“Aunt Emma” Bard at the age of 88 with a picture of Abraham Lincoln, on the front porch of her home in Wauseon. Emma was born into slavery on a Boone County, Kentucky tobacco plantation owned by John L. Graves. When she was 15, the Civil War ended, and she became a Free Woman. She would continue to live in Boone County where she worked for various families making 25 cents a week. In 1884 she came north to Adrian, Michigan to put here children in school since no means of education was provided in Kentucky. In Adrian she met her husband Frank Bard and with him, would move to Fulton County and acquire a farm. They would be influential in the establishment of the Buelah United Methodist Church in Winameg. Her son, James Bard, graduated from Wauseon High School in 1914 and went on to become a doctor in Chicago.
Museum of Fulton County
“Aunt Emma” Bard at the age of 88 with a picture of Abraham Lincoln, on the front porch of her home in Wauseon. Emma was born into slavery on a Boone County, Kentucky tobacco plantation owned by John L. Graves. When she was 15, the Civil War ended, and she became a Free Woman. She would continue to live in Boone County where she worked for various families making 25 cents a week. In 1884 she came north to Adrian, Michigan to put here children in school since no means of education was provided in Kentucky. In Adrian she met her husband Frank Bard and with him, would move to Fulton County and acquire a farm. They would be influential in the establishment of the Buelah United Methodist Church in Winameg. Her son, James Bard, graduated from Wauseon High School in 1914 and went on to become a doctor in Chicago.
