10396 Highway 1: The Ralph Beard House

Architecture Style: Dutch Influence

Built: c. 1935

Carrie and Fred Bishop’s daughter Marion went to Boston to study at Bryant-Stratton College and came home with a new husband.  He was Ralph Henderson Beard, a dentist’s son and World War I veteran.  Ralph suffered for life from his war injuries: mustard gas poisoning, and a painful stomach wound. They were married in 1923 and came home in 1933. Carrie, a devoted mother, urged Fred to build a home for them on a piece of Bishop land. Charlie and Steve Luxey, Paradise Mik’maqs, dug the foundation with oxen and scoop, and Fred built the house for his daughter with his own hands. Ralph and Marian, their two children, Marjorie and Dick, and Ralph’s mother Edith all lived here. “Gram Beard” was a true lady; lace comes to mind in remembering her.

Marion, with Freda Bishop, founded a branch of the Canadian Cancer Society and was its first President. Ralph was a raconteur and lover of beauty; his garden was lush with vegetables, flowers, and rose-covered arches. Through these, a well-worn path led to  “Gram and Grampy Bishop” and cousins who were also friends, next door.

Ralph was also an artist. Marjorie married Gerald Quinn of the R.A.F., and while visiting them in London, Ralph was enchanted with the Illuminations he saw in museums and cathedrals. This work of the monks was the artistic embellishment of the texts they transcribed. Ralph, trained in commercial art, began his own. His stunning illuminations are “out there”, prized by friends and family. He also did the memorial book at the Paradise Baptist Church which is still on display, just as the old Bibles of London were.

In the 1970s, Cora and Bill Greenaway were extended guests of the Beards. Cora was interested in the German ancestry of Marian’s mother, Carrie Shaffner Bishop. Marian took her to see a  childhood memory, her great-grandmother’s Painted Room in the Croscup House, Karsdale. Through Cora, the room was removed, wall by wall, and taken to the National Museum in Ottawa. Lost to Nova Scotia, it remains a wonder on display.

After Ralph and Marian’s son Dick, with Marie [Baker], raised their children: Debbie, Terri, and Kevin, here, this Bishop property of five generations was sold out of the family in 1988. The Shaws were good neighbours, with the welcome sound of children playing.