Samuel M. Beard

The parents of Samuel M. Beard
Samuel M. Beard was born about 1831 or 1832 in Bedford County, Tennessee. He married Margaret M. Patterson on 29 September 1854, the daughter of Robert A. and Hannah Shockley Patterson. Margaret was born on 29 December 1833 in Bedford County. In 1860 they were listed in Marshall County, Tennessee, where Samuel worked as a miller, and they had three young children. War came soon after, and Samuel joined the Confederate forces with his brothers. There are war records for his brothers William David and Joseph Patton Beard, both in the 53rd Tennessee Infantry, Company B, but we do not find a record for Samuel. We know that he served, however. In 1922, his brother William David Beard recounted in documents that the brothers were in federal prison together and when released, Joseph Patton Beard was sent home and the other two went back into service. William David Beard told of fighting through Georgia during the Battle for Atlanta, and how he buried his brother Samuel at the Battle of Peachtree Creek in Atlanta in July of 1864. This author lives in Atlanta and has many times walked the Memorial Park trails that now run along this creek, where so many of the dead were buried where they fell, with makeshift wooden crosses for markers that were worn away with time.
After the War, Samuel's widow Margaret Patterson Beard was listed on the 1870 census living in her father Robert Patterson's household in Cane Creek, Jackson, Carter County, Missouri. (He is said to have founded the town of Elsinore, Missouri, in the year 1857.) She was 35 and a widow with three children. Her father died in Missouri in 1871, and Margaret and her children were probably back in Tennessee before 1875, as her daughter Hannah was married that year in Marshall County, Tennessee. In 1880, Margaret was a 45 year old widow who lived next household to her married daughter Hannah Beard Collins in Marshall County. Her other two children were in her home. Margaret passed away on 6 January 1891 in Marshall County. She was buried at the Collins Cemetery in Marshall County.
One interesting note about Margaret Patterson Beard: her father Robert is said by some online sources to have married first to an unknown Beard. This would have been before his marriage in 1824 to Hannah Shockley. We are not able to confirm this and do not know on what information it is based, but it is interesting.
The descendants of Samuel M. and Margaret Patterson Beard:
1. Hannah Geneva Beard was born in Marshall County, Tennessee on 28 October 1855. She married Willis Paul Collins on 23 December 1875 in Marshall County. Willis was the son of Thomas Collins, who during the Civil War was the landlord of some of our Beard family in Marshall County. Willis was born 11 November 1845 in Giles County, Tennessee and he was raised there. In 1866, he married his first wife, Margaret Smith, who died in 1874 and left him with four young children. A year later, he married Hannah Beard. According to a biography of Willis in Goodspeed's History of Tennessee, Willis and Hannah were members of the Methodist Episcopal Church South. They lived on a farm of 257 acres, where he was "considered one of the skillful farmers of the county and is a man who commands the respect of all". In 1880, enumberated on the census in Marshall County, Willis and Hannah had three of his children from his first marriage in the home, and a three year old son with Hannah. Next household was Hannah's mother Margaret Patterson Beard, listed with her other two children. In 1900, Willis and Hannah lived just over the Tennessee line with Alabama, listed in Hazel Green, Madison County, Alabama with five of six children still living, four at home. Willis Collins died in 1904 and was buried at the State Line Cemetery in Hazel Green, Madison County, Alabama. In 1910, Hannah Collins lived in Huntsville, Madison County, Alabama as a widow, with three of her children, a small granddaughter, and three boarders. Her son Samuel lived next door. In 1920, Hannah was listed in the home of her married daughter Eunice Brown in Hazel Green, Madison County, Alabama, and seems to have moved along with the Browns to Florida, as she was listed next to them on the 1930 census in Polk County, Florida, living with her grown son Roy. Hannah Beard Collins died on 29 July 1941 in Dechard, Franklin County, Tennessee; she was buried at the State Line Cemetery beside Willis.
