Born 23 Jan 1837  Beards Mill, Pocahontas, WV Died 02 May 1889 Pocahontas, WV Married Nancy Estalene Crouch  25 Jun 1867	When the Levels Cavalry under Captain Andrew G. McNeel, 1861, were disbanded, many of its members joined the Bath Cavalry under Captain Archie Richards.  April 25, 1862, this company formed into two companies "F" and "G", and was known as the Bath Squadron, attached to the 11th Virginia Cavalry.  Dr. A.G. McChesney was Captain of Company F.  A C. L. Gatewood, 1st Sergeant, and Edwin S. Beard, 2nd Sergeant.   The following persons from Pocahontas County were members of this company:  Moffett Beard, W. W. Beard, John G. Beard, John J. Beard, James Burnside, James Callison, Clark Cochran, George B. Cochran, Andrew Edmiston, Richard Edmiston, Matthew Edmiston, John L. Kennison, Davis Kennison, D.B. McElwee, B. D. McElwee, John McCarty, A.G. McNeel, G. H. Moffet.
Children Born Richard McNeel Beard 12 Apr 1868 Jacob Warwick Beard 05 Sep 1869 Mary Virginia Beard 19 Aug 1871 *Josiah Paul Beard  20 Aug 1873 George Cameron Beard  03 Oct 1875 Harry Isaac Beard 09 Aug 1877 Samuel Crouch Beard  20 May 1880 Rachel Pearl Beard 09 Nov 1883 Virena Grace Beard   10 Mar 1887
	Hillsboro 8 -- June 2006

Highland Trace & the Richard Beard House — National Register of Historic Places

The Beard family legacy in Pocahontas County traces back to Scotch-Irish pioneer John Beard, who emigrated from the north of Ireland and first settled in Pennsylvania before moving to Augusta County, Virginia. He later came to Greenbrier County as a bachelor and purchased land in 1770, settling in Renicks Valley where he married Janet Wallace. Among their children was Josiah Beard, who moved to Pocahontas County, married Rachel Cameron Poage, had eleven children, and became the first Clerk of Pocahontas County — serving during the county's formative period. Rachel Beard lived to sixty-seven; Josiah outlived her by nineteen years, dying at eighty-six. Upon his death, the family farm was divided among the living children.

James Henry Moffet Beard inherited his father's love of farming and began acquiring land of his own. In 1874, he purchased a 289-acre estate from Rob Rhea on the east side of Locust Creek. Upon Moffet's death in 1889, each child received a portion of his estate. His son, Richard McNeel Beard, inherited the 289-acre parcel and contracted local builders Howard Littlepage and Dassenville to build a two-story Queen Anne style house on the property in 1890.

That house — now known as Highland Trace, a bed & breakfast near Hillsboro — was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on March 20, 2002, significant under Criterion C for its Queen Anne architecture. It is the only remaining original intact example of the work of Littlepage and Dassenville. A sister house — the Jacob Moffett McNeel House south of Hillsboro on US 219, owned by a great-grandson of Moffet Beard — was built by the same builders the same year and shares the same roofline and floor plan, though it has since been significantly altered. The Richard Beard House also retains a ca. 1890 spring house as a contributing structure on the 1.6-acre property.

Notable interior features of the Richard Beard House include hand-made balusters of alternating black walnut and chestnut with a carved black walnut newel post, wide tongue-and-groove black walnut floors, original fireplaces with Victorian-era wooden mantels, and the practice of decorative "graining" — a period technique of painting less expensive wood (such as poplar) to replicate the grain of finer wood. The period of significance for the house is 1890–1932, corresponding to its construction and Richard Beard's years of residence.

Confederate Military Service Record

Moffet Beard's casualty date of 6 May 1864 places him at the Battle of the Wilderness, the opening engagement of Ulysses S. Grant's 1864 Overland Campaign and one of the bloodiest battles of the entire war. Grant had crossed the Rapidan River on May 4, intending a quick flanking movement around Lee's right. Lee instead struck him while the Union army was still moving through a dense, 70-square-mile tangle of second-growth forest and scrub in central Virginia — the same ground where Lee had beaten Hooker at Chancellorsville exactly a year before. The terrain was deliberate: the woods neutralized Grant's artillery advantage and forced the fighting into close-range chaos where neither side could see more than a few yards. Brush fires broke out and burned wounded men where they lay.

May 6 — the day Beard was wounded — was the battle's most desperate. Hancock's Union corps attacked at dawn and nearly shattered A.P. Hill's Confederate line before Longstreet's corps arrived at the last moment to stabilize it. Later that day Longstreet was severely wounded by his own men, almost exactly where Stonewall Jackson had been accidentally shot the year before. By nightfall, roughly one in six Confederate soldiers who had entered the Wilderness was killed, wounded, or missing. Union casualties exceeded 17,500 over the two days; Confederate losses approached 11,000. The battle ended without a clear victor, but Grant refused to retreat — he sidstepped Lee and kept driving south toward Richmond, a relentless campaign that would end eleven months later at Appomattox.

For Moffet Beard, wounded in the ankle and described as a severe wound, it was among the worst possible moments to fall. Field hospitals were overwhelmed and the woods were burning in places. A severe ankle wound in 1864 carried serious risk: if the bone was badly shattered, surgeons would typically amputate rather than risk gangrene or blood poisoning. Whether Beard kept his foot is unknown, but he survived the war, returned to Pocahontas County, farmed, raised nine children, and lived until 1889 — twenty-five years after the Wilderness.

References

James Henry Moffett Beard 1-23-1837 to 5-2-1889 (colorized portrait)

Josiah J. Beard, first County Clerk, bought this farm for his son, Moffett. Moffett served in the cavalry in the Civil War. The original house was used as a hospital during the Civil War. The present Italianate style home was built in 1890 by Dassenville & Howard Littlepage from Greenbrier County. Moffett married Nannie Crouch. Their son Richard married Bessie Dysard. Dick and Bessie raised their children Constance Mayo and Kyle N. in this home. Mayo was a teacher in Pocahontas County Schools until her retirement. She and Kyle lived at the home place. Kyle married Katherine McClure and lived his entire life at the home place. This home is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

References