Margaret Beard married William Shook III
Margaret Beard married William Shook III on 3 November 1818 in Bedford County, Tennessee. We note that no descendants of this line have claimed any parents or lineage for their ancestor Margaret Beard. We propose that Margaret was the daughter of Hugh, who was listed on the 1820 Bedford County census (as "Hugh Baird") before he moved to northern Alabama before November of 1826 and died there before November 1831. Hugh and Esther Beard had another daughter, Mary "Polly" Beard, who married Absalom Coffee/Coffey and this couple also lived in the counties of northern Alabama. In an 1826 document filed in Adair County, Kentucky, Hugh Beard was said to be "of Limestone County, Alabama". In an 1831 document filed at same, Hugh Beard, now recorded as deceased, was "of Jackson County, Alabama". William and Margaret Beard Shook lived in Jackson County, Alabama, as well. We believe that Hugh and Esther Beard were living amongst their two daughters' families in their elder years. Indeed, on the 1830 census in Jackson County, Alabama, there is an elderly (age 80-89) female in the home of William Shook, and since his own mother was long deceased, this woman is the right age and place to be Margaret Beard's widowed mother, Esther Beard.
In Bedford County, Tennessee, both the Beard and the Shook family lived in the area known as Flat Creek. Although not proven, we include the line of William and Margaret Beard Shook in this family line until proven to be incorrect, for all the reasons stated above. Any assistance with this family would be appreciated.
Margaret Beard was born about 1791 in what is now Knox County, Tennessee. She may have been the youngest child of her family; she was certainly the last to be married, in 1818. She would have grown up there in Knox County until about age eight or so, when her parents moved to Adair County, Kentucky. When she was a young woman, many of the family moved to the Flat Creek area of Bedford County, Tennessee. This is where she would have met and married William Shook III. The Shook family and Hugh Beard's family appear to have lived in the same part of Knox County when Margaret was little, however, so they could have known the Shooks from that earler time. He was the son of William Shook II and wife Elender Waters, and he was born on 19 February 1796 in Knox County, Tennessee, according to Shook family histories. In October of 1820 in Bedford County, William and Margaret produced twin sons and named them Wesley Marion and William Milborne. They had two more children in Tennessee in 1824 and in 1829. It is interesting that their third child was named "Elihu/Elihew" Shook; we wonder if this could have been a version of Margaret's father's name, Hugh. By 1830, they had moved not so far away, to northern Alabama near the Tennessee line, and were listed in the 1830 census of Jackson County, Alabama. As stated above, an elderly female who could have been Margaret's mother lived with them. They also appear to be well-to-do, as they owned five slaves. In 1834, another set of male twins joined the family. The Shook family appears to have produced a significant number of twins. Between 1830 and 1840, William Shook died. In 1840, Margaret Shook was listed as the had of household in Jackson County, with, it appears, several of her seven known children at home. An elderly female was still present in the home, and probably her age was mistakenly recorded as "80-89" again--one or the other censuses could have a mistaken age, but we do not know this. The 1850 census of Jackson County showed widow Margaret Shook at home with "Millom" Shook, (one of her elder twin sons), Tabitha, Mary Ann, and twins Levi and Leroy. Her son Elihu Shook lived next door with his wife and two young daughters. The other twin, Wesley M., lived in same county with his wife and three young children. Both the twins married girls named Mary. We note that several internet family histories have confused the two older twins and attribute the wrong children to each, or worse, amalgamate both twins into one and attribute all the children to that one. By 1860, twin Wesley Marion Shook had moved to Franklin County, Arkansas with a large family. His brother William M. Shook was still in Jackson County, Alabama and Margaret was still with him. His brother Elihu and family were nearby. In 1870, still in Jackson County, William and Mary Shook still provided a home for Margaret, who was 79. It is interesting--and typical---that Margaret, who was born in Tennessee before it was a state, variously reported her birthplace as North Carolina (1860), as Tennessee (1850), and even as Kentucky (1870). This helps prove that Margaret at least lived in the state of Kentucky at one time! Margaret is not found on any 1880 census; she probably died before this, in Jackson County, Alabama. No burial place is known for her or for William Shook III.
http://thebeardfamilyhistory.wikia.com/wiki/Margaret_Beard_married_William_Shook_III
