Richard T. Foard of Texas County, Missouri

Richard T. Foard was born in Halifax County, Va., April 20, 1839, and is the son of William F. Foard and Jane W. (Tuck) Foard, natives, respectively, of Person County, N. C., and Halifax County, Va. The father was born April 12, 1812, and is still living in Guilford County, N. C. His wife was born October 10, 1814, and died in 1867, after which Mr. Foard married a Mrs. Hall, who is still living. He was married three times, his first wife being Nancy Tuck. Although a heavy loser by the war, he is now a well-to-do farmer. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and politically he is a Democrat. The grandfather Tuck was orderly-sergeant in the War of 1812. Richard T. Foard is the second of eleven children, and until twenty years of age resided on the home farm. He then went to Guilford County, N. C., where he spent some time in running a grist-mill for his father and farming, and a short time previous to the breaking out of the Rebellion was made first lieutenant of Company B, of the State Militia, and was held in reserve until 1863, when he entered active service. In 1867 he came to Missouri, and has since been engaged in farming and stock raising in Texas County, where he has over 700 acres of fine land. In 1872 he was elected justice of the peace, and in 1876 was elected sheriff of the county, being re-elected in 1878 and 1880, serving until 1882. He was married to Mary Kirkman in 1861. She has born in North Carolina in 1839, and died in Texas County, Mo., September 6, 1872, having been a consistent member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, for a number of years. On January 21, 1877, Mary Emely White, a daughter of Hon. J. C. White, became his wife. Her birth occurred in Texas County, Mo., April 5, 1852, and her union with Mr. Foard has been blessed in the birth of four children, three of whom are living: Novella J., Mary J., Bulah F., and William B., who died at the age of five years and five months. Mr. Foard is a Democrat, a Mason and a member of the I. O. O. F., and he and wife belong to the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.