Bio: W. J. Baird, M.D., Bossier Parish La
Source: Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Northwest Louisiana
The Southern Publishing Company, Chicago & Nashville,  1890

Submitted by: Suzanne Shoemaker



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     W. J. BAIRD, M. D.  Since locating in this parish Dr. Baird has shown
himself eminently worthy of the confidence and trust reposed in him by all
classes, and has proven himself to be a physician of decided merit.  Unlike
the majority of the boys of his day, he acquired more than a common-school
education, and was given the advantages of Oakland College, his
opportunities being thoroughly improved while in that institution, for from
an early age he displayed an eagerness for study and a desire for a
professional life.  He was born at Port Gibson, Claiborne County, Miss., in
1840, and at the age of twenty years turned his attention to the study of
medicine, his preceptor being Dr. Medlet, but from 1859 to 1861 he attended
the Missouri Medical College of St. Louis, graduating in the latter year,
after which he almost immediately joined the Confederate army, being
assigned to duty as assistant surgeon of the Army of Tennessee, remaining
in the service thus actively employed until nearly the close of the war,
when he was taken prisoner, and for nearly one year was retained at Alton,
Ill.  After his release he commenced practicing at Franklin, Mo., but in
1868 came to Shreveport, La., and a short time after to Rocky Mount, then
Red Land, where he has deservedly built up an extensive practice.  His
skill is too well known to comment upon, and his practice is very
widespread and lucrative.  His marriage with Miss Lucy Fulenwider, a young
lady of finished education and high accomplishments was celebrated in 1872,
she being a native of North Carolina, and to them three children have been
born:  Alive, Harry and William.  His daughter Alice after spending the
last two years in St. Vincent Convent, Shreveport, receiving premiums in
all her studies, especially music, is now in school at Gadsden, Ala., and
bids fair to prove herself one of the most learned of the Southern girls.
The Doctor is a member of the State Medical Association, also the Bossier
Parish Medical Society, and socially is a member of the K. of P., and in
his political views is a Democrat.