This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Author: rdjtaj_1 Surnames: Beard Classification: biography Message Board URL: http://boards.rootsweb.com/localities.northam.usa.states.california.counties.stanislaus/6552/mb.ashx Message Board Post: Bio --- WALTER F. BEARD. - An efficient executive whose experience and ability are appreciated by all who commit their interests to his care, is Walter F. Beard, the superintendent of the Modesto & Empire Traction Company, a five-mile steam railway which is devoted wholly to the hauling of freight. The Beards built it, run it and operate it, and as it puts the Santa Fe into Modesto, connecting Empire on the Santa Fe with Modesto, which is located on the Southern Pacific, and thus gives the growers a chance to ship over the two railway systems, it is a local venture of importance. Mr. Beard is the son of T. K. Beard, one of the leading financiers and citizens of Stanislaus County, and he was born in Stanislaus County on February 27, 1881, the second of ten children. When twenty-one, he started to contract in partnership with his father, and they have many large undertakings to their credit, including the Modesto canal irrigation system, the San Joaquin Irrigation District, and the enlarge-ment of the Turlock main canal, which involved the enlargement of tunnels through the mountains at La Grange; also employed by the Government for a year in con- structing the Truckee-Carson irrigation project; and built the Ocean Shore Railway at Santa Cruz, in 1906, the Modesto Reservoir, the Oakdale-San Joaquin Irrigation dam, the South San Joaquin Irrigation District main canal, of which he put up three sections, the Turlock Irrigation District or Davis reservoir, being the Foothill reser-voir in the eastern part of Stanislaus County, and the enlargement of the canals and tunnels of the Turlock Irrigation District. In addition to his responsible work of operating the railway of the Modesto & Empire Traction Company, Mr. Beard owns a valuable ranch of some 100 acres in the Laurel Lodge precinct on the Empire Road, about three miles east of Modesto, where he lives with his wife and family. He married Miss Zella Hambleton, a daughter of Mrs. Emily M. Hambleton, and they have three children, as follows: Kennan H., Walter Franklin Beard, Jr., and Emily E. Beard. Mrs. Hambleton is the widow of Elbert Ansley Hambleton, of Davis County, Iowa, who died at Venice in 1910, aged fifty-four years. She was born in Clark County. Ind., and has happily survived. =============== 1921 Biography and History of Stanislaus County, California With by GEORGE H. TINKHAM -- http://www.archive.org/stream/historyofstanisl00tink/history... =============== Important Note: The author of this message may not be subscribed to this list. If you would like to reply to them, please click on the Message Board URL link above and respond on the board.