Brief History of Beards, AR

Beards, AR

(Photo taken April 1999)

Beards was a little community southeast of DeView. From Cemetery Records of Woodruff County, Arkansas, by Adelia C. Kittrell and Curtis A. Houston, Vol II (reprinted by The Woodruff Country Historical Society, 1992), p. 153:
	On July 22, 1858, Moses McMurtrey, Willimore Gallimore and Wellington Boyd (these me were called a party) who purchased from Mr. Barkley M. Beard five acres of land and held it for school and general church purposes. In case the house and land should not be occupied with church and school privileges for the space of five years, the land falls back to the said Beard above named. It is not known whether the so called party represented the school, church or school and church. It is believed that there was a school before this date and was probably used as a church whether it was located on this same land or elsewhere. The land purchased above was where the (school and church as one building) and cemetery was located. The building was located on the east part of the land... The Beards school consolidated with other small schools and built a four room new brick building in 1929 south and east of the old Beards school. Of course this vacated the old school building and it was soon torn down, leaving only the cemetery on the first ground purchased in 1858. About this time most people began to bury at other cemeteries, therefore the upkeep was neglected and numbers of the markers were pushed or fell over and broken up. Trees were growing up on the grounds as well as brush and vines.

(Photo taken March 1997)

An article about the Beards School by Marie Miller can be found in Rivers and Roads and Points in Between, Vol. IV, No. 1 (Augusta: Woodruff County Historical Society, Winter 1976):
	The exact date of the beginning of Beard's School is unknown, but it must have been in existence in 1852 when the Stotts family moved to that community from Tennessee in a covered wagon. Mary Stotts, the grandmother of Mrs. Gaston Davis, was five years old when her family brought her to the vicinity, and she attended school their... Mary Stotts married L. A. P. Beard, and their daughter was Mrs. Love, the mother of Mrs. Gaston Davis and Mrs. John Tayer. She as known as Grandma Beard and lived to be 92 years old, having spent her entire life from the age of five in the Beard's community. She was buried in Woodman cemetery. The first Beard's school was a one-room log structure with log benches for seats. This building was also used as a church since there was no other place to meet. Sometime before 1900 this log house was replaced by a two-room frame building, located near the Beard's cemetery. It was unpainted and had wooden benches around the walls. There were desks for the students, however. There was a "big" room and a "little" room. Since the school had only one outside door, it was necessary to go through one room to get to the other. Later an outside entrance was made for each room on another side of the building...

(Photo taken April 1999)

From the Woodruff County News (McCrory, G. W. Kramer, editor), July 11, 1901, Thursday:
	Local news from DeView: Children's day at Beards' was well observed by the people last Sunday. There was about one thousand people present.
	McCrory news: Children's day was observed at Good Hope (Beards) Sunday and a very large Crowd was in attendance. It was a grand success and notwithstanding the large crowd there was plenty of dinner and to spare. The people of Good Hope are always up-to-date when it come to something good to eat.



Area also known as the Sand Hill community

This page created on 05/07/00 16:47. Updated 09/17/2000 22:52.