Biography: Winnebago County, Wisconsin: Samuel D. BAIRD ************************************************************************ Submitted by Kathy Grace, December 2007 © All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm ************************************************************************ Transcribed from Lawson, Publius V. History, Winnebago County, Wisconsin: its cities, towns, resources people. Chicago: C.F. Cooper and Company, 1908. v.2 p.862-863 Judge S.D. Baird, a lifelong resident of Winnebago county, Wisconsin, was born in Vinland township July 19, 1856, and is the youngest of a family of eight children born to Stephen and Ann (Baird) Baird. Of their other children, Eliza, the eldest, married Mr. William Thomas and died in 1875. She had three children, all now decease. John A. is a farmer at Cogswell, N.D.; Isabelle Jane is the wife of Mr. Ambrose E. Raymond, a wagon maker at St. Cloud, Minn., and has four girls, all living; Samuel W. is single and lives in Neenah, retired from active business. He was a farmer and until 1906 had charge of the family homestead. William H. is a retired farmer at Neenah and has two children: Ella M., deceased; Thomas J., married, has seven girls and one boy, all living, lives in Neenah. He, Thomas J., has served both the city and county as treasurer and at this time, 1907 is city assessor. He is identified with the Masonic order, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias and M.W.A. Our subject's paternal grandfather, Samuel Baird, came to the United States from Ireland about 1855, and died in July, 1857, at the home of his son Stephen, our subject's father, who was born in County Mayo, Ireland, November 12, 1810. He was a linen weaver by trade and occupation. He came to this country in 1837, reaching Burlington, Vt., on August 3, and worked on a farm by the month until his marriage, September 28, 1840. With his bride he made the trip to Milwaukee, Wis., via the Erie Canal and around the lakes on the steamer "Great Eastern." In 1849, selling his interest in Milwaukee, he traveled with an ox team to Vinland township, reaching Oshkosh July 3, a few hours before the first bridge over the river was completed, and his was the first team to cross over after the work was finished. He bought eighty acres of wild land in section eighteen, Vinland township, and here he made a home and reared his family. During these early days it was his custom to carry a bag of grain on his back six miles to the Government mill at Neenah, to be ground into flour. This mill was established for the purpose of grinding grain for the Indians of the reservation. Through his industry the farm was brought to a high state of cultivation and with the fine improvements he made was one of the model farms of the county. He was an influential man in the community, a man of intelligence, who by constant reading kept himself in touch with the trend of current events, and who was in sympathy with and ready to lend a helping hand in every worthy enterprise intended for the betterment of the community. He cast his first ballot for James K. Polk for President, and after the organization fo the Republican party in 1856, was always identified with it, thought with the exception of some minor positions connected with the local school district he never held public office. In early life he was a Presbyterian, but at Vinland with his wife attended and supported the Free Will Baptist Church. His death occurred at his home on December 29, 1891. Our subject's mother, also a native of County Mayo, Ireland, was born March 5, 1813, and came to this country in 1839, and living in Burlington, Vt., until her marriage. Like her husband she was a Presbyterian in early life, but at Vinland became an active worker in the Free Will Baptist Church. She was a good woman and her life was filled with noble deeds, and her memory is cherished by all who knew her. She died on February 4, 1906, while on a visit at the home of her granddaughter, Mrs. Jennie Coats, in Neenah, and her body was laid to rest by the side of that of her husband in the Vinland Cemetery. Our subject acquired his education in the district schools of the neighborhood and Neenah High School, and remained on the farm till he was 19 years old. In 1876 he began clerking in a general store at Shiocton, Wis., where he spent two years. The next four years he clerked at Stevensville, and after that had charge of a store, and was also assistant bookkeeper for the Baronette Lumber Company at Baronette, Wis. He was village postmaster during two years of his residence there. In the year 1884 Mr. Baird was in the general merchandise business on his own account at Stevensville, and the following year took a position as assistant bookkeeper and shipping clerk for the Winnebago Paper Company at Neenah, which he filled two years. After that he engaged in the news and cigar trade, and in the winter of 1897 accepted an appointment by the State Legislature as Assembly postmaster at Madison, and filled it two seasons. In 1898 Mr. Baird was elected Justice of the Peace at Neenah for a term of four years. In the spring of 1907 he was again elected and is holding that office at the present time, acting also as notary public and conveyancer and collector. Mr. Baird has also for some nine years been local secretary of the Equable Fraternal Union of Neenah, and for six years was agent of the United States Express Company at Neenah. He has served as census taker of the city, and in 1906 served as Poor Commissioner. Mr. Baird is identified with some thirteen fraternal, benevolent and social organizations, being connected with the Masonic order, the Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias, Modern Woodmen of American, Fraternal Order of Eagles, Good Templars, E.F., etc., and has passed all the chairs in each. In politics he is a Republican As a man he is well thought of in the community. He has always shown himself capable and trustworthy in any place he has been called to fill, and no man enjoys more public confidence and esteem. He is single, but having married so many couples he is known for and near as the Marrying Justice. He has found time during his life to travel and has visited in twenty-seven state of the Union, but thinks old Wisconsin is the lily of them all.