: 2. Samuel Thomas Collins, born in 1877 in Marshall County, Tennessee, was named after his two grandfathers. He seems to have gone by "Tom". He married in Marshall County on 5 September 1897 to Luvina Nettie Stallings. She was born in October 1878 in Tennessee, the daughter of William Richard and Rachel Frances Hathcock Stallings of Marshall County. This family has been somewhat hard to trace, but so far we have found that they lived in Marshall County on the 1900 census with two babies. His name is unreadable on the census, but the birthdate may say "Jan 1877" or "Jun 1877", with wife Nettie and son Willis and daughter Anice. They were listed as married for three years. In 1910, Samuel Collins, carpenter, and wife Nettie, who was listed as a "sewing woman", lived at Hazel Green, Madison County, Alabama, and had two children. Maggie Stallings, age 24, lived with them as a "boarder" and was probably the sister or relative of Nettie. Next door was his mother Hannah Collins. The family still lived in Alabama when a third child was born in 1914, but moved to Kelso, Lincoln County, Tennessee by September of 1918. That was when he filed his draft card. Their fourth child was born in Lincoln County in about 1916. In 1920 the family is listed in Lincoln County, Tennessee with four children. In about 1922, a fifth child was born in Tennessee, but in 1930 they lived at Birmingham, Jefferson County, Alabama. There Tom S. Collins was listed working at a dairy farm. That is the last information about Samuel Thomas or Nettie, for we find no further records for them, death or burial.
:: 3. William Willis Collins was born 10 July 1898 in Tennessee. As a young man, he lived in Redfield, South Dakota with his unlce, Mark Stallings, working for an Oliver Hazlet there. This was detailed in his World War I draft registration, which was filed in Lincoln County, Tennessee. William may have still been there during the 1920 census, and we have not yet found him on it. He married Charlotte L. "Lottie" Simms on 30 July 1921 in Lincoln County, Tennessee. She was born 23 August 1904 in Lincoln County, Tennessee, the daughter of George Washington Higgins "Hig" Simms and Mary Katherine "Kate" McCown. In 1930, Charlotte and William were living in Decherd, Franklin County, Tennessee, where he was proprietor of a grocery. They had two young sons, Samuel Thomas and Phillip W. William Willis Collins died in March 1975 in Decherd, Franklin County, Tennessee and was laid to rest at Mount Garner Cemetery there. Charlotte Simms Collins is at rest there, as well; she died in May 1987. There is a Phillip Collins listed in the same cemetery with no dates, but we do not know if he is the same one. Note that on her grave, Charlotte's birth date is 1904, but Social Security records list an official date of birth as above.
:: 3. Anice Marguerite Collins: There is a record of an Anice Marguerite Seifert, born 14 March 1900 in Tennessee who died on 13 August 1977 in College Grove, Williamson County, Tennessee, with an alternate address of Winchester, Franklin County, Tennessee. There is a marriage record in Franklin County for Anice Collins and William E. Seifert dated 7 July 1940. Was this her first marriage? Did she first marry William Warden/Worden on 25 May 1929 in Moore County, Tennessee, or did she have a sister who did? On the 1930 census, Samuel Thomas Collins had a son in law named William Warden in his home. Any help is appreciated in clearing up this puzzle.
:: 3. Frances Collins was born in Madison County, Alabama on 25 July 1913. She married Earl Charles Grover after 1930, the son of Laney and Ellen Josephine Regan Grover. He was born on 8 October 1913 in Alabama. Earl died in February 1985 in Winchester, Franklin County, Tennessee. Frances died 28 December 1987 in same; no burial place is known. They had known children Charles and Peggy.
:: 3. Samuel Thomas Collins was born about 1917 in Lincoln County, Tennessee. He appeared on the 1920 census with his family but was not listed in 1930. We know of no burial place or death date.
:: 3. Mary Lucille Collins was born about 1922 in Tennessee. She married Ed Warren. We have no further information on this family.
::
: 2. Walter Otto Collins was born 5 March 1881 in Marshall County, Tennessee. He married there on 14 May 1898 to Lizzie Mae Freeman, the daughter of James Franklin "Frank" Freeman and his wife Martha Ann Elizabeth "Lizzie" Robinson. She was born in Tennessee in March 1880. Her younger sister Una married Walter's younger brother Robert Roy Collins in 1906, but died soon after. In 1900, the newlyweds lived next household to his parents in Hazel Green, Madison County, Alabama. In 1910 they lived in the same place, with two young sons. In 1918 Walter filled out his draft card in Madison County, Alabama, but stated that he lived at Lincoln County, Tennessee. In 1920 the family was listed in Hazel Green, Alabama again, with three children. Lizzie Freeman Collins died on 21 February 1926 in Tuscaloosa, Tuscaloosa County, Alabama. No burial place is yet known for her. It appears that he married a second time to Lula Callahan, about whom we have no information. Walter died in Chattanooga, Hamilton County, Tennessee on 22 February 1946. His death record there lists his parents and "wife, Lula Callahan". He is buried at Forest Hills Cemetery in Chattanooga.
