Willard Livingstone Beard Papers

Collection

Identifier: RG 30-076

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The Willard Livingstone Beard Papers consists primarily of letters (1910-1925) between the Willard and Ellen Beard and their children. Of special interest are the twenty letters written by Willard L. Beard and his daughter, Phebe, from Foochow, China (1921-23), some of which tell of the struggle between factions of the Chinese to gain control of the area. A letter from Myron Gould Beard to “Dearest Sister Dot” (Dorothy), dated June 29, 1920, is an account of his visit to Bahia Blanca, Argentina, while on board the ship Mt. Baker. In addition to correspondence, there are photographs of the family, Japan and China, as well as some printed and homemade materials regarding the Beard children’s high school days and church activities in Oberlin.

Dates

Creation: 1904-1925, undated
Other: Date acquired: 06/22/1973

Creator

Beard, Willard Livingstone (Person)

Conditions Governing Access

One restricted item as noted on inventory.

Biographical Sketch

Willard Livingstone Beard was born in Huntington, Connecticut, on February 5, 1865, the son of Oliver Gould (1842-1926) and Nancy Maria Nichols Beard (1843-1923). He had ten siblings: Oliver Gould Jr (1866-1940), Flora (1869-1935), Bennett Nichols (1871-1960), Phebe Maria (1873-1957), Elizabeth (1875-1924), James Daniel (1878-1906), Ruth (1880-1917), Mary Louise (1882-1964), Stanley Drew (1884-1970), and Ruby (1887-1887). Beard attended Birmingham High School in Connecticut. He enrolled at Oberlin College in 1887 and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in 1891. After Oberlin, he returned to Connecticut, where he attended the Hartford Theological Seminary, graduating in 1894. Twelve years later in 1916, the Oberlin Theological Seminary awarded him an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree.

In 1894, Beard began missionary work to China which was to occupy him for the next forty years of his life. He began as a missionary for the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) from 1894 to 1904. In 1904, he was released in order to start a YMCA in Fukien Province, for which he served as general secretary until 1909. In 1910, he returned to the United States, and served as a secretary of the ABCFM in New York City for two years.

Upon his return to China in 1912, Beard became president of Foochow College, a position he held until 1927. From 1927 to 1936 he returned to general missionary work in China. After a brief time home in the Unites States, Beard served two more years for the ABCFM in Foochow. At the outbreak of World War II he returned to the United States. He settled at Century Farm in Shelton, Connecticut, where he remained for the rest of his life. Beard was a member the Shelton Congregational Church, and he served on the Executive Board and Board of Deacons of the church.

Willard L. Beard married Ellen Lucy Kinney (1868-1953), a former Oberlin student (enrolled 1893-94), soon after his graduation from the Hartford Theological Seminary. They were married on September 5, 1894, in her hometown of Putnam, Connecticut. They had six children, all of whom spent at least two years at Oberlin: Myron Gould (1916-18, 1896-1974), Phebe (OC 1919, 1895-1925), Geraldine (OC 1921, 1898-1994), Dorothy B. (OC 1923, 1901-1991), Marjorie (OC 1928, 1905-1994), and Kathleen Cynthia (OC 1930, 1908-2004). Beard died of a heart attack at the home of his daughter Mrs. Kathleen Elmer in Jacksonville, Florida on April 15, 1947.

Note written by Joshua Adler.

Extent

0.20 Linear Feet

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Method of Acquisition

The papers of Willard Livingstone Beard were discovered in Tank Hall by the matron, Mrs. Packard, who gave them to Mrs. Katrine M. Baxley, the matron of Keep Cottage. Mrs. Baxley donated the papers to the College Archives on June 22, 1973.