Biographies : United States  D - F

Baird, David Sr. 1839 - 1927 [ Timber Merchant - Senator ]

Was one of Camden's leading citizens for well over 50 years. Born in Ireland in on April 7th of 1839, he came to America in 1858 after the death of his father, and settled in Camden the following year. After working in a Philadelphia lumber yard for 13 years, he opened his own business, the David Baird Company, in Camden in 1872 and became quite successful, with lumber operations in eight states and ship's spare yards in five different cities in the northeast.
As well David Baird involved himself in politics, and served in a variety of capacities. He was a quite powerful figure in the Republican party which dominated Camden politics. He secured contracts to supply poles to string the new telegraph, telephone and electrical lines in Camden and the surrounding area, and timber contracts during the Spanish-American War through Sewell's patronage. In return, David Baird ran the local Republican organization while Sewell served in Trenton and Washington. At different times he served as a member of the Board of Chosen Freeholders, Camden County Sheriff, and sat on the New Jersey State Board of Assessors. An unsuccessful Senatorial candidate in 1910, he was appointed to the United States Senate in 1918 to fill the seat vacated by the death of Senator William Hughes, and won a special election in November of that year to serve the remaining two years of that term. He served on the Republican State Committee and was a delegate to the National Conventions in 1888, 1904, and 1916. After returning to Camden from his senatorial service in Washington DC, David Baird continued his involvement in local politics, and was instrumental in the acquisition of 223-225 Broadway, which served as Republican Party headquarters in Camden from 1923 until 1940.

Besides his lumberyard, David Baird's business interests included a partnership with Joseph I. Morris of the Morris and Mathis Shipyard and Joseph Tway. The three founded the Tway Steel Forge, which later became the Camden Forge, on Mount Ephraim Avenue. This business provided most of the steel forging for the New York Shipbuilding yards during both World Wars. David Baird Sr. passed away at his home, 804 Cooper Street, Camden NJ on February 25, 1927. He was interred at Harleigh Cemetery. His surviving family members included his son David Baird Jr., who also served as a senatorial appointee from New Jersey.

Baird, David W. 1853 [ Book-keeper ]

President of the Riverside Glass Works of Wellsburg, was born in Hardy County, Va., now West Virginia, August 27, 1853, the son of David C. Baird and Mary A. Beach, natives of Loudon county, Va. His father was a miller by occupation, but for the past twenty years has not been engaged in active business. In politics he was active as a whig, and afterward as a republican, voting against the ordinance of secession. They are both members of the Methodist Episcopal church. He is now eighty-four and she seventy- four years. Fifteen children were born to them, of whom four are now living, the others having mostly died before reaching their sixth year.

David W. Baird, the youngest of the family living, was educated in the public schools of Zanesville, Ohio, and at the Commercial college of Wheeling, where he was graduated in 1873. At the age of twenty-one years he became book-keeper and entry clerk with Bloch Brothers, of Wheeling, and after three years service in that capacity was engaged as book-keeper for the Wheeling Hinge company five years. In 1880 he took the same position with the La Belle Glass company, of Bridgeport, and in the latter part of 1884 he entered the employment of the Belmont Glass works, of Bellaire, Ohio, being engaged as book-keeper one year and as western salesman two years. Mr. Baird became associated with the Riverside Glass works in August, 1887, and in January, 1888, was elected president, a position he has since held, to the satisfaction of all concerned. With a thorough knowledge of the business, he has steadily advanced the interests of the works, and increased its prosperity. He is a gentleman of brilliant parts, liberal culture, and as a neighbor and citizen has the high esteem of the community. He is a member of the Presbyterian church, to which Mrs. Baird also belongs, and has been superintendent of the Sunday-school since 1889. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias, and in politics he is a republican.
Mr. Baird was married April 28, 1879, to Mary A. Robinson, daughter of William and Matilda Robinson, of Wheeling. She is a lady of culture and refinement, and has been a teacher for several years in the graded schools of Wheeling, always holding a certificate of the first grade. Mr. and Mrs. Baird have had three children: Blanche M., David B. and Ella, the latter of whom died June 29, 1886, aged thirteen months.
History of The Upper Ohio Valley Vol. I, page 203. Brant & Fuller, 1890.