:: 3. Solon Leroy Collins was born on 15 September 1904 in Tennessee. He married Margaret Ewing Phillips. She was the daughter of Dayton and Margaret Julia Ewing, born on 25 June 1906. Only a death date is known for Solon, who passed away on 2 May 1967 in Fulton County, Georgia. No further information is found.
:: 3. Earl H. Collins was born about 1909 in Madison County, Alabama.
:: 3. Sarah Collins was born about 1913 in Madison County, Alabama.
: 2. Ethel Collins was born in May 1883 in Tennessee. In 1905, Ethel married John Will Graham, probably in Madison County, Alabama. He was born in October 1884 in Alabama to an unknown Graham father and mother Ella. In 1910, Ethel and John W. Graham, married five years, lived in LaJunta, Otero County, Colorado, where he was a machinist with the railroad. They had had one child, which was not living. Railroad life required changing places, and they appear to have lived in Oklahoma next, then in 1920 they were in Amarillo, Potter County, Texas, listed next door to Roy Collins, Ethel's brother. John Graham was still a machinist working for the railroads, and they now had two children, the eldest born in Colorado and youngest born in Oklahoma in 1915. John Graham's mother, Ella Powell, a widow, lived with them. By 1925, we find them listed in the Kansas State Census at Wichita in Sedgwick County with their two children. No further information is yet known about the family.
:: 3. John William Graham Jr. was born about 1911 in Colorado.
:: 3. Pauline Graham was born about 1915 in Oklahoma.
: 2. Sarah E. "Sallie" Collins was born in October 1885 in Tennessee. She married to Robert Neil Turner about the year 1914 in Tennessee. He was born on 9 October 1885 in Tennessee, parents unknown to us at present. Robert filled out a draft card in 1918, living in Lewisburg, Marshall County, Tennessee. He was an electrician for DuPont Engineering Company in Nashville. In 1920 in Marshall County on Spring Place Pike, Robert and Sallie lived with their young son Robert Jr. In 1930, they lived in Birmingham, Jefferson County, Alabama with three children. Robert was manager of a restaurant, and Sallie was a waitress at the restaurant. Sallie Collins Turner died on 27 February 1941, place unknown, and was buried in Marshall County, Tennessee at Lone Oak Cemetery. Robert died in Warren, Macomb County, Michigan in March 1976; he was buried beside Sallie at Lone Oak.
:: 3. Robert Neal Turner Jr. was born 23 May 1917 at Lewisburg, Marshall County, Tennessee. He served as a private in World War II. Robert died 13 January 1998 in Lewisburg, Tennessee. His grave is found at Lone Oak Cemetery in Lewisburg, as are his parents.
:: 3. William Paul Turner was born about 1921 in Tennessee. He was a successful business owner in Deerfield IL. He owned and worked at Turner's T.V. Repair shop in town and was known for his honesty and outgoing personality. He and his wife Betty had three children together: Paul, Dana, and Jeanie. He passed away in 1981.
:: 3. Ann Geneva Turner was born about 1923 in Tennessee.
::
: 2. Robert Roy Collins was born on 15 June 1887 in Lewisburg, Marshall County, Tennessee. His marriage was on 14 March 1906 in Marshall County, to Una Cloe Freeman. Una was the younger sister of Lizzie Freeman who married Robert's elder brother Walter in 1898, and she was born 11 February 1887 in Tennessee. Sadly, Una died on 22 June 1908 in Tennessee, soon after giving birth to a daughter there. We do not yet know a burial place for her. Her husband Roy was listed as a widower on the 1910 census in Huntsville, Madison County, Alabama, living with his mother Hannah. He worked as a grocery sales clerk there and his two year old daughter was with them, named Una for her mother. There are online reports that Una was called Vara, but we do not know. On 10 April 1914, Robert Roy married a second time, to Bonnie Lenore Harton. Bonnie was born on 8 November 1892 in Arkansas. We presently have no information about her parents. In 1918, Robert filed his draft card in Lincoln County, Tennessee, saying that he farmed in Kelso, Lincoln County, Tennessee and had a wife and three children. By 1920, Robert had a job with the railroads, and he and the family were listed in Potter County, Texas, next to his sister Eunice and her Graham family. In 1930, Roy and Bonnie Collins lived in Hardee County, Florida and owned a truck farm. Theye had four daughters. In 1935, Florida took a state census, and the family was listed at Polk County at this time. Robert Roy Collins died in June 1960 in Florida. Bonnie Harton Collins passed away in 1961. They are at rest at Evergreen Cemetery at Ft. Meade, Polk County, Florida.
