Ionia County MI Archives Obituaries.....Baerd, Robert 1934
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Marilyn Ransom mlnransom@chartermi.net May 30, 2013, 6:01 pm

The Ionia Sentinel-Standard, Tuesday, November 27, 1934
Robert Baerd, 77, for many years an official of Ionia city and prominent in 
the newspaper publishing business here for 38 years, died Tuesday morning at 
Traverse City where he had been under treatment for several weeks following an 
illness brought on by a diabetic condition that had afflicted him for some 
years.

Funeral services will be attended at the Baptist church in Ionia Friday 
afternoon at 2 o’clock, with the Rev. F. J. Fitch officiating.  The body will 
lie in state in the church from 12:30 to 2 o’clock Friday where friends may 
call before the service.  

Ionia lodge No. 548, B.P.O.E. will be in charge of the services and will 
conduct their ritualistic service at Highland Park cemetery where burial will 
take place.

Mr. Baerd is survived by two daughters, Mrs. Louise Wray, of Los Angeles, 
California, and Mrs. Helen Mulhauser, of Detroit.  

Mr. Baerd’s condition became suddenly critical Sunday when he suffered a 
cerebral hemorrhage.  Although death did not ensue until Tuesday morning, it 
had been expected at any time during Monday and Monday night.  He was taken 
seriously ill in September at his office in the city hall, where for a number 
of years he had been justice of the peace.  He was taken to the Iona hospital 
at that time where he remained temporarily until he could be moved to the 
northern hospital for care and treatment.  Little hope had been entertained 
from the onset of his sickness that he could recover, since his physical 
resistance had been worn down by diabetes for which he continually over a long 
period dieted and observed strict treatments.

Mr. Baerd was prominent for many years in Ionia fraternal circles.  He was a 
past grand of the Ionia lodge I.O.O.F. and in 1891 was vice grand of the 
I.O.O.F. degree team organized here in that year.  He was a charter member and 
active worker as well as an officer in Lucullus lodge, Knights of Pythias, and 
of the uniform rank, Knights of Pythias, at one time active here.  Since 1908 
he had been a member of Ionia lodge No. 548, B.P.O.E.

On June 20, 1883, Miss Effie Hutchins, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John B. 
Hutchins, of Ionia, became the bride of Mr. Baerd in a ceremony performed by 
Rev. VanAlstine, pastor of the Baptist church.

Mr. Baerd was born in Terre Haute, Indiana in 1857, his parents having come to 
the United States from Germany in the days when sailing vessels took many 
weeks to cross the Atlantic.  When still a boy he was left by the death of his 
parents to look after a brother and a sister younger than himself and with 
only an eighth grade education left school to learn a trade while in his early 
teens.

He left the Indiana city and went to Grand Rapids, where he entered a printing 
shop to learn the printer’s trade.  Ambitious and a careful workman he made 
rapid progress and in 1876 at the age of nineteen he went east as one of the 
youngest delegates ever to attend a printer’s national convention, visiting at 
the same time the centennial in Philadelphia that year.  Not only was he quick 
to learn but in his early manhood he evidenced a foresightedness beyond his 
year, and it is related by fellow printers who worked with him in those days, 
that he talked of the future of pensions for aged printers and predicted their 
establishment, a prediction which came true in later years due to the advocacy 
of the measure by himself, among others.

Probably no man in Ionia was better versed in city affairs and in the conduct 
of the city government than Mr. Baerd.  He has taken an active part in 
management of Ionia’s municipal government over a long period of years and had 
held and constructively conducted virtually every city office.  His opinion 
and his council were sought frequently by others in the conduct of the city 
and his decisions were respected and generally followed.

Mr. Baerd began an active career in municipal government in 1888 when he was 
elected city clerk, a position which he held for two years.  In those days the 
officers of clerk and treasurer were separate and in 1890 he was elected city 
treasurer.  During the decade that followed he served as an alderman from the 
second ward for several terms.  In 1906 he was elected mayor, succeeding Mayor 
F. F. Gallagher, in whose administration the Cleveland street bridge was 
built.  In 1916 he again was elected an alderman, an office he held during the 
period when Fred W. Green was mayor, and during which he was council president 
and senior councilman of the city, serving continuously until 1922.  Following 
that period of service to his city he became a justice of the peace in 1927, a 
position which he held at the time a few weeks ago when he was taken ill and 
incapacitated from further activity.

During all of the years when he was giving his service to Ionia Mr. Baerd was 
a conservative and conscientious city official having the best interests of 
Ionia always in mind and developing his time and energy to its progress.

For thirty-six years he was actively identified with the newspaper business in 
Ionia, mainly as part owner and finally sole owner of the Ionia Standard, a 
daily and weekly newspaper.  Mr. Baerd, a printer by trade, came to Ionia as a 
young man in 1881 and entered the office of the Ionia Sentinel, then published 
from rooms over the present Fuller store, as mechanical foreman.  He remained 
with the Sentinel about two years, when he left and entered the employ of the 
Ionia Standard, which occupied rooms over the present Orin Stone store.  
Thereafter during his connection with Ionia newspaper publishing he remained 
with the Standard.  From Foreman of the mechanical department he became 
president and a stockholder in the Standard Publishing company.  Other 
stockholders dropped out until the company was operated as a partnership by 
Mr. Baerd and Capt. J. C. Taylor, and upon the retirement of the latter about 
twenty years ago Mr. Baerd became sole owner.

In 1919 the Standard then operated over the present Howard cleaning parlors, 
was sold to the Ionia Sentinel, with which it was consolidated as the Ionia 
Sentinel-Standard in that year.

Mr. Baerd through many years maintained his affiliation with the typographical 
union in Grand Rapids where he had started work when he first came to 
Michigan, and kept up his membership there.  He was on close terms of 
friendship with west Michigan’s pioneers in the publishing business, and 
annually made a pilgrimage to Grand Rapids to meet with them in an annual 
banquet honoring the older members of the craft, who had worked together more 
than fifty years ago.  These meetings meant much to him and he had been 
looking forward during the last year to the gathering this winter.



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