For the football player of the same name see Ed Beard (American football).

Ed Beard, or Edward Beard, aka Edward "Red" Beard, (18??-1873) was a gambler and saloon keeper of the Old West.

Beard is the son of the man who first settled Beardstown, Illinois

Beardstown, Illinois

Beardstown is a city in Cass County, Illinois, United States. The population was 6,123 at the 2010 census. The public schools are in Beardstown Community Unit School District 15.-Geography:Beardstown is located at...

. Originally from Illinois

Illinois

Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

, Beard settled in Virginia

Virginia

The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...

, and was for a period a man of wealth, having married well. In 1861 at the outbreak of the Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

, Beard promptly left his life behind and moved west. Traveling through California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

, Oregon

Oregon

Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...

 and Colorado

Colorado

Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...

 he developed a nasty reputation as being good with a gun, and having a bad temper.

By 1873 he had settled in Delano, Kansas, then a bustling town across the Arkansas River

Arkansas River

The Arkansas River is a major tributary of the Mississippi River. The Arkansas generally flows to the east and southeast as it traverses the U.S. states of Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. The river's initial basin starts in the Western United States in Colorado, specifically the Arkansas...

 from Wichita, Kansas

Wichita, Kansas

Wichita is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas.As of the 2010 census, the city population was 382,368. Located in south-central Kansas on the Arkansas River, Wichita is the county seat of Sedgwick County and the principal city of the Wichita metropolitan area...

. He opened a successful saloon which for a time prospered. On October 27, 1873, he became angry with a prostitute who was in his saloon, but who worked across the street at the saloon owned by "Rowdy Joe" Lowe

Joseph Lowe

Joseph Lowe , aka "Rowdy Joe" Lowe, was a gambler and saloon keeper/owner of the Old West. Although sometimes described as a gunfighter, he did not historically fit into that category....

. He chased the girl outside, shooting at her. After chasing her across the street, still shooting, they entered the Lowe Saloon, where he accidentally shot and wounded a patron and another girl. Lowe opened fire, wounding Beard, who died on November 11.