:: 3. Nina Marie Collins was born on 6 August 1914 in Alabama. After 1935, when she was listed with her family, she married George Clifford Roberts. He was born in 1909 in Florida, the son of George Massie and Alice Roberts. They had at least one daughter, Carolyn. George died on 6 October 1967 in St Lucie County, Florida and was buried at Hillcrest Memorial Gardens in Ft Pierce, St Lucie County, Florida. Nina Collins Roberts died on 13 February 1972 in Ft Pierce and was buried next to him at Hillcrest.
:: 3. Wilma Collins was born in 1918 in Tennessee.
:: 3. Laconia C. Collins was born on 8 December 1921 in Potter County, Texas. She married Elvoy Raines on 9 October 1942 in Lakeland, Polk County, Florida. Elvoy was born on 27 October 1922 in Hamilton County, Florida. On the 1945 Florida State Census, they are found living with her parents in Polk County, and Elvoy is listed as serving in the United States Navy. He died on 11 July 1976 in Lakeland. Laconia Collins Raines died 3 April 1997 in Bartow, Polk County, Florida. They had a daughter Rhea and a son, Elvoy Raines Jr, whose obituary may be found at http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-615707.html.
:: 3. Ann G. Collins was born in 1927 in Alabama.
: 2. Mattie Eunice Collins, born on 10 June 1898 in Tennessee, was maried on 30 June 1918 in Lincoln County, Tennessee to Henry Clarence Brown, the son of William Henry and Cordelia Largin Brown of Lincoln County. From censuses, he appears to have been called Clarence. He was born on 12 September 1896 near Belleville, Lincoln County, Tennessee. On his 1918 draft card, done just before he married, he stated that he lived at Kelso in Lincoln County, was born near Belleville of that county, and his father was born in Mulberry, also in Lincoln County. He gave William Henry Brown as the name of his nearest relative. In 1920, he and Eunice lived just over the Tennessee-Alabama line, in Hazel Green, Madison County, Alabama. They had a baby son, and Hannah Collins, mother of Eunice, lived with them. In 1930, Clarence and Eunice lived at Polk County, Florida, next household to Hannah Collins, with two children. Clarence was a farmer there. Henry Clarence Brown died 20 October 1977 in Birmingham, Jefferson County, Alabama. He was buried at Oakland Cemetery in Birmingham. Mattie Eunice Collins Brown died on New Year's Eve of 1983 and was buried by his side at Oakland.
:: 3. William Collins Brown was born 15 March 1919 in Winchester, Franklin County, Tennessee. He lived in Birmingham, Alabama before World War II, and he served as a private in the United States Army during the war. He passed away on 29 April 2004 in Middleburg, Clay County, Florida. He was buried at Oakwood Memorial Gardens in Birmingham, Jefferson County, Alabama.
:: 3. Rachel Brown
1. Thomas J. Beard was born on 14 April 1857 in Marshall County, Tennessee. About 1895, Thomas married Mary E. "Mollie" Hardcastle, who was born on 4 March 1875 in Jackson County, Alabama. She was the daughter of Charles Lewis "Dick" Hardcastle and Lettie Frances Harless. Thomas and Mollie moved to Lee County, Mississippi and in 1900 they were listed on the census there with three small daughters. Thomas was a lumber dealer. In 1910, the family lived at Baldwayn, Lee County, Mississippi with three of their four daughters; one young daughter had died in 1903. He was still in the lumber business. In 1920 they were at Kirksville, Itawamba County, Mississippi. In 1921, they lost a second daughter at a young age. In 1930, Thomas and Mary lived with their daughter Bessie and her husband, James Dyer. Lettie Hardcastle, Bessie's grandmother, was living with them. Thomas J. Beard died on 21 December 1940, probably in Mississippi, and he was buried at the Baldwyn Masonic Cemetery in Lee County, Mississippi. Mary Hardcastle Beard passed away on 10 August 1950 in Margerum, Colbert County, Alabama. She is buried at the same cemetery in Mississippi.
