Bard, Isaac

Bard, Isaac a Presbyterian minister, was born near Bardstown, Nelson Co., Ky., Jan. 13, 1797. He was prepared for college under Rev. James Blythe, D.D., ex- president of Transylvania University at Lexington, and united with the Church at Bardstown, on profession of his faith, at about sixteen years of age. He had never graduated at any college when he entered Princeton- Theological Seminary in 1817. Here he remained about two and a half years, and before he left was licensed, April 27, 1820, by the Presbytery of New Brunswick. He entered the senior class of Union College at Schenectady, N. Y., and regularly graduated thence in 1821. While in Union College he partially supplied a Reformed Dutch Church in the vicinity. On leaving Schenectady, Mr. Bard returned to Kentucky, where he was received and ordained by Muhlenburg Presbytery, July 26, 1823, at Greenville, Muhlenburg Co., Ky. At the same meeting of Presbytery a call from Greenville Church for his ministerial services was presented, and he at once began.his labors there. Soon after, he received a similar call from the Church of Mount Pleasant for a portion of his time. This double relation he sustained ten years; but, after the dissolution of the pastoral relation, he continued to reside throughout the whole of his long life near Greenville; and during most of these years supplied those places as well as the Mount Zion and Allensville churches, preaching zealously and almost constantly, but never again assuming the pastoral office. After the division of the Presbyterian Church in 1862, he adhered to the Southern General Assembly. Mr. Bard lived to be the ministerial patriarch of all that region, at the time of his death being the oldest member of his synod, enjoying vigorous health and embracing every opportunity. He died June 29, 1878. See Necrol. Report of Princeton Theol. Sem. 1879, p. 11. (W. P. S.)