Beard - John - Montgomery InGenWeb Project

Source: Crawfordsville Weekly Journal 3 October 1874 p4

John Beard died at his resident a few miles east of the city on Tuesday evening Sept 29 in the 79th year of his age. Deceased was a native of North Carolina, where he was born January 4, 1795. He moved to Indiana when only 28 years of age and cast his fortune among the hardy settlers of what was then the Far West. He settled in this county where he soon took an active part in public affairs, becoming and remaining for a long series of years one of the most prominent and influential citizens of the county and taking rank among the most distinguished public men of the State. In 1827, he was elected as a Representative in the Legislature a position which he continued to hold in one or the other of the branches of that body for 15 consecutive years. He was one of the most useful members of the General Assembly and has left a record which will be an enduring monument to his memory. He was instrumental in procuring the passage of bills for the abolition of imprisonment for debt, for a liberal exemption of property from execution and to invest the Governor with power to commute the death sentence. He was also an active supporter of the bill to procure the construction of the Wabash & Erie Canal. The greatest public act of his life, however, was in the interest of our free schools. It is thus alluded to in a speech made by Hon. John Coburn at the old settlers’ meeting in Morgan County in the Summer of 1873. I venture to say again that not one man in a 100 in our state knows the name of him who proposed that the surplus of the proceeds of the stock of the State in the State Bank of Indiana should be appropriated as a school fund. He is one of our greatest public benefactors a venerable simple hearted clear headed sound minded old gentleman, living in Montgomery County named John Beard. His name ought to be precious in the heart of every boy and girl who enjoys the benefits of free schools. When he proposed the measure it was hardly treated seriously. Nobody thought anything would be left as a surplus; he himself doubtless did not realize its importance. But so it was, he put the net where it caught the golden fish and we thank him for it 10,000 times and we thank those steady, straightforward, strictly upright financiers who husbanded these funds for us. This measure has been the means of producing our present fund of $8,000,000 for the support of common schools. The construction of the bridge over Sugar Creek at Sperry’s mil is one of the local improvements whose existence is owing solely to the efforts of Mr. Beard. From 1841 to 1843 he held the office of Receiver in the land office at Crawfordsville, a position to which he was appointed by President Harrison. In politics Mr. Beard was an uncompromising Whig and Republican. He continued to be recognized as one of the shrewdest leaders of the party in this district up to within a few years of his death, when he retired from active participation in politics, though he never lost his interest in the success of the party or in the general administration of public affairs. He had a remarkably pertinacious memory and thorough knowledge of the public men of his day. He was a walking history of Indiana for a period embracing all of the events from 1825 to present day. He had outlived nearly all of his first associates in the Legislature and was one of the few surviving men who took part in public affairs in the early history of the state. Mr. Beard was of a kindly, sociable disposition, and had a large number of warm personal friends even among the bitterest of political opponents. He had been in feeble health for more than a year. The funeral services were conducted from the family residence yesterday afternoon, a large attendance of friends following the remains to the Masonic cemetery. Deceased leaves a wife who has nearly completed her four score years, and four sons and daughters. - kbz