: 2. Bessie A. Beard was born on 18 February 1896 in Alabama. We know that she was an accomplished musician who may have played the piano, because in the West Colbert News, the local paper of Colbert County, Alabama dated 25 Jun 1915, mention was made that "Miss Bessie Beard of Baldwyn, Mississippi is teaching music in the home of Mr. L. T. Hardcastle of Margerum." This was her maternal grandfather. About 1922 or 3, Bessie married James Elmer Dyer, the son of James Dudley Dyer and Rowena Frances Waldron. James Elmer was born on 7 September 1893 in Mississippi. In 1930 James and Bessie lived in Itawamba County, Mississippi with her parents in their home, as well as a three year old son and also Bessie's maternal grandmother, Lettie Hardcastle. James Dyer died on 27 April 1977 in Baldwyn, Lee County, Mississippi; Bessie Beard Dyer passed away on 18 January 1982 in same. They are both at rest at the Baldwyn Masonic Cemetery in that town.
:: 3. Dudley Dyer was born on 20 September 1926 in Baldwyn, Lee County, Mississippi. He served in World War II and in Korea. He died 12 February 1974 in Baldwyn and is buried there at the Baldwyn Masonic Cemetery.
: 2. Margaret Frances "Maggie" Beard was born 17 July 1898 in Mississippi. She married at a young age to Jiles M. Carnes on 14 May 1916 in Baldwyn, Lee County, Mississippi. He was the son of Daniel Edward "Bud" and Martha Jane Carnes, and he was born on 29 January 1897 in Baldwyn, Mississippi. Soon after their marriage, Jiles filled out his draft card and stated that he lived at Rural Route #3 in Itawamba County, and his nearest relative was Maggie Carnes. In 1920, they were living at Kirkville in Itawamba County, next door to her parents. They had two young sons. By 1930, Maggie and Jiles had relocated and lived in Terrell, Kaufman County, Texas with three sons. Jiles worked as a mechanic in a garage. Jiles Carnes died 27 December 1979 in Dallas County, Texas. Margaret Beard Carnes died 3 August 1992 in Sulphur Springs, Hopkins County, Texas. They are both interred at the Sulphur Springs City Cemetery.
:: 3. Orvan G. Carnes was born on 16 December 1917 in Baldwyn, Lee County, Mississippi. He died on 19 December 2002 in Dallas, Dallas County, Texas. He appears to have been in the real estate business in Dallas, as there is Orvan Carnes Realtors there.
:: 3. Thomas E. Carnes was born 29 September 1919 in Baldwyn, Lee County, Mississippi. He died in November 1979 in Hopkins County, Texas and is buried at Restlawn Memorial Park, Sulphur Springs, Hopkins County, Texas, beside wife Maxine Carnes, who died in 1997.
:: 3. Douglas Eugene Carnes was born on 14 November 1921 in Baldwyn, Lee County, Mississippi. He married on 10 October 1940 in Hugo, Choctaw County, Oklahoma to Sammie Maxine Wright. He died on 5 February 1992 in Dallas, Dallas County, Texas and was buried at Sulphur Springs City Cemetery in Hopkins County, Texas. They had two sons, Douglas Eugene Carnes Jr. and Larry Don Carnes, both of whom are deceased and interred at Sulphur Springs as well.
: 2. Eva Mae Beard was born on 25 February 1900 and died as a toddler on 8 January 1903 in Mississippi. She is buried amongst family at Baldwyn Masonic Cemetery in Baldwyn, Mississippi.
: 2. Connie Eugenia Beard was born 10 August 1902 in Mississippi and died 18 December 1921 in Mississippi. She is also buried at the Baldwyn Cemetery.
1. Margaret Beard was born about 1859 in Marshall County, Tennessee. We find her last on the 1880 census in Marshall County, in the home of her widowed mother. We do not know any further information about Margaret, but wish that we did.