Harriet Wolcott was born in the year 1786, at Hartford, Connecticut. She was a niece of the first Governor Wolcott of that state. She married James Henry Beard. He was a native of Derby, Connecticut. He was about twenty years her senior. He was a captain on the Atlantic, but came to Ohio in 1796, with the first surveying party of the Western Reserve, and landed at Conneaut. Captain Beard and his wife made a tour by lake to the military post, which was to be their new place to call home. Harriet was the second white woman to ever see the post. The post commander's wife was the first. There was one house, and the population was limited to the garrison, numbering about ninety or a hundred men. Captain Beard and his wife stayed here for a short term. They came to reside in Painesville in 1823. James died in the following year. Harriet was left with a family of five children to care for and educate. She did educate them well. Harriet lived for over fifty years in the home of Painesville. Her death occurred on the morning of the 9th of February 1876. Had she lived until the 19th of the following month she would have reached the age of eighty-eight years. She was a remarkable woman of fine education. She enjoyed the many friendships and the esteem of many eminent men and women. She was in every sense of the word a lady. She was a member of the Episcopal church for sixty-nine years. The first Episcopal service was held in Painesville at her home. Of her five children, two sons and three daughters, they are James Henry, Jr., Harriet W., Julia E. (now Mrs. William Blair, of Perry), Ann B. (Mrs. William C. Chambers, of Painesville), and William Holbrook Beard. James H. Beard was a painter of animals, and his brother William, was even better known, as an artist, too.