1. Washington Beard was born between 1800 and 1810 in Adair County, Kentucky. He did not live until the 1850 census so we do not know his exact age. He married Elizabeth Myra "Betsey" James before 1836, no doubt in Adair County. She was born in 1810 in North Carolina, the daughter of Thomas James, spouse name unknown. Copy of an old letter from Thomas James of White County, Tennessee to Washington Beard, Adair County, Columbia Post Office, is held by the Filson Society records. In the letter, Mr. James informs his son in law Washington and daughter "Betsey" of the death of his wife, not named in the letter. He asked them to consider moving to White County to make their home there. The date of the wife's death or date of the letter [not made clear] os 14 November 1831. It appears that Mr. James had several children born in Adair County, so possibly he had lived there and then moved to Tennessee. As stated. Washington Beard passed away between 1844 and 1850, and in 1850 on the Adair County census, Elizabeth Beard had five children and was a widow. She lived on the same page as Edward and Louisa Caskey Goode family, relatives. We lose track of her in 1860, but in 1870 she is in Russell County, Kentucky in the home of her married daughter Mary E. Richards, wife of Amos Richards. On the same page is Prudence Beard Rexroat, the wife of Hardin Rexroat, and Prudence is the daughter of Jefferson Beard. Amos and Mary Richards went to Clay County, Kansas by 1880. It appears that Elizabeth James Beard traveled with them, but she died there on 4 May 1880. It is reported that she had tuberculosis contracted back in Kentucky. She is buried at the Greenwood Cemetery in Clay County, Kansas.
https://thebeardfamilyhistory.fandom.com/wiki/John_Beard,_the_son_of_John
