History of Franklin County, Pennsylvania, 1887



Robert Bard Biography

Robert McFarland Bard was born near Mercersburg, Franklin Co., Penn., December 12, 1809, the son of Capt. Thomas Bard, who commanded a volunteer company enlisted in that vicinity, and marched them to the defence of Baltimore against the threatened attack of the British, in 1814. During his early life his parents removed to Washington County, Md. He attended the academy at Hagerstown as late as 1829, and in 1830 began the study of law in Chambersburg, Franklin County, in the office of Hon. George Chambers, and was admitted to practice January 14, 1834. He rose rapidly as a lawyer and as a public man, acquiring, by his ability and integrity, the confidence and admiration of the people.

In 1842 he was associated in the law with James X. McLanahan, which partnership was dissolved in 1844. In 1850 he was nominated for Congress on the Whig ticket, but at that time his health had failed, and he was no longer able to attend to the duties of his profession. He had attained a commanding position at the bar of his native county, and reputation throughout the State as a lawyer of great ability. Had he lived, he might have reached the highest honors of the State and Nation.

His death occurred on the 28th of January, 1851, at the early age of forty-one. His frank and generous nature, his open, kind, unassuming and affable manners, had drawn around him a large circle of warm hearted and admiring friends, and his death was the cause of grief and sadness in many a heart besides those of his immediate family. Mr. Bard possessed fine literary tastes, and in his leisure moments produced a number of poems that were received by the public as rare gems. He anticipated the day when he could feel justified in devoting his whole time to literary pursuits.

An article in the Philadelphia Press, entitled, "The Chambersburg Bar of Thirty Years Ago," says of him:

"Robert M. Bard was a peculiarly gifted man intellectually. He had a profound knowledge of the law, was ardently devoted to his profession, managed every case entrusted to him with masterly skill and force, and would, had not death removed him in the meridian of his years, have been one of the country' s grandest jurists."

Mr. Bard in early youth was studiously inclined, and devoted much of his leisure time to the acquisition of useful knowledge, and formed then the habits of study and reflection that were the foundation of his subsequent usefulness and eminence.

His views of the profession of the law were exalted; he pursued it with unvarying devotion. He regarded the law as a science in the truest and highest sense of the term, demanding, for the attainment of distinction in its practice, a more varied and comprehensive equipment than is required for the successful prosecution of any other profession. He sought, by careful analysis and study of the leading cases in the various departments of the law, to comprehend fully, and to make his own, the underlying principles and reasons on which the decision of them was founded. The knowledge of these principles furnished the weapons on which he relied, and to which, vigorously and skillfully used, he was indebted for many a victory in subsequent legal combats in which he was a contestant in the arena of the bar.

His mind was active, vigorous and logical; his addresses to the court and jury were cogent, eloquent and free from all redundancy; he saw clearly the strong points of his case, and pressed those points lucidly and earnestly upon his auditors, and judiciously refrained from dwelling at length upon points of minor importance. Although ever studious to be correct in his opinions, he was a man of strong convictions; and when he gave a legal opinion to a client on a difficult point of law, he gave it with confidence, and it was received by his client with confidence, assured that it was the result of a careful consideration of the matter by one fully competent to determine it. As early as 1843 he had, by his natural and acquired endowments, achieved an enviable eminence in his profession.

Mr. Bard was conspicuous as an influential and consistent advocate of the cause of temperance, at a time when that cause had comparatively few friends, and when its advocacy was regarded so differently from now, and rather as an evidence of fanaticism than as a wise, philanthropic, statesmanlike concern for the happiness and prosperity of the community.


Source: Biographical Annals of Franklin County, Pennsylvania : containing genealogical records of representative families, including many of the early settlers, and biographical sketches of prominent citizens; Chicago. Genealogical Pub. Co. 1905. Notes: Prepared in part by George O. Seilhamer.















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