Richard Beard (1799-1880), the first professor in the Theological School at Cumberland University, received the A.B. degree from Cumberland College, Princeton, Kentucky, in 1832. On graduation he was named Professor of Greek and Latin at Cumberland College. He remained at Cumberland for six years before moving to Sharon College in Mississippi. Beard returned to Princeton as president of Cumberland College in September 1843, and held the position to February 1854. His inauguration as Professor of Systematic Theology in Cumberland University took place on March 13, 1854. He was still teaching at Cumberland University at the time of his death in 1880.

Beard wrote two volumes of Cumberland Presbyterian biography. The first, Brief Biograpical Sketches of Some of the Early Ministers of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, was self-published in 1867, but the second, Brief Biographical Sketches of Some of the Early Ministers of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church: Second Series, was published by the Cumberland Presbyterian Board of Publication in 1874. Both volumes have now been out of print for over 130 years. Rare book dealers demand over a hundred dollars for either volume in sound readable condition. This volume from Boardman Books combines both nineteenth century books and other material as well to present a complete collection of Beard's biographies.