A Proud Tradition
The history of the Highland Trace house dates back to 1890, and is located in scenic Pocahontas County.
John Beard, a pioneer of Scotch-Irish descent, settled in Renicks Valley of Greenbriar County, West Virginia in 1770. There he purchased land, and married Janet Wallace. They had several children and were prominent farmers in the area. One son, Josiah Beard, moved to Pocahontas County and purchased land of his own. He married Rachel Cameron Poage, and they had 11 children. Josiah also became the first clerk of Pocahontas County. When he died at 86, the farm was divided among the living children. James Henry Moffet Beard also inherited his father¹s love of farming and continued the tradition of acquiring land. He married Nancy Estalene Crouch in 1867 and they had 9 children. The oldest of these, Richard McNeel Beard, was just 6 years old when his father acquired a 289 acre estate from Rob Rhea on the east side of Locust Creek in 1874, and this was the parcel that he inherited when his father passed on.
Richard Beard contracted with a local architect firm owned by Howard Littlepage and his partner Dassenville to build the Queen Anne style house in 1890. It was one of two such houses built in the county by Littlepage and Dassenville in that same year, the other being the Jacob Moffett McNeel House south of Hillsboro on US 219. The McNeel House shared many similarities in design, but the Beard House alone remains as the only original one of its kind.
Richard Beard married Bessie Eleanor Kincaid Dysard in October of 1899, and they raised two children in this home, son Kyle Nickell Beard born in 1900 and daughter Constance Mayo Beard born in 1901. The home passed to Kyle, who did not marry until he was 74 years of age, to Katherine Ruckman McClure, born in 1918. Katherine had never married before either, and so the two had no children, but continued living in the old homestead and farming until Kyle's death in 1991. Katherine survived until 2004. Meanwhile, the house remained in the Beard family until purchased by Susan and Shannon Hanley in November of 2000, who sold it to their daughter, Marcie Spreen in May 2001.