Baird, E. B. 1837- [ Bank Worker ]

He was born in Onondaga County, New York, November 6, 1837, and was raised on a farm. In 1872, he came to Iowa and bought land in Maple Township, Ida County, Iowa. Mr. Baird was married at age of 30 to Harriet Conover, daughter of Isaac Talmage, in Scholarie County, New York. Their child was Edmund C. Baird. Mr. Baird then married Matilda Preston in 1877. She was the daughter of John Preston, who was born and educated in Scotland. They had three children: Andrew E., Preston, and Mabel Laura.
E. B. Baird was vice president and director of the Maple Valley Savings Bank and served as a member of the Maple Township School Board. His father was Andrew W. Baird and he was born in Scholarie County, New York. His mother was Harriet Bramhall Baird and she died when he was 4 years old. Then his father married her sister, Jane Bramhall, and they had one child, Willard. Ida County, Iowa Biographies

Baird Ezra. 1839- aft 1903 [ Marshal-Miner-Farmer ]

Was born in Schoharie County, New York, on May 11, 1839, being the son of Joseph Baird and Sallie A. Gifford, the father being a milling man, died in 1864, while the mother was born in Gilbosh, New York, and died at the age of seventy-five, in 1891.
In 1849, the family removed to Broome County, New York, where Ezra was educated. On April 1, 1861, he left New York City for San Francisco, arriving there on the 24th. He labored in a bakery for one year and on April 1, 1862, started for Lewiston, which he reached on June 15, 1862. He with four companions bought a boat at The Dalles and sailed to Lewiston. He was soon on the road to Elk City, but stopped at Newsome, twenty miles this side and mined there, also operating a hotel for four years. In 1871 he bought the express business from Lewiston to Elk City, and the next year put on a stage to Florence and Warren. In 1874 he was elected sheriff of old Nez Perces County and served for three consecutive terms and in 1882 was re-elected. In 1885 Mr. Baird sold horses in Montana and went to Washington, D. C., to see Cleveland inaugurated and visited his old home. In 1886 he sold more horses in Montana, then made another trip to Washington and secured the position of United States marshal for Idaho. He served two years and nine months and in 1889 Mr. Baird bought a hotel on St. Reiges River in anticipation of the railroad. in 1893 he again took the Elk City stage and in 1894 he went into mining, having now large interests in Buffalo Hump, Thunder Mountain, and other places, while he has also bought and sold many farms.

In September 1872, at Mount Idaho, Mr. Baird married Miss Alice, daughter of James and Katherine Odle, pioneers of the west. Their children are: Edna, at home in Lewiston; Lewis, at home assisting father. Mrs. Baird was born in Rosenburg, Oregon, and has two sisters and one brother, Mrs. John Rice, Emma Rice, and George. Mr. Baird has two brothers and two sisters; Lewis, William, Sarah Langdon, and May Avery. Mr. Baird has taken thirty-two degrees in the Masonic order and was a charter member of the Alt. Idaho lodge. He is an active worker in the realm of politics and is allied with the Democratic Party, being deeply interested in its success.
An illustrated History of North Idaho, Western Historical Publishing Co, 1903

Baird, Francis Ellis, 1846- [ Farmer - Life Insurance Agent ]

Son, of Samuel Baird and Emmaline Edwards of Harrison County, he was born Oct. 16, 1846. His boyhood days were spent about the homestead, working on the farm and attending the district schools, where he acquired a good practical knowledge of such branches as are usually taught in our common schools. When about nineteen years of age his father sent him to the Wesleyan College at Millersburg, Bourbon County, where he finished his education. He left school without any means, and at once began teaching for a livelihood, a profession he followed about three years, during which time he ranked among the leading and most popular teachers in Harrison and Bourbon Counties.
His last school was a ten month's term at Kiser's Station, 4 miles north of Paris. Discovering that the confinement to which a teacher is necessarily subjected, was seriously affecting his health, he heeded the counsel of a medical friend, in whose ability and judgment he had implicit confidence, and at once quit the school room to embark in some branch of business that would admit of more freedom and recreation, if not prove more remunerative. For some time after this, our subject, engaged in various kinds of traveling business; and in the spring of 1872, bought a small store in Ruddel's Mills, Bourbon County, where he engaged in merchandising. On Oct. 10th, 1872, he was married to Miss Maggie F. Howard, only daughter of Eli Howard, a prominent farmer of Bourbon County. Maggie F. was born Jan. 25, 1856. The spring following his marriage, Francis E. sold out his store and engaged in agricultural pursuits. In the fall of 1876, he bought a little place of 124 acres on the Colville Pike, in Bourbon County, known as the Alex. Patton farm. After devoting his entire attention to farming here for two years, he was induced to engage in the life insurance business in which he was very successful.

