Josiah Beard, married Diodema Mann
Josiah Beard was born in Eastern Tennessee when that state was a territory, on 26 February 1790. If he had a middle name, it may have been "Littleton", as we have at least eight Josiahs in these old Beard lines from Samuel, and in many instances the middle name is given as Littleton. Josiah was about eight or nine when his parents moved the family up to Green County, Kentucky, to lands that would soon become Adair County. He married Diodemia/Demia/Demy Mann in Mannsville, Green County, Kentucky. The marriage bond was dated 3 November 1814 in Green County.
Demia Mann was the daughter of Moses Mann and Frances/Fanny Bland, born 4 October 1792 in Botetourt County, Virginia. The Beard family had also been in Botetourt/Bath County and the Beards and the Manns knew each other from their Valley of Virginia years. The Beard family left there and went to pioneer in the Southwest Territory, but the Mann family seems to have stayed in Virginia, then come to Kentucky in very early times and they were reunited with several old families that they knew back in Virginia. The town of Mannsville, Kentucky is named for them. Moses Mann was on the marriage bond with Josiah as father of "Damy" Mann, the bride. He gave the young couple a farm in Green County, where they lived for some years, selling it and movinng near Columbia, Adair County about 1836.
Josiah and Sampson Caskey together purchased a parcel of land at foreclosure on 16 July 1824. This was from the estate of John Mathews and was 300 acres on the north fork of Casey Creek in Adair County. We believe that Sampson Caskey was the brother to Robert Caskey, who had married Josiah's sister Elizabeth Beard in 1810.
Josiah and Demia lived on their Adair County lands until he retired from farming in 1856. They then lived with their son James W. Beard. According to old histories, Josiah was a major in the Kentucky militia, a member of the Christian Church and an officer in his local Masonic Lodge. He was highly regarded by his Mann inlaws. His brother in law, John Mann named a son for him. In the will of Moses Mann in 1849, Josiah and Demia received 300 acres of land, two slaves, and an interest in a salt mine.
Josiah died on 25 February 1866, just after witnessing his country go through catastrophic Civil War years. At the time of his death he was living at the home of his son, James W. Beard, in Adair County. The widow, Demia Beard was listed living with James in the 1880 census at age 88. [We have yet to find the family on the 1870 census.] Demia Mann Beard died 19 May 1882 at age 89 in Adair County. We do not know the burial place of either, but it was probably on their old lands.
[Note: we are aware of the old Kentucky biography books that perpetuate several Beard family fallacies. A study of the family through actual records affords a much better picture of their travels and what really happened. The old history completely skips our family's time spent in the Southwest Territory from the late 1780s until they came to Kentucky in 1798. It is confusing but becomes very clear when studied that the line of Samuel then went back to Tennessee, to lands around Shelbyville, Bedford County, and Samuel was there with his family on the 1820 census. Meanwhile, the old history reports that Josiah was "a native of Shelby County, Tennessee". No. Shelby County is around Memphis and Josiah never lived there. Josiah was born near Knoxville, in either Greene County or Knox County, Tennessee, in 1792, but his father and some of his siblings moved down to **Shelbyville**, Tennessee between 1810 and 1820. This is a perfect example of how things get lost in the telling, and the old histories are only as good as the transcriber, so always question and beware. Another example in the same history is that Josiah Beard was said to have been born "about 1790" and died at age 97. This would make his death in the year 1887, when he actually died in 1866 and he was about 76.]
http://thebeardfamilyhistory.wikia.com/wiki/Josiah_Beard,_married_Diodema_Mann
