Henry Beard, One of First Blacks in Sycamore-- Part 1

Continued from April 27, 2018.

From the March 15, 2011, DeKalb County New Values Magazine  "Henry Beard -- One of the First African Americans to Settle in the Area."

He was born a slave in Kentucky in 1840.  In 1862, the Union Army controlled most of the state and he got his freedom.  He was hard-pressed to find work and a new life, but fortunately for him, the Union regiment stationed in his area was the 105th Illinois Infantry from the DeKalb and Sycamore area.

The unit's commander hired Henry as a laborer and eventually he became cook for the adjutant general of the area.

After the war, he followed his original regimental commander back to Sycamore.  In a 1924 story in the True Republican, Henry Beard was reported as "the original colored citizen of Sycamore."

--Old Secesh