In 1880, he was promoted to the position of State Agent for one of his companies, and was given exclusive control of Tennessee, where he succeeded in establishing the merits of his company upon such a basis as to attract the attention of all similar instructions trying to operate in that State. In the spring of 1881, he bought what was known as the Dr. Bright place, where he immediately moved and continued farming in connection with his other business. In the fall of 1881, when a corps of historical writers were inducted to undertake the publication of a history of several counties of the famous blue grass region of Kentucky, our subject was recommended to the managers of the enterprise as a man every way suitable and competent for the various and difficult duties connected with a work of that character. He has been prominently connected with the Masonic Order since he was old enough to become a member; has filled all its offices; has been Master of his lodge, and its honored delegate to the Grand Lodge for six or seven consecutive years, and is thoroughly conversant with the esoteric work and masonic jurisprudence. He and his estimable wife are connected with the M. E. Church South, and in politics he is a Democrat.
History of Bourbon, Scott, Harrison and Nicholas Counties, Kentucky, O. L. Baskin & Co., Chicago, 1882.

Baird, Frank 1817-aft 1885 [ Farmer ]

A successful farmer of Union Township, was born in Lancaster County, Pa., Sept. 17, 1817, the youngest of four children of John Baird and Agnes Andrews. His parents moved to Wayne county, Ohio, in an early day, and in the spring of 1846 to De Kalb County, Ind., and settled one mile east of Auburn where the father died in 1851, and the mother in 1869. Frank Baird was reared a farmer, remaining with his parents till their death, and then inheriting the homestead. His father bought 160 acres of wild land when he came to De Kalb County, and to this he has added twenty acres. He now owns one of the finest farms in Union Township, all well improved. In 1876 he built a large two-story brick residence, with all modern improvements. He has two large barns, and his farm buildings are in good repair. Mr. Baird was married in Ohio, to Hester Stoner, who died in 1869, leaving six children: Amelia, wife of Isaac Beachlar; John H., Calvin L., Thomas F., Zora M. and William L. In 1871 he married Sophia Leas, daughter of John Leas, of De Kalb County. He is one of the successful and representative farmers of De Kalb County.
History of De Kalb County, Indiana. Inter-State Publishing Company, Chicago, 1885

Baird, Frank G. 1853-aft 1909 [ Farmer ]

Comes of a long line of honorable ancestors. He was born in 1853 at Pokagon, Cass County, Mich., a son of William Henry Baird and Adelia French. William Henry Baird was born in Ohio, March 6, 1830. When a boy he moved with his parents to Pennsylvania and then to Michigan, being a farmer all his life, and passing to his eternal reward in 1905. His wife, who still survives at a ripe old age, is a woman of lovely character, and although far past the usual span of a human life, is still in the complete possession of all her faculties. She was born in Sydney, N.Y., in 1829, daughter of William and Hester (Doty) French, the former of whom was born in 1786, married in 1806 and died in 1851, and the latter of whom was born in 1779 and died in 1864.
Frank G. came to Pierce County in 1856 when his parents settled on the farm in River Falls Township, which is still the old homestead. He was educated in the district schools and attended what was then known as the Braley School. Later he worked on the farm with his father, learning the agricultural industry thoroughly. His farm now consists of 228 acres, of which 110 is well cultivated land located on sections 3, 4, 9, 10 and 15, the pleasant home being situated on section 3. Mr. Baird is a member of the Odd Fellows and votes the Republican ticket. He was married in the month of April, 1887, to Frances Taylor, daughter of William and Jane (Purves) Taylor, the former of whom was born in 1822 and died in 1907, and the latter of whom was born in 1826 and also died in 1907. At the time of her marriage, Mrs. Baird lived in River Falls. Mr. and Mrs. Baird are the parents of the following children: Earl W., Paul E., Stanley H., Henrietta, Stowell F., Lyman J., Merriwether Lewis.
"History of the St. Croix Valley", published in 1909