CLYDE R. & CLARENCE W. BEARD

Sacramento County

Biographies

CLYDE R. & CLARENCE W. BEARD

C. R. & C. W. BEARD.—Prominent among the business men of Sacramento who have made the influence of both city and county felt far and wide, are Messrs. C. R. & C. W. Beard, the enterprising and very progressive proprietors of the popular establishment, Melvin & Sons. That business was established far back in 1861 by William Melvin, and at his death was taken charge of by his son, H. G. Melvin, who conducted it, with certain improvements and expansion, until 1912, when our subjects succeeded to the control of affairs. H. G. Melvin died in 1917, a popular and original figure, welcome with his stories of the early days when the business was a general blacksmith shop.

Now, under the more aggressive technicians, the brothers Beard, there is a first-class shop for the repair of automobiles, with of course every facility for smithy work, in which four experts are employed; and it is needless to say that the able and thoroughly capable men are in a position to undertake, with every reasonable guarantee, any kind of repair or original devising such as the complicated activities of the highly developed motor-world today demand. Partly because of their success and their steadily expanding business, the Beards are deeply interested in Sacramento County and are willing and ready to do all in their power to advance the best and most lasting interests of this favored portion of the Golden State.

C. R. Beard was born at Gallup, N. M., on June 30, 1888, the son of William M. and Alice (Frost) Beard; while Clarence William Beard, his brother, was born on December 28, 1886, at Dallas, Texas. The family came here to California in 1890, and at Sacramento the boys went to school. In that city, too, under the most exacting, but the most helpful of apprenticeships, they learned their trade. C. R. Beard was married to Miss Anna McKenzie, of Chicago, and has two children, Clyda A. And Honora U. Clarence William took for his wife Laura Dubaker, of Sacramento, and they have two children, Malba and Clarence W. The Beards are Republicans and support movements for civic advancement. Sacramento County may well be proud of such worth-while citizens.

Transcribed 8-20-07 Marilyn R. Pankey.

Source: Reed, G. Walter, History of Sacramento County, California With Biographical Sketches, Page 995. Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, CA. 1923.