing eighty-eight acres be same more or less with all the privileges thereto belonging to him and his heirs forever.” From all evidence this covered the homes of Benjamin’s heirs in later years and in 1933 was largely owned by Virgil Beard, a great-grandson.
    To the youngest son, William, Jr., he willed “at his Mother’s decease or  marriage, the plantation or tract of land that I now line on with all the privileges  thereto attached.”
    To his daughters, Lydia and Rachel, he made minor bequests.
This will was probated in May 1795, soon after his death.  Stephen Gardner and John Talbot were executors and settled the estate.’

DAVID5 BEARD (WILLIAM4, RICHARD3, RICHARD2, JOHN1) was born in 1774 in North Carolina, and died 1849.  In 1796 he married REBECCA BROWN who was born in 1778 and died in 1858.  She was the  daughter of JAMES BROWN and MARTHA, “who moved to North Carolina in 1778 from McDuffie County, Georgia.”
 

    “Receiving no land from his father’s will, David purchased in 1979 a tract of land from Pheneas Mendenhall about one mile north of Jamestown.  There was on this property until recent date a commodious brick dwelling of Colonial architecture with hip roof and gable windows.  Here David built and equipped his later well-know Hat Shop which was located about two hundred feet west of the home.
    Here he conducted a retail store in trade for furs.  There were shelved full of goods and within a few years he had accumulated considerable wealth for the times, but soon he had lost all by overstocking with merchandise during the War of 1812.
    Some two hundred feet north of the homesite was a fine spring of water in a clump of forest oak and a short distance down this stream was a tanyard of twenty or twenty-five vat capacity.  There is no evidence there were any improvements on this property when purchased: therefore, we conclude that David erected the building, developed the hat and tannery business by his own industry and made for himself a name of at least local historic interest.  The last  know hat that he made has been placed, along with a copy of the history of the family by A. M Briggs of High Point in the Guilford College Library.”

DAVID and REBECCA had three children:

 WILLIAM ASHBURY1 BEARD was born in 1797 and died in 1876.  In 1819 he married MARTHA HENLEY, daughter of John and Martha Hubbard Henley.  Martha was dismissed from the Quaker church for marrying out of unity. They settled at Midway in Davidson County, NC.

 “In a letter from David to his son, James in Illinois before 1839 he says: ‘As for   thy brother William, at last account they were well.  William preaching some,  making hats, some pottery.  And still having children.’
    From a letter in 1842 from David to James in Illinois.  ‘As to thy brother William, he is following the same trade and preaching and that is one of the  most expensive families I know of.’
    Two of William’s sons, Augustus and JAMES, settled in Kernersville, North Carolina, where James organized the mercantile and tobacco firm of BEARD AND ROBERTS and operated this business successfully for a number of years  after the Civil War.  James died in 1897.
    The James Beard homestead was still standing in 1950 but has since been torn down.”

WILLIAM and MARTHA had twelve children:

JAMES WILLIAM ASHBURY2 BEARD (WILLIAM ASBURY1) was born April 22, 1841 near Midway, NC (now Davidson County), and died October 19, 1897.  On February 24, 1869 he married SUSAN PHILLIPS, daughter of JOHN PHILLIPS and MARY PEEBLES.  Born July 17, 1850, she was educated at Salem Academy, and died January 16, 1922.  They had six children and were members of the Methodist Church of Kernersville and are buried in the grave yard there.

 ‘James was a resident of Kernersville for about twenty-five  years.  Soon after  locating in Kernersville he was engaged in the mercantile business with Mr. J.  C. Roberts, the firm name being Beard and Roberts.
    Kernersville, North Carolina had its beginning in 1756 when Caleb Story  bought 400 acres for “four gallons of rum.”  Caleb Story, recently from Ireland,  had made his home about twelve miles east of present-day Winston-Salem and  near the Guilford County line, and sometime between the years 1756-1760 he  bought the 400 acres, comprising at that time, the boundaries of that settlement  for “four gallons of rum”, according to tradition.
    The territory was subsequently sold to a Mr. Dobson, which gave to the little  township the name “Dobson’s Cross Roads”, a name which it retained for many  years.  Sometime after Gottlich Shober had purchased the site from Dobson,  Shober surrendered his title to the property in 1819 to a native of Germany,  Joseph Kerner.  Sixty-one years later Kerner had died, leaving the original 400  acres and 700 additional which he had bought to his three children.
    James traveled for several years for Nanbury, Lauer, Krous Company, a large  clothing firm of New York City.  Then he and Mr. Roberts built a large brick  factory and engaged in the manufacture of tobacco.  In this they were not  successful due to pressure from big tobacco interests and this business was  discontinued.’

