Richard Bard served as a private in Captain Joseph Cuthberson's company, 6th Battalion, Cumberland County Militia under the call of July 28, 1777. He later served with the Ranging Company under Captain Walter McKinnie on the western frontier.

He served as a justice for the County Court from Peters Township, Franklin County, Pennsylvania; commission dated 1786. Bard was a member of the Pennsylvania Convention of 1787 that received the Constitution which had been framed by the Federal Convention. He was also a delegate to the Harrisburg Convention in 1788.

The son of Archibald Bard (Beard), Richard Bard was born on February 28, 1736, in York County, Pennsylvania, and died February 22, 1799. He was buried in Church Hill graveyard near Mercersburg, Pennsylvania. He married Catharine Poe, daughter of Thomas Poe and Mary Potter, on December 22, 1756. Catharine Poe was born June 3, 1737, in Pennsylvania and died August 31, 1811, in Pennsylvania.

Richard and Catharine Bard settled in Conococheague Valley on the Mill Place where he learned the trade of a miller. On April 13, 1758, the Mill Place was attacked and burned by Indians and their infant son, John, and other settlers were killed. Richard and his wife were among those captured and forced to walk across the mountains to western Pennsylvania. Richard escaped near Homer City, Pennsylvania, and returned home. He spent two years searching for "Kitty" (his wife) and found her in the Ohio Valley with a Delaware Indian tribe. She had been adopted as a sister to a Delaware warrior. Richard was able to buy her from the Indians for forty pounds. On their return, they settled in Franklin County where they raised ten children.