Bennington

BEARD, Aaron

Vermont Historical Magazine, No XI, October 1867, pp 210-211

Aaron BEARD was born 16 May 1778 in Westminster [Worcester County], 
Massachusetts, and lived there until twenty-four years of age, when he 
married [Miss?] Annie DUNSTER, who was born 10 August 1776 in Westminster, 
Massachusetts, and started for Peru [Vermont]. They came through Rindge 
[Cheshire County, New Hampshire], where Mrs. BEARD's friends presented her 
with a cow. When they got as far as Chester [Windsor County, Vermont], the 
roads were so poor that Mrs. BEARD had to proceed from there on foot, and 
drive her cow. She says that when people looked out, as she passed, and 
smiled to see her thus driving her cow along, she thought to herself, if they 
were moving perhaps they'd have no cow to drive.

They arrived at Peru [Bennington County, Vermont] 05 September 1802. Eight 
years after, they removed from their first home to the farm where they now 
live, which is one of the best in Peru. On this palace they erected a frame 
for a house, and partly enclosed it. A few boards, held across the timbers, 
forming a loft, furnished the only place for the children to sleep. Had one 
fallen out of bed, it must have gone to the bottom of the cellar. They now 
live in the best house in town, erected in 1858 by their son, with whom they 
reside.

In 1803 Mrs. BEARD went on horseback, in a bridle path, most of the way, to 
the north part of the town [Peru]; and on her return, when about half a mile 
from any clearing, she came up to three bears, directly in her path, which 
were digging for roots. Her horse refused to go on; she halloed, and threw 
at them her riding stick. They merely looked up and went on with their 
digging. She turned her horse, and riding back to an old tree, broke 
branches from it, which she threw at them, causing them to leave the path, 
two on one side and one on the other, and she rode on between them, 
unmolested, but not entirely free from fear. In 1811 she went on horseback 
to Manchester [Bennington County], for meal, which was so scarce at that 
time, that they would not sell it to a man, but could not refuse it to a 
woman, who should plead her own and her children's need. Though she left a 
babe of a few weeks old at home and proceeded on her way, amid the screams of 
wild beasts, she was undaunted.

In 1813 they were participants in a powerful revival under the labors of Rev. 
Mr. BINGHAM. Mr. [Aaron] BEARD previously became almost an atheist. Mr. 
BEARD's health was always delicate, consequently the hardships of life in a 
new country pressed more heavily upon his wife, but she bore them nobly; was 
the mother of eight daughters and a son (all of whom were married and had 
families, the youngest being thirty-four years of age before death entered 
the family). She [Annie BEARD] is now nearly eighty-four years of age, and 
is hale and hearty. Mr. [Aaron] BEARD is eighty-two, has taken care of a 
stock of cattle during the past winter (1860), staying at the barn more than 
half the time.

In 1807 Mrs. [Aaron] BEARD [Annie BEARD] and her young brother [whose surname 
may have been DUNSTER, since that was Annie's surname when she married Aaron 
BEARD] went on horseback to Massachusetts; the brother did not return, and 
she was to lead back the horse he had ridden down. When she got as far as 
Rindge [Cheshire County, New Hampshire], Rachel PHILBROOK, a young lady of 
eighteen years, decided to accompany her. So she came on horseback, stayed 
six months, and then went to Reading [Middlesex County, Massachusetts], to 
which place her parents had removed.

Soon after, Benjamin BARNARD, born 19 March 1783 at Westminster [Worcester 
County], Massachusetts, who had come to Peru with his father, Benjamin 
BARNARD, in March 1800, went to Reading [Massachusetts] and brought her 
[Rachel PHILBROOK] back to Peru as his wife. She lived but two years. He 
[Benjamin BARNARD] then, in 1810, married Hepsabeth PHILBROOK, sister of 
Rachel, who still lives, being seventy-eight years of age. [The exact date 
of this writing is not given, but other parts of this work were written as 
early as 1860, and the work was published in 1867.] Mr. [Benjamin] BARNARD 
is the only person now living in town who was here when he [himself] came, 
his brother Stowell, who lives here, having remained at Andover [Windsor 
County, Vermont] until the autumn of 1800. Mrs. Lucy, wife of Benjamin 
BARNARD, Senior, was the oldest person that ever lived in town [Peru, 
Bennington County, Vermont]; she died in 1848, aged ninety-eight. [Thus Lucy 
BARNARD (Mrs. Benjamin BARNARD, Sr.) was born, by calculation, about 1750. 
For additional information on this BARNARD family, see the Bennington County, 
Vermont, biography of Alonzo BARNARD.]

Submitted by Cathy Kubly