JAMES and SUSAN had six children:

i.   JAMES WILLIAM3 BEARD was born January 13, 1870 in Mowfield, NC at the home of his Maternal grandparents and he died August 09, 1953 in  Norfolk, VA.  He married CARRIE BOYD LOWREY on February 09, 1894 in the parlor of the Central Hotel in Salisbury, Rowan County, NC.  He was brought up in Kernersville and attended a business school in Poukeepsie, NY

 from J. W. Beard’s Journal
    “Friday: We left Statesville, N.C. Thursday night February 8,
  1894 intending tohave our marriage consummated as soon as we     reached Salisbury, and while waiting for the north-bound train, was    unable to find Register of Deeds and decided to go on home, but the    Hotel Clerk promised to help us so we staied.  Register of Deeds refused   to grant license without some one affirming Carrie was of lawful age.     This we could not do, so we remained at the Central Hotel until the     following day and after a good deal of trouble and delay finally got Dr.
            J. W. Griffith to testify to her age, and on his testimony and my oath    that Carrie was over twenty, I succeeded in getting the License and     went back to Hotel and after a little longer delay found a Minister who went at once the Hotel “and made us happy.”
    “Carrie wore a lavender green traveling dress.  I had on a black  business suit,  but  we got there just the same.”
    “We left Salisbury on the 10:00 P.M. train and went to Greensboro, Carrie going to the Greensboro Female College and spending the night   with Emma.  I stopped at the Buron House and went to Winston the    next day.”
    “Scared, but awfully Happy.”                                      Rev. W. H. Leith

  JAMES AND CARRIE had three children:

  “After a few years spent in Bennettsville, SC working as an accountant for a large department store there, James and Carrie moved to Norfolk, Virginia, where he was employed for nearly fifty years for the Royster Guano Company.  He was retired in 1948.   They were active in the Methodist Church for many years and then joined the Christian Science Church of Norfolk.  They had three children.”

ii.   MINNIE PEEBLES BEARD was born in 1871 and died in 1892.  She never married.
iii.  ROBERT BRUCE BEARD was born March 21, 1874 in Kernersville,   Forsyth County, NC and died April 26, 1930.  He married
      METS UPCHURCH on January 1904.

    Bruce Beard was educated at A&M College (now NC State  University) in Raleigh, NC.  Around 1912 he moved to Florida  residing most of that time with his family in Jacksonville.  At the time  of his marriage in January of 1904 to Meta Upchurch of Raleigh, he was an engineer on the Seaboard and City Engineer of Jacksonville, Florida, for over eleven years.  He held that position in Gainesville, Florida at the time of his death.  Meta was the daughter of John William Upchurch of Raleigh, a retail and wholesale merchant.  They had six children.

iv.   CARRIE ALICE BEARD was born August 01, 1879 in Kernersville, Forsyth County, NC and died October 31, 1960 in
      Winston-Salem,  Forsyth County, NC.
v.   ANNIE MABEL BEARD was born January 11, 1882 and died September 25, 1903.
vi.  JOHN GROVER BEARD was born April 15, 1888 and died April 23, 1946.  On April 22, 1913 he married Mary Polk “Polkie”
      McGee who died in 1930. He later married Gladys Angel of Liberty, NY.

  Grover Beard graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1909.  He became a Professor of Pharmacy there and at his death was Dean of the School of Pharmacy.  The School of Pharmacy Building at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill now bears his name.

GROVER AND “POLKIE” had one child:
  i. “Jack” JOHN GROVER4 BEARD, JR. was born August 11, 1915, died December 22, 1994 in Portland, OR

CARRIE ALICE3 BEARD (JAMES WILLIAM ASBURY2, WILLIAM ASBURY1) was born August 01, 1879 in Kernersville, Forsyth County, NC1, and died October 31, 1960 in Winston-Salem, Forsyth County, NC.  She married DR. PHINEAS EDGAR HORTON2 August 16, 1899, son of ALEXANDER HAMILTON HORTON and MARY JANE VOGLER.  He was born September 26, 1872 in Salem, Forsyth County, NC, and died April 14, 1940 in Winston-Salem, Forsyth County, NC.  Both are buried in God’s Acre, Old Salem, Winston-Salem, NC

CARRIE and PHINEAS had one child:
 i. PHINEAS EDGAR4 HORTON, JR3 was born April 28, 1900, "at the Home Place", Salem, Forsyth County, NC4; died February 09, 1971 in Stokes County, NC5 and is buried in God’s Acre, Old Salem, Winston-Salem, NC.  He married LAURA FRANCES MEDEARIS6 on May 02, 1925 in Centenary Methodist Church, Winston-Salem, NC7.  She was born November 12, 1899 in Winston, Forsyth County, NC and was the daughter of Newton Harris Medearis and Laura Frances Roberson.  She died December 10, 1984 in Winston-Salem, Forsyth County, NC and is buried in Salem Cemetery, Winston-Salem, NC.8

1.  Winston-Salem Journal, November 1, 1960, Obituary for Carrie Beard Horton.
2.  Hickerson, Thomas Felix; Happy Valley: History and Genealogy, pg. 40.
3.  Henderson, Archibald; North Carolina: The Old North State And The New, Vol. IV: North Carolina Biography; 1941, pg. 341.
4.  Winston-Salem Journal, February 9, 1971, Obituary for Phin Horton.
5.  Winston-Salem Journal, February 10, 1971, News Article: "Phin Horton, Jr.: A Mixture of Old South,  Trial Lawyer".
6.  Henderson, Archibald; North Carolina: The Old North State And The New, Vol. IV: North Carolina Biography; 1941, pg. 341.
7.  Winston-Salem Journal, May 3, 1925, News Article: "Medearis-Horton Wedding Solemnized at Centenary Church".
8.  Home Moravian Church Records, Winston-Salem, NC.