Reverend Richard Beard

Reverend Richard Beard

Richard Beard

Cumberland University

School of Theology

Reverend Richard Beard was the University President at Cumberland College in Princeton, KY from 1843 to 1854, the precursor to Cumberland University. Upon moving his family to Lebanon in 1854, he became Cumberland University's first Professor of Theology.

Beard was an influential and beloved member of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. When the church established Cumberland College in March 1926, Beard offered his small log cabin as a home for the school to educate the six registered students. Beard attended the school from 1830 to 1832 and, upon receiving his degree, became the college's Professor of Languages until 1838.

After many years of brutal debt, the Cumberland Presbyterian Church severed ties with the college in Princeton, Kentucky. They established a new school, Cumberland University, in Lebanon, Tennessee, where then University President F.R. Cossitt and many faculty members would transfer to. Beard, teaching at Sharon College in Mississippi, returned to become Cumberland College's second University President in 1843. The students loved and heavily respected Rev. Beard, often considering him a father figure.

Beard ended his connection with Cumberland College in 1854, moving his entire family to Lebanon to join Cumberland University's newly established School of Theology as the first Professor of Theology. Cumberland College did not succeed following his departure and closed its doors in 1861.

Despite the School of Theology's slow start, Beard toiled on and served in his position for twenty-seven years at Cumberland University. During this, Beard, alongside second University President T.C. Anderson and Nathan Green Jr., reopened Cumberland University following the burning of its only building as a result of the Civil War. In addition to teaching, he wrote many biographies about Cumberland Presbyterian members and ministers. He would continue to serve as Professor of Theology up until his death on December 2, 1880. He is buried with his wife, Cynthia Castleman Beard, at Cedar Grove Cemetery in Lebanon, Tennessee.

Five of his seven children would go on to attend Cumberland University, William Dwight Beard (Law School: 1858-1859), Captain Richard Beard Jr. (College of Arts & Science, c/o 1859), Joseph Porter Beard (attended 1853-1860), Edward Ewing Beard (College of Arts & Science, c/o 1871, CU Board of Trust Member 1877-1919, Professor of Law 1911-1924, Dean of Law School, 1920-1924, Recipient of Doctorate of Law, 1923), and Captain James Henry Beard (College of Arts & Science, c/o 1859).

mid-to-late 1800s

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

portrait

SA #2025-0250
RG: 904
Location: OS Artwork Shelf

Lebanon, (Tenn.)

portrait