Righting the past: Paulina Beard, Molino elder, dies at 86
Editor’s note: This is the 21st in a series of historical obituaries written today to honor the men and women of the past who were denied the honor at the time of their death because of discrimination due to their race and/or gender.
Paulina “Lina” Beard, a fixture of Molino’s Black community, died at her home of natural causes on Nov. 13, 1934. Still working in domestic service in her 86th year, Ms. Beard had only recently taken a break after a lifetime of labor in domestic service. She was predeceased by her only child, Joseph E. Long.
In March 1929, after devastating floods inundated Molino, Ms. Beard organized the effort to thank the Red Cross and Shipworkers Benevolent Association, a Black charitable organization, for the clothing, food, bedding and money they had provided to Molino’s hardest-hit residents. She had been living in Molino village along the L&N railroad for at least 30 years on land she had inherited after the death of her longtime White partner, William H. Trimmer.
Paulina was born in Apalachicola, Florida, in January 1848 to Sam and Charity Beard. According to family history, she met Mr. Trimmer soon after he had emigrated from England in November 1855. Trimmer, who had worked as a draftsman with the U.S. Coast Survey, enlisted in the Confederate Army on April 4, 1861. He returned to Apalachicola at the end of the war as a First Sergeant.
What is 'Righting the past?' Their history wasn't just forgotten, it was buried. Today we tell their stories.
Paulina’s only child, Joseph, was born in 1868. Mother and son would eventually leave Apalachicola. Paulina’s family remembers them moving to Molino with Trimmer around 1871.
By 1885, Joseph was working as a laborer on the farm of Henry and Lydia Fillingim. Paulina lived in a nearby household and worked as a seamstress. That June, William worked as the local state census enumerator, visiting every house in the community and carefully notating every resident’s age, race, occupation and birthplace, among other demographic data.
Tragedy struck the following year. Joseph, age 18, died. He was interred at the Vaughn Cemetery in Molino.
Paulina and William grew closer during this time. When Trimmer made out his will in 1888, he listed Paulina as “my true friend” and bequeathed his real estate and “all and whatever personal property he possessed” to her, including his Molino property along the tracks of the L&N railroad.
Paulina soon moved into William’s house. By 1900, she and her niece, Sarah R. Jones, lived with William. To local officials embracing Jim Crow, they described Paulina and Sarah as William’s servants. Ten years later, William, age 76, and Paulina, age 67, lived alone on his fruit farm. She worked as a cook for a nearby family.
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On a table in the home he shared with Paulina, William penned reminiscences about his service during the Civil War and time as a prisoner of war at Fort Delaware. Echoing the sentiment of many White Southerners, he wrote about “the hell of reconstruction.” The Pensacola Journal published at least six of his pieces between 1906 and 1914.
William’s health declined in 1918. During his long illness, Paulina secured a life and health insurance policy to provide for her care should she become unable to work. Decades before the “freedom from want” became a pillar of the New Deal, Paulina at 70 likely worried about what would happen to an infirmed domestic worker.
Paulina remained in Molino after William died in 1919. She saw him buried in the same cemetery as her son. Sarah, by this time a local school teacher, lived with her aunt for the next 15 years.
Paulina’s final day of work was Nov. 2, 1934. She died eleven days later at 11 o’clock in the morning. Sarah was by her side to the end.
Paulina’s story has been recounted by generations of the Beard, Jones, Billings and Simmons families of Pensacola and Apalachicola. Her life is a testament to the dignity of work and the challenges of domestic partnerships that could not be publicly celebrated.
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Righting the past: Paulina Beard, Molino elder, dies at 86
