Leon County FlArchives Biographies.....Beard, William Kelly 1830 - 1882 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/fl/flfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 June 27, 2010, 4:58 pm Source: See below Author: See below William Kelly Beard The measure of a man is m the way he meets life's duties. The truest and the noblest men are not necessarily those most constantly in the lime light. More often the lives of the purest patriots and of those who confer the greatest good and exert the best influences upon the community are unheralded by the blare of trumpets nor given even the recognition which their services merit. Even in these days when men's deeds are exploited in the daily press there are modest retiring men whose devotion to duty and services to their fellow men make the memory of their lives seem like a benediction who never receive public encomium. But they have the consciousness of duty well done. Their family and their friends know and accord them the honors earned while sooner or later the general public comes to appreciate them for their true worth. One of the purest patriots who ever resided within the borders of Florida, a man who rendered long, ardent, continuous and conspicuous service to the Confederate cause, who later in life succeeded in having covered into the state treasury a million dollars, collected through his efforts, and for which service neither he nor his family were ever recompensed, was William Kelly Beard, soldier and planter, late of Tallahassee. He was descended from a family of pioneer settlers in North Carolina. His father held high office in both his native and adopted state, rendering during his long and honorable career conspicuous public services to Florida, and while he led the quiet life of a planter, he too made a record of notable service and transmitted to his son energies and abilities which served to make him one of the leading lawyers and most distinguished public men in the state. No life could be more successful because none could encompass greater good. Tradition in Salisbury, N. C., is to the effect that John Lewis Beard was the first settler of that place, he having made his home there about 1735 or 1740. One of his sons, Lewis Beard, married Susanna Dunn, also of Salisbury, and John Beard was the only son of this union. Both the Beard and Dunn families were prominent in the early history of this section and "Rumple's History of Rowan County, N. C.," gives many interesting facts concerning both families. John Beard was born in Salisbury, N. C., June 14, 1797, and a year after his graduation from Yale, in class 1817, was elected to the State Legislature. In 1826 he was elected, without opposition, to the State Senate, but declined re-election. He was a Federalist and opposed to the doctrine of the state's right to resist an act of Congress. In 1832 when the public mind was excited over South Carolina's action and the threatened course of Congress in regard to nullification, he was selected with two others to address the people in opposition to the doctrine. In preparation for this speech he made an earnest study of United States Constitutional history with debates and comments and as a result his views changed and he became and remained during life an uncompromising state's rights Democrat. He made immediate announcement of the fact and was subjected to much criticism, but in 1833 was again elected to the state senate after an exciting contest by a handsome majority. He was returned to the senate before his removal to St. Augustine, Fla., in 1838. Here he served as clerk of the United States court and as United States marshall and when Florida was admitted to the union was elected register of public lands which caused his removal to Tallahassee, where he resided during the remainder of his life. He resigned from office in 1850 to make the race for Congress as the Democratic candidate, but was defeated because he opposed the compromise measures under which California was admitted to the union, urging that if the people submitted to this it would not be long before they would have to submit to free negro equality. He was then elected comptroller of the state, which office he resigned in 1854 to accept the agency of the Apalachicola Land Company. He was representative from Leon County in the secession convention of 1861, and during the war contributed his every effort to the success of the Southern Cause. He was again made state comptroller in 1866 and made history by refusing to audit claims for increased pay which the legislature passed over Gov. Walker's veto, thus nullifying an unconstitutional act and saving much money to the state. A notable event in his first adminisration was his forcible denunciation of an inequitable tax system, which was replaced a year or so later by the adoption of the ad valorem system of taxation, of which system he was the author. Born of such a father, William Kelly Beard was naturally a man of strong convictions and great force of character. He was born in Salisbury, N. C., Sept. 12, 1830, his parents being John and Anna Maria Kelly Beard. He was barely eight years old when his father removed to Florida and here he was reared and educated and chose the quiet life of a planter. When the war broke out he was one of the first to volunteer, and from the opening of hostilities to the final surrender there was no more devoted and faithful soldier of the cause. He was commissioned in April, 1861, Lieutenant Colonel of the First Florida regiment of volunteers. Later he was appointed Adjutant and Inspector General of the army of Tennessee on the staff of General Braxton Bragg. He was in every battle fought by the army of Tennessee, including Shiloh, Perryville, Murfreesboro, Chickamauga and Missionary Ridge. In his official reports, General Bragg frequently mentioned him by name for gallantry and efficiency on the fields of battle. In one of these reports the fact is mentioned that though wounded at Shiloh he refused to accept a furlough and continued actively in service, only laying down his arms at the time of final surrender in April 1865. He returned to his plantation in Leon County, where he spent the greater part of his life. He was widely known, however, and a man of much influence. He was a staunch Democrat both by reason of environment, training and conviction. At the time of his death he was associated with S. I. Wailes of Washington, D. C., in prosecuting the claims of Florida against the United States for money expended in suppressing Indian hostilities in the state from 1846 to 1857. Through his efforts a statement of the account was finally secured from the Federal government about one month before his death, which was approved and finally paid. Congress, however, did not act till 1902, when an appropriation was made and over a million dollars paid to the state as a result of his conscientious and able services, and upon the statement obtained by him. Under the terms of the contract with the state he and his associates were to receive fifteen per cent of the amount recovered. Notwithstanding the fact that legislature after legislature had recognized and approved this contract, when the money was covered into the treasury, the succeeding legislature (1903) repudiated the contract and appropriated only $25,000 as compensation. Colonel Beard's estate and Mr. Wailes both refused to accept this settlement and the money still remains in the state treasury. Colonel Beard was a member of the Episcopal church. He was married to Letitia Gamble Shepard, a daughter of John Swan and Catherine Breckenridge Gamble Shepard. They had four children as follows: John Shepard Beard of Pensacola, Catherine Shepard, now Mrs. M. C. Roach of Yonkers, N. Y., William Kelly Beard of Germantown, Pa., and Letitia Waties, now Mrs. J. E. Earnshaw of Germantown, Pa. After a life of patriotic devotion to duty and great usefulness, he died at Tallahassee in August 1882 and was buried beside his father, where three generations of the family are now at rest. Additional Comments: Extracted from: FLORIDA EDITION MAKERS OF AMERICA AN HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL WORK BY AN ABLE CORPS OF WRITERS VOL. II. Published under the patronage of The Florida Historical Society, Jacksonville, Florida ADVISORY BOARD: HON. W. D. BLOXHAM COL. FRANK HARRIS HON. R. W. DAVIS SEN. H. H. MCCREARY HON. F. P. FLEMING W. F. STOVALL C. A. CHOATE, SECRETARY 1909 A. B. CALDWELL ATLANTA, GA. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/fl/leon/bios/beard123gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/flfiles/ File size: 8.9 Kb