Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 01.djvu/189

BAIRD.BAIRD. BAIRD, Henry Samuel, lawyer, was born in Dublin, Ireland, May 16, 1800. At the age of five he was brought to America and was given a good education. He was graduated from a law school, and in 1823 began the practice of his profession at Mackinaw, Mich. He remained there but one year, changing his residence to Green Bay, Wis. At the beginning of the Black Hawk war he entered the military service, with the rank of quartermaster-general. After the close of this war he returned to Green Bay, represented his district in the first legislative council of Wisconsin territory, held various local political offices, and in 1861 was elected mayor of Green Bay. He contributed valuable articles to the Wisconsin historical society, of which he was vice-president. He died April 28, 1875. BAIRD, John, constructive engineer, was born in Scotland in 1820. In 1840 he emigrated to Canada and began the study of mechanics; in 1843 he removed to the United States, and settled in Troy, N. Y., as mechanical designer in the Burden iron works, and later was made manager of the shops. In 1850 he became general manager in the Delamater iron works in New York city, and in 1857 the Cromwell steamship company employed him to design iron vessels intended to run between New York and New Orleans. For this company, under Mr. Baird's direction and from his designs, was built the first iron steamship ever launched in America. He remained in the employ of the Cromwell steamship company for twenty years. In 1887 Mr. Baird became vice-president of the Metropolitan elevated railway company of New York, and supervised the construction of the Sixth and Second avenue lines. After the elevated railroads were leased to the Manhattan company, Mr. Baird retired from the vice-presidency, and employed himself in securing patents for his various inventions for engines and boilers. He patented more than thirty such inventions, five of which he perfected within the last two months of his life. He died Oct. 18, 1891. BAIRD, Robert, reformer, was born in Fayette county, Pa., Oct. 6, 1798. His classical studies were pursued at Uniontown, and he was graduated at Jefferson college. Pa., in 1818. He studied theology at Princeton, N. J., and was licensed to preach in 1822. He served as tutor in the College of New Jersey, and in 1822 founded a grammar school at Princeton, which he conducted until 1827, when he became interested in the effort to supply every family in New Jersey with the Bible. In connection with the missionary society of New Jersey he did much to lay the foundation of the present school system of that state. He next spent five years in the service of the American Sunday-school union, visiting all parts of the country in the interests of that institution. In 1835 he left the United States, and for over eight years labored for the establishment of a mission of Christian benevolence in southern Europe, and for a revival of the Protestant faith, and the advancement of the cause of temperance in the northern countries. He returned to the United States in 1843, and continued the work on which he had been engaged in Europe. In 1846 he was a delegate to the evangelical alliance in London, and the same year was present at the World's temperance convention in Stockholm. In 1862 he again visited Europe, and did important service to the cause of the Union in public addresses to large audiences in London and elsewhere in Great Britain. He labored zealously throughout a long career, for the promotion of temperance and all other Christian reforms. He wrote numerous books, with a reformatory or religious tendency, some having been translated into nearly every European language. His "History of the Albigenses, Waldenses and Vaudois" is a standard work. His principal publications include: "A View of the Valley of the Mississippi" (1832); "History of the Temperance Societies" (1836); "Memoir of Anna Jane Linnard" (2d ed., 1837); "Transplanted Flowers" (Memoirs of Mrs. Rumpff and the Duchesse de Broglie, 1839); "Visit to Northern Europe" (1841); "A View of Religion in America" (1842); "Protestantism in Italy" (1845); "The Noblest Freedom" (1848); "Impressions and Experiences of the West Indies and North America in 1849" (1850); "The Christian Retrospect and Register" (1855). See his life, written by his son, Henry M. Baird. He died March 15, 1863. BAIRD, Samuel T., representative, was born in Oak Ridge, La., May 5, 1861. He was admitted to the bar in 1882; was district attorney of the 6th judicial district, 1884-'88; and judge of the same district, 1888-'92. Upon the expiration of his term of office as judge, he resumed his practice of the law. He was a member of the state senate in 1896; temporary chairman of the Democratic state conference, June, 1896; a delegate to the Democratic convention in 1896, and a representative in the 55th and 56th congresses. He died in Washington, D. C., April 22, 1899. BAIRD, Spencer Fullerton, naturalist, was born at Reading, Pa., Feb. 3, 1823; son of Samuel Baird. He was graduated at Dickinson college, Pa., in the class of 1840; attended the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York city; became professor of natural history at Dickinson in 1845, and later accepted the professorship of chemistry in addition. In 1850 he was made assistant secretaries and in May, 1878, succeeded as secretary of the Smithsonian institution. He sent out natural history